At Everett shelter, football is on everyone’s mind

EVERETT — The Everett Gospel Mission nourishes souls with scripture and bodies with food.

Today, the only shelter for single homeless men in the county also will feed the hunger for postseason football.

About 50 guests are expected to gather this afternoon on white plastic chairs in front of a vintage Sony to watch the Seattle Seahawks take on the Green Bay Packers.

Because the men who stay at the mission come from all over the United States — some from foreign countries, and at least one from the frozen upper Midwest — team allegiances at the shelter are divided.

“There’s a guy, he’s got one of those accents, you can’t miss him,” mission guest Pat Terrill said of a cheesehead who is also staying at the shelter. “He’s got a limp and wears a Green Bay hat. He doesn’t scream at the TV, but he’s a Packers fan.”

Another fellow from Boston is pushing for the New England Patriots, and a pair of men with ties to Texas want to see their Dallas Cowboys wearing Super Bowl rings.

But hoorays for Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck during today’s NFC divisional playoff game should outweigh cheers for his former mentor, Green Bay’s Brett Favre.

“Believe me, the Seahawks fans will dominate,” said the shelter’s no-nonsense director, the Rev. Dale Gunderson.

Of course, the white-haired Gunderson said, it’s all in good fun.

“They’re all excited about it,” Everett Gospel Mission assistant chaplain Mike Hesterly said.

A walk through the day room before dinner this week turned up no shortage of pundits making their forecasts.

“Lambeau Field can be pretty tough, especially with the weather they can have there,” said Jerry Johnson, a stocky man who sports a Seahawks hat. “It’s going to be a good game. It’s going to be a low-scoring game, and the weather is going to be a big factor.”

Terrill, a Seahawks fan who grew up in Anacortes, sees dark clouds on the horizon.

“I’m expecting us to get stomped, but I’m hoping (for a win) though,” he said.

Vernon Manning is more upbeat and foresees Green Bay’s hopes blasted by a last-minute blizzard from Seattle’s clutch kicker, the “Ice Man.”

“My prediction is Seattle by 3 points in the last minute with a Josh Brown field goal,” said Vernon Manning.

As a boy in Iowa, Robert Moyer rooted for the Packers in the days of Paul Hornung and Ray Nitschke.

That was then.

“I’ll be rooting for the Seahawks this time around,” Moyer said.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.