After all the hurt, this feels real good

Losing isn't fun. And sustained losing? Well, it makes us question what it is about sports that keeps us coming back for more.

Coaches, without exception, will tell you they remember the painful losses much more vividly than they remember the exhilarating wins.

Losing lingers.

Do you ever really forget the 2004 playoff game in Green Bay? Matt Hasselbeck winning the coin toss, predicting a win, then throwing the game-losing interception to Al Harris? Don't you still remember where you were and how you felt?

Losing stings.

Remember Steve Largent's last game in 1989? The Seahawks didn't score a point and Largent didn't catch a pass at home against Washington.

If you've been around long enough, you still probably remember those long days and nights in 1992, after owner Ken Behring canned coach Chuck Knox and gave the job to Tom Flores. It was the worst of times, a 2-14 season that seemed as cold as Siberia.

Do you remember all of the losses during the growing pains of the early Mike Holmgren years? The game at Husky Stadium in 2001 when the relentless Philadelphia Eagles beat up on Hasselbeck so bad you half-hoped the officials would call the game.

Or before that, the playoff game against Miami, the last game at the Kingdome in 2000, when the Dolphins came from a 10-3 first-half deficit and dominated the Seahawks in the second half of a 20-17 win.

Like it or not, suffering is a significant part of sports.

Real fans understand. They know the importance of heartbreak. They know they can't truly appreciate the winning, unless they've lost.

They turn out in the losing seasons. They suffer the streaks. They endure the hopelessness of lost Decembers, patiently waiting for the return of the good times.

Opening day is three days away. And again this year, like last year and the year before that and the year before that, the Seahawks are expected to win the NFC West.

This is supposed to be another season with legs. The Super Bowl isn't some far-fetched dream anymore.

The Hawks have their best defense since Holmgren arrived. Pat Kerney and Darryl Tapp are their best bookend pass rushers ever. The linebackers might be the best in the game. And the secondary is so much better than it has been, it might just finally stop teams on third-and-long.

On offense the drops have been dropped. Darrell Jackson, whose frailty and timid tendencies finally outweighed all of those touchdown catches, is in San Francisco.

And tight end Jerramy Stevens has taken his bad hands and worse attitude to Tampa Bay. The Hawks' offense is better by his subtraction.

Let the good times roll.

Fans suffered the seasons when Behring left his heart and, for a while, his team in Los Angeles. The seasons when Flores coached the Hawks into misery and the seasons when Dennis Erickson couldn't quite pull them out of the hole Behring and Flores dug.

Now, these are the good old days.

General manager Tim Ruskell has knucklehead-proofed this team. He has added so much defensive quality — tackle Chuck Darby, linebackers Lofa Tatupa and Julian Peterson, safeties Brian Russell and Deon Grant. And with ends Kerney and Tapp, you can almost forget Anthony Simmons or Chike Okeafor.

Remember 1998? Warren Moon was on fire. The Hawks rolled into Pittsburgh 3-0 and had beaten their opponents by an average margin of more than two touchdowns. The Hawks were awful that day. They lost to the Steelers 13-10, then lost three of their next four.

Paradise lost.

Good fans remember those seasons because they make the rich expectations held by these seasons even sweeter.

These are the days of sustained success for the Seattle Seahawks. Another Super Bowl is in sight if the offensive line stays in tact, if Hasselbeck stays healthy, if running back Shaun Alexander returns to something resembling his 2005 MVP form.

Good things are coming to Seattle. A full season of Deion Branch. A comeback year for Nate Burleson. Catches, instead of muffs, from tight end Marcus Pollard. And a kicking game — punter Ryan Plackemeier and kicker Josh Brown — as good as any in the game.

Holmgren's game-day glare already is in midseason form. This coaching staff is his best since he came here in 1998.

Remember that raw, ugly day, two days before Christmas 2000 when Doug Flutie ran around Husky Stadium like he was playing intramural flag football and the Buffalo Bills beat up the Hawks 42-23?

You should.

Because, if you're really a fan, you have to remember the losses, all of the disappointments from those long, lost years, to understand how good you've got it today.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com.

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