How working for the Cowboys helped make me a Seahawks fan

I was loud wrong about the Seattle Seahawks playoff chances at the beginning of the season.

RELATED: Can Seahawks get past Cowboys, make Super Bowl run?

If you remember back to the days of yore, the Hawks offensive line couldn’t block, the running backs couldn’t run, and the Legion of Boom was dismantled and sold for scrap. Throw in the firings at major coaching positions like offensive coordinator, and I was fairly confident that this team would be 7-9 tops. Especially after the 0-2 start.

This is one thing that I’m happy to be wrong about. The Seahawks turned things around and are off to Dallas on Saturday to take on the Cowboys in the Wild Card game.

There have been six teams in the modern era to win the Super Bowl from the wild card spot. You never know which team is going to have the hot hand. On their best day, the Hawks seem capable of beating anyone in the league.

Don and I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s just about halfway between Dallas and Denver, and if you were an NFL fan, you had to choose between the Cowboys and Broncos.

My family had season tickets to the Broncos since before I was born, so I grew up in an Orange Crush home. We had Broncos t-shirts, a Broncos bumper sticker, and even a Broncos trash can in the kitchen.

There were far more Cowboy fans than Bronco fans in New Mexico, and I always thought they were braggarts, blowhards, and condescending fans. Keep in mind, this is during the first golden age of the Cowboys — the Tom Landry era with Roger Staubach and company.

I thought there was no way that Cowboy fans could get more annoying. Then Jimmy Johnson became head coach and popularized the catch phrase, “How ‘bout them Cowboys!?”

Ugh.

I’ve never been in a bar fight, but if I was it probably would begin with a drunk guy in an Ezekiel Elliott jersey jabbing me with his stubby finger and yelling, “How ‘bout them Cowboys!” at me. I can see myself explaining to the cops why I punched that guy in the face. And the cops letting me go because they hate the Cowboys too.

Flash forward a few years, and Don and I landed a radio gig in Dallas. We had previously cut our teeth on the Oakland Raiders flagship station, and we were given the chance to work on the Dallas Cowboys radio network.

Don hosted the pregame and halftime shows with Drew Pearson and Charlie Waters, and I was more in a production role with some occasional on-air time. After getting to know the Cowboys organization up close and personal, it did not surprise me to learn that they are braggarts, blowhards, and condescending.

Don’t get me started on their owner Jerry Jones. Let’s just say he was not the easiest person to work with.

After Dallas, we eventually landed back here in Seattle, and KIRO is our third NFL flagship station. I knew that the Hawks officially supplanted my boyhood team when I found myself pulling for Seattle in the Super Bowl when they played against Denver. I was more excited to see Seattle win that year more than seeing Denver lose.

RELATED: A look at Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett’s ‘perfect’ season

Needless to say, I’m rooting extra hard for the Hawks this weekend, if not just to stick it to the most annoying fans in the NFL.

My prediction: Seahawks win 27-24, on a last minute field goal from Seabass.