The Seattle Experience

Sunday Night Football

My whole life I have grown up watching the 49ers which made me into a 49ers fan. I would always watch the games on TV and follow their season along. The one thing I wanted was to go see a 49er game in person. 

About two years ago, after months of persuading, I got my parents to agree to go to a game. They didn't want to spend all the money on tickets and airfare to San Fransisco so we decided we would stay with family in Tacoma and got to a weekend game in Seattle. We picked a December Sunday when the 49ers were playing the Seahawks and we got the tickets. I cant remember the last time I was so excited. Unfortunately buying these tickets was a big mistake. 

F**K the Seahawks

The weekend finally came so we headed up to Tacoma to stay the night so that we would be closer to Seattle. The morning of the game was full of friendly trash talk between me and my family. Finally we headed for the train station for our trip to Seattle. Once there we found a few groups of 49er fans and tried to stick close to them. 

This is were shit started to go south real quick. 

Walking from the station to the stadium was horrible. There were tons of people and since we were in Seattle that meant it was hard to find other 49er fans. People would talk crap about my 49er jacket and even threaten me. I could already tell that this was going to be a horrible night.

All the way to our seats we had to listen to a bunch of shit from Seahawk fans. We finally got to our seats and waited for the game to start. At this point I noticed that we were surrounded by Seattle fans and about 99% of them were already past drunk.

As the game went on the trash talk directed at me got worse. People started to threaten my life because of what I was wearing. I was talking shit back which probably didn't help but I didn't want to just sight there and say nothing. This got worse and worse as the night went on and people got more and more drunk. At one point a guy dumped his beer on my feet so when he turned around I spit right on his head, he was to drunk to notice. Towards the end of the game I yelled something about how bad Seattle's QB was. Suddenly this guy turns and around and trys to punch me. He was so drunk that he just fell and I just laughed at him. 

When we started to leave our seats I noticed the group behind us suddenly jumped up to follow us. The next thing I know my dad is about ready to murder this guy for trying to push me down the stairs. We had to avoid a few more people by the exit that wanted to start a fight while the cops just watched and laughed. Avoiding people that wanted to hurt me and the puke puddles was just fucking great. 

This is easily the worst experience of my life and unfortunately it was my first NFL game. The people in Seattle can not understand that this is just a game. I have never seen grown adults try and attack a sophomore in high school because of the jacket they wear. 

This experience has greatly affected my Seattle views. I hate going to Seattle no matter what the reason is. Today I will only go there if I really have to but I avoid it at all costs. I always try to tell people about this experience because I don't want it to happen to anyone else. Take my advice and stick to the tourist spots away from all the crazy people.

One last piece of advice. Don't wear a 49er jacket any where in Washington. EVER. I have gotten many death threats just walking on the street or at the farmers market. When I go to visit family there I will only wear 49ers gear just to piss people off, probably not the best idea. That really is a time where I don't feel safe.