Orting family divided over split allegiances to Seahawks, Packers

You wouldn’t know it from all the Packers memorabilia around her Orting home, but Dacia Carpenter grew up a Seahawks fan.

Her parents had season tickets and the Seahawks were a big part of their lives. But after another disappointing loss when she was about eight or nine, she told her dad she’d had enough.

“I was mad at the Seahawks for always losing and the Kingdome then was always empty. He said that I could pick a different team, but he said once I pick I can’t keep jumping ship.”

The Packers were her pick. That was over 30 years ago, and she’s been a hardcore cheesehead ever since. And it runs in the family. Her husband John, an army brat, adopted the Packers as his own during the Brett Favre days.

When they started having kids, the Packer passion was passed to each one, first their two sons, then their daughter and finally their third son.

It didn’t sit well with their friends and family. At home and work, she’s heard plenty.

“I’m a local bartender so I’ve been getting flack for years. This is a big deal.”

It was a Packers paradise. But then came a cataclysmic shift in their bucolic, green and gold fairy tale: their oldest son Letrell suffered through one too many Green Bay disappointments, and like Dacia as a child, he abandoned the Pack and adopted the Seahawks as his own.

“My parents and all of our friends started getting on him ‘you were actually born in Seattle, you need to stick with Seattle’ and he just did,” she says. “We threaten to ground him all the time. He tells us all the time that we’re the crazy ones and he might have gotten swapped at birth.”

With the Packers facing the Seahawks Sunday in the NFC Championship, things have gotten heated around the house.

“It’s pretty bad, especially him and his dad. Typical boys.”

So far, the 13-year-old is outnumbered. Dacia has been posting pictures of the family on social media with everyone clad in Packers garb except Letrell. And she and her husband are exacting the ultimate revenge: He gets to stay home and take care of his younger siblings while his parents go to the game.

“Oh I’ll have my Clay Mathews jersey and Green Bay hoodie and I’ll have my beanie,” she says proudly. She might even wear a white tutu to “spice things up,” she says.

But if the Packers go down to defeat, she’ll be trading in the green and gold for several days of Seahawks wear thanks to a bet with her good friend, a dedicated 12.

At the end of the day, Dacia admits she even roots for the Seahawks once in awhile. But she’s remained dedicated to the childhood commitment she made to her adopted team, and isn’t about to give it up now.

“I think they’re an outstanding team, I think they’re very stand up men I have nothing against them. They’re just not my team.”