The Seattle Seahawks addiction starts early on the Island.
Take, for example, Jacob Paine, Kallen Paine, Lincoln Paine and Gemma Houston — all two years old or younger and decked out in tiny team jerseys and other ’Hawks gear, right down to a crocheted tuque and blue and green tutu.
They were among the fans of all ages who came out to the Inner Harbour Thursday to help raise the 12th Man flag — the 12th Man symbolizes the team’s fans — ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the Seahawks and the New England Patriots.
“The 12th Man vibe is fabulous in Victoria. … We see so many fans in Seahawks jerseys from the Island heading down on the ferries,” said Tim Carlstrom, a network analyst, who had a Seahawks blanket wrapped over his No. 3 Russell Wilson jersey.
“It’s like a ’Hawks Superman cape,” he said with a chuckle, before adding his Super Bowl prediction: “28-22 Seahawks.”
The defending-champion Seahawks, who will play the Patriots in the 49th Super Bowl on Sunday at 3:30 PT, are acknowledging the support they receive from B.C. by raising 12th Man flags in Victoria and today in Surrey on what is being dubbed Blue Friday. The other 12th Man flag raised in Canada is in Regina, home of Seahawks punter Jon Ryan.
The Seahawks club estimates 10 per cent of the fans at games in Seattle are from B.C.
“Victoria is a Seahawks town,” said Omar Mawjee, managing director of Seahawks Canada.
“This is the fifth event the team has hosted in Victoria in the past two years. I’ve never seen anything like the lineup when we brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the Island last year,” after Seattle’s first Super Bowl victory, Mawjee said. “And today, we get 200 people out at noon on a workday on short notice.”
Helen Edwards of Victoria is a hockey historian, but her gridiron passion was also on full display. She donned a No. 24 Marshawn Lynch jersey as well as a Seahawks jacket and scarf.
“At home, I have a No. 12 flag in the window and Seahawks flags on my car,” she said.
The 12th Man flag was hoisted by Victoria Coun. Chris Coleman.
“Victoria, as we all know, is a very sports-oriented city, and clearly the Seahawks have captured our hearts in a most delightful way,” Coleman said. “We’re the provincial capital and also the capital of 12 North.”
The support is not unanimous.
“I am personally offended by the raising of the flag,” David Baanstra said in an email to the Times Colonist. “All they [Seahawks] do is screw up the TV coverage of the games we want to see. And why are we honouring a team from the U.S. anyway?”
That was not an opinion shared by anyone at Thursday’s ceremony.
Rick Phillips of Victoria, a truck driver and former football player, watched the flag-raising in a Seahawks ball cap and a Lynch jersey.
“I used to follow the [Dallas] Cowboys but got into the ’Hawks and never looked back,” he said.
Winning Super Bowls will do that to a fan base.
B.C. Ferries will also be flying the Seahawks No. 12 flag on 10 of its vessels plying the Island-Lower Mainland routes this weekend.
Randy Wright, executive vice-president of Harbour Air in Victoria, meanwhile, who was at the flag-raising, will be carrying his support of the Seahawks to Glendale, Arizona, for Sunday’s big game.
Asked about the price of the Super Bowl ticket, he replied: “It was high.”
