The agony of defeat

Almost a week has gone by and Seattle's healed enough for me to update my fair readers on the happenings around here for SB XL. Our party was a lot of fun - until the end. We had a pretty good turnout and lots of food and drink. Helen's sweet potato and shrimp fritters were a big hit.

The game was like an Olympic wrestling match - long stretches of tense, grunting exertion with short bursts of explosive action. With so many die-hard 'Hawks fans in da house, eyes were glued to the action on the screen. There were 6 kids at the party, so they scampered around creating minor distractions for their parents, but only barely. Each time the 'Hawks made a good play, the room would fill with whoops and cheers. Plenty of high fives and "Go Hawks" passed around. Too many times though, they'd be followed by groans as questionable calls or devastating penalties would pop the bubble of excitement.

When it became clear during the last 2 minutes that the Steelers were going to be the champs, an awful empty feeling joined our merry little party. Our friends Hunter and Heidi were probably the most devastated, although pretty much everyone left within 15 minutes after the game concluded. No one wanted to watch the post game. I can imagine many parties in the Seattle area that probably ended the same way as ours.

I can only imagine the scene wherever "Corndawg" Cornwell happened to be. The week leading up to the Super Bowl, Corndawg had been psyching up for the game, even entering into "The Wager" with our colleague and Steeler fan Michael Byrd. Details of "The Wager" are depicted below, in a photo of the actual contract. Basically the loser would have to provide 20 donuts and 4 apple fritters, along with the painful and ignominious dishonor of decorating his cube with the opponent's colors, wearing the opposing team's jersey for the day, and using the tagline "Seahawks suck" or "Steelers suck" for their IM.


Here is the ugly aftermath of "The Wager" - Poor Jeff had to skulk around the office all day in a Steeler's jersey. Of course, I took a picture to properly document the whole thing for posterity. Hey Jeff, at least you guys didn't go with my suggestion for face painting. Go 'Hawks in '06.