Super Bowl stunner: ‘Don’t tell me it’s just a game’
Feb 2, 2015, 1:05 PM | Updated: 2:54 pm
The tears that poured from John Curley's 12-year-old following the Seahawks stunning Super Bowl loss echo many of our feelings: "Everyone tells us it's just a game, it's more than a game," he said.
Like many other places around Seahawks Nation, there were plenty of tears and little consolation in the Curley household Sunday night after the Hawks heartbreaking Super Bowl loss.
KIRO Radio’s John Curley tried to brace his 12-year-old son Ry – a diehard Seahawks fan – for the possibility they could lose. Even Curley’s brother, a hardened Philadelphia fan used to decades of sports disappointment, tried to remind him it’s the journey rather than the destination, and set the stage for the potential let down in an email he sent before the game.
Related: Pete Carroll stands by decision to pass
Getting to the final game in any sport is all that a fan can ask for. The reason is that there is nothing left for you to do when the game is over. You have done your part. You can pretend to cheer with the team but they don’t’ care about you. As evidence, when the players get to the microphone they say, “You’re the greatest fans … and we’re going to win again next year!” Woo hoo
The emphasis is on next year. Because as fans you didn’t DO anything other than watch and care. My point is that the losing fans did that too. They watched and cared as much as you. And, they watched and cared for as long as you did. The parades are condescending to fans. It’s over. Go home. The players have a memory of success. The reward is that while the rest of America is watching the big game you get to care about it. So enjoy the caring.
“I said Ry, you have to understand something. It’s just a game,” Curley told his son.
Ry wasn’t hearing any of it, and echoed what many 12s were feeling after the devastating ending.
“Dad, it’s not just a game, it’s more than a game. Everyone tells us it’s just a game. It’s more than a game,” Ry said.
“It’s like Christmas where everyone tells you Santa Claus is going to come to your house and bring you something…You’re waiting and then Christmas Day arrives and it’s not like he didn’t bring you what you wanted or he brought you something else. He didn’t even show up. He’s not even there,” Ry said.
“So the lights and the ornaments and the songs and the celebration mean nothing. I was fooled. So don’t tell me it’s just a game.”
“I didn’t know what to say to him,” a tearful Curley said as he recounted the conversation on Monday’s Tom and Curley Show.
The best he could muster? “We’ll get ’em next year.”
It’s not much. But today, it’s all we’ve got.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 3pm for The John Curley Show.
