Seahawks' Super Bowl Victory Taken Away by Refs

Well, I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but I really believe the refs took the Super Bowl away from the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle did have their share of mistakes and could have been up 24-0 at half-time had everything gone right. Refs took at least a couple of our touchdowns away and gave them at least one. It is the worst officiating game I have ever seen in my life time!!! I now really believe there is an east coast bias towards the northwest. I used to hear that a lotwhen we first moved out this way from Michigan in 1971, but thought it was just folks'imagination. Hate to tell them, but we really do have paved streets out here, we won't be killed by a grizzly bear and Seattle is not in Canada!! (perhaps we should be) People from lower Michigan used to, (and maybe still do) think those same things about the U.P. (Say ya to da U.P. too,eh!! When the Seahawks first were formed, I still remember watching the Kingdome being built and then blown up a few years ago(starting to feel old!!)and buying season tickets, nice seats for $7.50. It was exciting! When the new football field was built I had season tickets for the first two years. Living in the Upper Peninsula, near Greenbay where one could never get a ticket unless someone gave you one, I thought I was real lucky out this way. After a while I found out it wasn't much fun losing and getting your hopes up for the Seahawks but this year was different. I still only watched the games if I didn't have something else going on the weekends (like fishing, hunting or going to the ocean)or having dinner with friends,etc.) I watched the playoffs and it was fun, but I let my heart get in the way when it came to the Superbowl!! I truly thought we would win big, and if we lost it would have been OK, if the better team would have won! A lot of these feelings go back to my high school days,(John Lavoto and Ken Anderson will remember)1960-61 Norway High School, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where sports is more like a religion and we used to live and breathe them. We had excellent athletes at Norway, first time in many years, and John Lavoto was a superior running back that senior year of high school. We were predicted to go undefeated that year, we had such good players. We started out great and won all our games until we played Iron Mountain, whom we were predicted to beat easily. Game day,since we thought it would be an easy win, most of us decided to get up early that Saturday morning,(4 a.m. or so)and go partridge hunting, since it was the first day of bird season and we wouldn't dare miss it. I went with Ron DeBernardi and I think,(John, correct me, if I'm wrong) and most of the team went, also. We were all pretty tired. Before we knew it we were down 13 nothing at halftime. I can still hear Gene Melchori telling us, along with our head coach Allen Ronberg, that if we lose we will remember this game for the rest of our lives. They were right. We lost 13-6 and do remember it as if it were yesterday. It was a long and sad bus ride home. The same feeling came over me yesterday, but in away it was worse, because I felt the game was taken away,(not totally)by the refs. Can't imagine being a player, but I would be rich!!! Quite a few years later when my brother Bob Giannunzio won a couple of state championships as head coach of Norway High School,(I never got to see any of the games and get that enjoyment of winning.) Sorry I missed em. I, however, do remember him telling me how Norway never made the playoffs after being undefeated, because of the crazy point system they had at that time, before that. (By the way Pete Focasoto who played on my brother's championship teams lives in Arlington,Washington, a few miles from me and I see him often. Going back to 1961, Norway also had a great basketball team! I wasn't on it, but John Lavoto was. We lost the U.P. Championship in triple-overtime. Most of the entire first team had fouled out. I remember a lot of bad calls in that game,too!! That Monday returning to school the students were so depressed because of the loss, that the superintendent canceled all classes for the day, and we all sat in the assembly hall and the teachers and coaches tried to cheer us up. There was a lot of crying and yes, there is crying in basketball. It was like a funeral in there, and I can still feel it, as I write these words today. As life goes on, I still remember all those things along with the good things too of friends, sports or not of high school in Norway, Michigan. What I feel grateful for most, is the fact that I learned to hunt, fish and do things in the outdoors from growing up in Michigan. My father and Uncle Romeo would always say,

no mater what happens out there in that great big world, you will always have the great outdoors to fill your enjoyment.

It is true. So today, I will go out and see if I can catch another big(any size, it doesn't matter) trout or two for supper. While I'm out there, I'm sure the memories of the Seahawks loss will enter my mind, but a hard tug on the line will make me forget quickly. After I land a fish or two and the the bite is off for a while, I will reminisce about the high school days of Norway and sometimes wish that last basket that swirled the hoop just before time expired would have gone in!!! The Seattle Seahawks are having a welcome back from the Superbowl get together at the football stadium tomorrow at 2 pm. I will put down my fishing pole and be there tomorrow!! I need closure. Cheers, Joe