HumanCockroach wrote:Yeah, we're persnickity like that, when a fan base comes onto every possible forum and calls us bandwagon, dismisses any accomplishments, spouts off about rings gained twenty years ago, and claims that their success was vastly superior to ours ( I mean after all it only took SF to win a championship 36 years LOL which is longer than it took Seattle to at least APPEAR in a championship game) we tend to "dislike " them. We're a funny group like that, you know, waiting, watching supporting a team for decades and then have all their accomplishments dismissed due to a longer, not better history. Tends to rile some of us up, especially after listening to all those ramblings when we were running roughshod over the division for about a decade with the "you haven't accomplished anything" crap. Only to once again hear the SAME drivel once we "have" I guess accomplished something. It's like me telling my son I'm better, because I'm older, and lived more hours at anything and everything, something tells me he would "hate" me too.
There's reason for the genuine dislike, and I've simply scratched the surface....
Ya it goes both ways. I think every fanbase hates a division rival. Or any team that gets good for that matter. I could've cared less about the Packers until Brett Farve came along and kept whooping us. After listening to their fans taunt for so long, after a while I did begin to hate them.
I will honestly say I have never seen anything like the PNW hate of the 49ers in any pro sports rivaley that I've been a part of. As I've stated before, there were obvious geographical and social/political differences that created our rivalries with the Raiders and the Cowboys. Same with the Giants/Dodgers. The Seattle thing I just don't get. We are like sister cities with no longstanding anything. Two westcoast liberal port cities. We are more similar than we are different, but it 'feels' as though Seattleites really push the opposite agenda - that they and their team are the polar opposite of us.
My guess is this; aside from the points I've touched on before regarfing Californisn's driving up real estate values and bringing crime and a perceived lack of moral values to their region, Seattle has always been an intensely provincial vity that prides itself on being "the best". The best quality of life, best landmark, the most educated, etc. Due to their geograghy, they often feel slighted, as if the rest of the country is unaware of what is going on up there. You mix all of that with the team from down south owning 5 Lombardi's, and it's a major challenge to the notion thst Seattle is "the best". Seattleites want that mantle, for thw entire west coast (if not the country), and they are going to make damn sure everyone knows. Especially those of us in the bay area.
Do in a nutshell, to me it is about a lot more than football. I guess that is why I get so annoyed by the football rivalry thing. Hey, I love your city and have visited over 40 times. Don't treat me like the friggin' enemy

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