NBA | Fans struggle with Seahawks’ Super Bowl loss

As shocking as it was, the Seattle Seahawks’ last-minute loss to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl was probably not even the worst loss in the city’s sports history.
Seattle did lose an NBA team, after all, when the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City. At least the Seahawks will be playing again next season.
But the grief, anger and bewilderment felt by many Seahawks fans nevertheless show only mild signs of abating, even days after Sunday’s game. Many say they’re certain the decision to pass from the 1-yard line — instead of handing off to bruising running back Marshawn Lynch — will forever haunt Seattle the way previous sporting gaffes defined other cities.
“I’ll be 90 years old and still thinking about this game,” said Norb Caoili, a longtime season-ticket holder from Renton. “The history of sports is defined by moments like this, where heroes rise and save the day, or where teams collapse on the biggest stages. It’s always going to be a part of the fabric of Seattle, and that’s tough to swallow.”
Caoili, 45, is the force behind Norb-Cam, a YouTube channel that features videos of himself — wearing a green wig, Seahawks headband, and blue-and-green face paint — reacting to the action during Seahawks games. The videos have been viewed an improbable number of times, making him a prominent voice among Seahawks fans.
For him, the way the team lost is what makes it so tough: Moments earlier, the team seemed on the brink of a miraculous victory, with receiver Jermaine Kearse making an inconceivable, bobbling, falling catch despite great coverage from Patriots rookie Malcolm Butler. It was a gift from the football gods, “divine intervention” that signaled a certain Seahawks victory, he said.
Lynch’s subsequent run, taking the ball to the 1 with the clock ticking down, only fortified that impression.
The decision to pass becomes not just “the worst play call I’ve seen in the history of football,” as Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith described it, but an affront to the gods, a sort of cardinal sin punished by instant karma: Butler’s goal-line interception, and New England’s fourth championship of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era.
It was an epic failure, akin to the ground ball through Bill Buckner’s legs that helped sink the 1986 Boston Red Sox, or the “wide right” field goal attempt in 1991 that proved to be the first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses for the Buffalo Bills. AP