A widespread funk spread over the land Monday, but not the toe-tapping, Earth, Wind &Fire kind of funk.
It was the funk of day-old onion dip left out on the coffee table.
Football funk.
Call it post-traumatic defeat disorder, said Chris Maier, a Seahawks fan and licensed mental health counselor in Marysville.
It begins with persistent, intrusive memories of the bad calls from Sunday’s Super Bowl letdown.
There also may be nightmares – dreams riddled with wild, zebra-hunting safaris or Mr. Peabody and his “Wayback Machine.”
It also may include heightened anxiety when you get within 10 feet of a television, Maier said – “the bigger the screen, the worse the anxiety.”
“Thankfully, there will be a next season,” he said. “One of the best things Seahawks fans can do to support one another is go to a sports bar and watch reruns of last year’s cricket finals.
“After a couple of hours, they’ll recover and thank God they’re NFL fans. It will be a turning point in their recovery process.”
Post-season quiet
At the Sports Authority store in south Everett, where the employees have had nothing but nonstop Hawks questions for weeks, all was quiet. The Seahawks display, front and center inside the store’s doors, was cleaned out, save for a few air horns and a couple of XXL sweatshirts.
Employee Mike Fleming, 24, said he almost fell asleep on his way to work, he was so exhausted and upset. Others must have felt the same because a couple of co-workers called in sick.
The Lake Stevens resident said he, too, was sick – about the Super Bowl officiating.
“We were easily the better team,” he said. “I thought we were going to win until the last play.”
To make himself feel better, he called his friends and vented. He drank. But still, the morning after, he was bitter.
“It didn’t seem like the nation really wanted us to win,” Fleming said. “No one knows anything about Washington. They say we’re too nice. And that it’s too rainy. It does rain a lot here, but it makes you appreciate the sun.”
Seattle putdowns
At an Everett Community College parking lot, a jacked-up Toyota 4Runner had a piece of paper taped up in its back window: “When I get old and I can’t see, I wanna be a referee.”
Inside the Parks Student Union building, students chatted around a lunch table.
“I just like fair games, win or lose,” said Will Knudsvig, 20, of Marysville.
“It was a Pittsburgh crowd,” said Matt Viger, 24, of Snohomish.
“Yeah – about like if the Super Bowl would have been in Spokane,” Knudsvig said.
“My entire math class was irate,” said Amanda Dewey, 18, of Snohomish. “The instructor taught 20 minutes on how it ruined his weekend.”
At the Everett Tattoo Emporium, “Everett’s Oldest and Finest” tattoo parlor, artists have tattooed at least five fans with the Seahawks logo in the last few weeks, and there have been plenty more over the years.
“They were robbed,” artist Eric Marts said above the buzz of his tattoo gun.
“They had four more people on their team than we did,” said Dave Wortham, who was getting the color touched up on a 20-year-old tattoo of a serpent on his forearm.
Wortham, president of Mortgage Advisory Group in Everett, said the Super Bowl officiating was the topic of conversation there.
“I think you’re going to be hearing plenty about it for the next month,” said Jay Johnson, the emporium’s piercing expert.
Team pride
Despite the outcome, the men agreed that Washington should be proud of the Seahawks.
“Why wouldn’t anybody be?” Marts said.
“They worked harder than any other team this season to get where they are,” Wortham said. “Getting there put us on the map, and that’s a place that after 30 years, we deserved to be. They beat us, but they didn’t break our spirit.”
Marts and Wortham also were upbeat about next year.
“I really think next year is the year,” Wortham said.
Along with diagnosing post-traumatic defeat disorder, counselor Maier predicted a rocky year for the Steelers.
“The Lombardi trophy, for the Steelers, may be like the ill-gotten gold was for the pirates of the Caribbean,” Maier said. “The Steelers will have no peace until the gold returns to its rightful owners.”
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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