Blue, Green And Gold
From a throwback beanie in 2019 to a Lombardi Trophy in 2026—how I found my way back to the game.
January 24, 2010 was a significant day in my sports fandom: the day I stopped being a Minnesota Vikings fan. The Vikings were set to play the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game for the right to play for the Super Bowl. I remember sitting on my dad’s couch with him and me being an anxious mess. Of course this game went to overtime and the game was lost was Brett Favre made a difficult throw across his body that the Saints easily intercepted.
Sitting there in my own purple No.4 jersey I knew that I could not do this anymore with this team. This was not the first time.
There was 1998 when Gary Anderson, who had not missed a kick all season, missed the go-ahead kick to send the Vikings to the Super Bowl. Being a naive 10-year-old, I thought for sure they would be back.
In the 2000 NFC Championship Game, the Giants drubbed them in the 41-Donut game.
A few years later, in 2003, Nate Poole’s catch for the Cardinals in the final play of the season eliminated the Vikings from the playoffs.
Disenchanted, with the team after the Favre interception, I tried to care again in the same way in 2010 to no avail. It was not fun anymore and following the Vikings made me dislike football to the point where I stopped watching altogether, save for Super Bowl parties. I missed the social aspect of football but not the team. I thought it was because of high-profile off-field incidents involving players and the NFL’s attitude towards brain injuries, and while that stuff is important, it was really the Vikings1.
Did I miss anything? Hell no. I was covering a Timberwolves game during the 2016 Wild Card Game when Blair Walsh missed the kick against Seattle and I laughed aloud as all the suckers around me groaned in disappointment. How could anyone think the outcome would be different.
The following season, the Vikings began 5-0 and I was staying away from that bandwagon. A couple of coworkers were talking about how this could be their year, I laughed and said it wouldn’t matter. The Vikings finished the year 8-8.
I was content to never be a football fan again and dedicate my life to being a Vikings hater. That is until I visited Seattle.
A New Chapter in the Pacific Northwest
It was 2019 and my first time in the Pacific Northwest, I picked up a cool throwback Seattle Seahawks beanie. The Seahawks always stood out to me. I had watched every Super Bowl they played in and watched as far back as players like Jon Kitna, Ricky Watters, Cortez Kennedy and Joey Galloway. I knew Dan McGwire was Mark’s brother, too.
Even as not a not-yet-fan, the Legion Of Boom Seahawks teams had the coolest players. They stood for what I believed to be the right things and had cool jerseys. Plus, I grew quite fond of Seattle and when I moved two hours from Seattle nine months later, I decided I wanted to follow a football team again.
The Legion Of Boom was gone, but I followed as the team went from Russell Wilson to Geno Smith and Pete Carroll to Mike McDonald. I knew the strengths and weaknesses of the roster and had takes! I watched every game live again or at least the recap. It was fun! Sports are supposed to be fun.
Fast forward to Sunday, February 8, 2026 and the Seahawks are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy about 5.5 years after declaring myself a fan2. In some ways, it does not feel like much time but this was never supposed to happen. At least not now.
The Legion of Boom era was built by incredible drafting and key player acquisitions. That is not easy to replicate and the team had struggled to maintain a defense and offensive line. Not to mention that the franchise made the playoffs just five times between 1976-2002; this was not a powerhouse by any means. The Mike Holmgren teams were the most successful before the LOB.
And I was okay with the low likelihood of another championship run. Again, it was fun having a team to follow. There were a lot of key questions coming into this season:
Could the Seahawks run the ball?
Did they fix the offensive line?
Will Demarcus Lawrence and Nick Emmanwori really make a big difference on the defense?
Geno Smith was the most pressured quarterback in his three years as a starter but also led the league in comeback drives and was one of the most accurate passers. What was Sam Darnold going to do differently?
This team managed all these things well and won 14 games when their preseason over/under win total was 9.5. They lost three games by nine total points. Like many people, I knew the defense was going to be good but not this good. I am the same person who thought General Manager John Schneider’s contract extension before the season might have been hasty, but now looks brilliant.
Beating the Rams and 49ers was something that Pete Carroll’s teams could not do and this team beat them four times, including once each in the playoffs. And then beat their Super Bowl 49 foe for their second championship. It would have been hard to script it any better than that.
The Sam Darnold Paradox
Did I believe? No, not really. In no small part because I couldn’t trust Darnold. Darnold led the league in quarterback turnovers during the regular season and was often carried by an incredible Jaxon Smith-Njigba breakout season, great defense and a play-making special teams unit. And later in the season, the running game came through.
But Darnold and the Seahawks did not commit a single turnover in the playoffs, which is commendable. For Darnold, it forces you to have to update your priors on him about being a bust. I felt good going into the game on the morning of, but was not certain until the second half when that Darkside Defense was suffocating Drake Maye.
Good for Darnold, though. I’m happy to be wrong about him. He has worked hard to get to this point and seems like a likable enough guy. Considering no quarterback had ever played for five teams and then won a Super Bowl as a starting quarterback, his turnaround is remarkable. Especially after how last season ended for him.
Choose What Makes You Happy
I write this now the day after having consumed a ton of Seahawks content on social media, post game podcasts and ordered my Super Bowl gear happy and having fun following the game again. Again, I did not think this would happen. I did not need a championship to follow a team, but there was no scenario I could imagine where having remained a Vikings fan just because I grew up there would have been this enjoyable3. I enjoyed the rebuilding/retooling 2022-2024 seasons plenty with little playoff success. Plus, as a Detroit Red Wings fan who has seen four championships from them, I have been spoiled.
If my lapsed Vikings fandom taught me anything, it’s to just enjoy the game. This is not life or death. That was not possible for me until moving in 2020. In some ways, it’s like getting to choose your family versus the family you are born into. On Sunday, I was excited and hopeful, but not anxiety ridden or stressed out. It’s just a game but a little thing that makes life just a little more enjoyable.
My joke was always “The last time I rooted for the Vikings was for them to move to Los Angeles in 2012 before the Rams did.”
It’s cool to me that Shaq Griffin and Quandre Diggs were brought back even in minor roles for the run. It sucks that Tyler Lockett and Geno Smith missed their rings. And imagining another Seahawks championship without DK Metcalf felt unlikely.
I have this theory that the cynicism and self-deprecation is such an inextricably linked part of Vikings fandom that most Vikings fans wouldn’t that removing that misery from their identity would create a fanbase existential crisis.