background information
There is no other fan base that talks trash to other teams and shows love to their team like the Seattle Seahawks. An example is the hate and trash talk they showed to 49ers team and fans in 2013-2014. After the win over the 49er’s fans were going crazy after Richard Shermans swat and tipping the ball into Bobby Wagner’s hands for them to go to their first super bowl in 8 years. Fans Online were talking so much trash to 49ers pro bowl wide receiver Michael Crabtree. How are the Seahawks fan bases show their love and loyalty on the subreddit online where they can hide who they are compared to in person. I will say this many times however, the team shows their side of able to trash talk more in the past. Rightfully they for 4 years were a team that dominated other teams and won a super bowl. The legion of boom 4-6 players on their defense that were good, strong ad powerfully. They also were what kept the team known for being tough and being able to trash talk. Richard Sherman not only talked to a wide receiver (Michael Crabtree) but wasn’t afraid to go up to the big O-Lineman Trent Williams who is very big, strong and would knock Sherman out. He even pushed Williams and wasn’t scared of anyone. That to me proved how the Seahawks players and fans weren’t afraid of anyone for the time. Now I see more of a soft trash talking fan base in the Seahawks. Going into their reddit I noticed this how there isn’t as much trash talking as compared to other teams, that’s because they lost their players and the fans that were so close and not scared to talk trash.
About the community
This Online community is for The Seattle Seahawks fan base. The reddit has 176 thousand members and averages over 500 actives making posts. After observing the community, I have noticed there is a lot of love the fans show. After watching what fans will post the week after a game, I have seen a lot of support. An example I saw was a fan took a picture of Tariq woolen picking off the football that was thrown to a tripped-up Tom brady, A fan said tough loss and it happens however this still make up for a loss. The Online community on reddit also has admin and mods that keep the space safe and positive. They let some trash talking stay to keep the page not so boring and nice. The Seahawks fans, like I have said, are known to be loud and use their voices. Here they show the same traits. The admin creates the rules and keeps track who is in the space.
The online fan base believes in winning and supporting the team no matter what. There is also plenty of memes and trash talking on the seahawks reddit and Instagram. Since losing in the Super Bowl to the Patriots and losing their best players and most trash talking players the team has become more supporting to other teams but online you can hide behind a screen. They hope to accomplish being the loudest online community. By this they want to be talked about and keep the 12s loudness in person to be also online. The personae that’s present are kindness and loyalty. This was shown a lot over the course of me observing. They make it a key not and is listed on the rules on the side that says a lot of what is expected, and they have bots that hep with severe bulling.
My experience
My relationship to the online space is my family is from Seattle and are seahawks fans. When I was about 12 or so I really started to love football and had some but few seahawk blankets or footballs and started to really watch them and become a fan. My older cousin has also been a fan and younger me seeing him have a giant Seahawks fat head and color room also made me really like them more. I also follow the Seahawks on all social media. I’m choosing to stay very low on reddit because it is easy to stir anything up on the internet and I don’t want to change anything about this community. Being able to observe this community there is very similar to their Instagram posts/ comments and twitter accounts. recently Seeing all that has gone on in the reddit since I’ve observed has been supporting players, highlights, memes, and funny trash talking. With the bye week there have been a lot of jokes to whom the fans will cheer for. Also with the playoffs approaching, many fans are worried about the seeding. There are so many factors that have been said with how with Washington winning 6 games this makes the seahawks be number 8th seed which forces them to win the division if they want to make the playoffs. This has spun the fan base on reddit into little chaos because they are confident with their QB Geno Smith and all his weapons at Wide receivers and running backs. The fans of the past couple days don’t seem worried and still support their players.
comparison to other teams reddit page
To fully understand a community like the Seattle Seahawks reddit that is the perfect balance of trash talking, memes and positive posts, I felt like comparing the seahawks reddit to two other well-known trash talking communities. The teams I chose was the buffalo bills (known for having crazy fans) and the Philadelphia Eagles (known for getting into fights). When going in to observe the Buffalo bills reddit I went in knowing little of the fans other than they love to break tables and be crazy. When going into the reddit that was one of the very first things I saw, there were multiple posts of fans at tailgates or at home breaking tables and being crazy. These posts were upvoted and liked throughout the community. None of it surprised me, however there were also a lot of similar posts to Seattle’s reddit. When I was observing the bills reddit it was after their brutal loss to the Minnesota Vikings. After the loss there were a lot of upset and angry fans showing toward the Vikings and even the bills. Also losing to the jets made fans furious saying they need to cut players and coaches the team is great and great teams lose but the fans didn’t get that and made memes of the players and coaches. There has also been support and loyalty like any fan base would have to their team. While observing the Eagles, I noticed how a lot of fans have started to turn on the Eagles. With them being 8-0 they to the fans were unstoppable but their wins were over bad teams lead by bad players or would win by very few points. Fans of the eagles have realized this and on reddit called them frauds. They were especially called frauds after the win over the 4-6-1 colts because they beat them by one-point when they are a now 9-1 team. Coming back a few weeks the buffalo bills have turned around from starting to struggle to now being a powerhouse as well as the Eagles. Their fan bases still have slight toxic fans that cause problems on the online community and go into other fans communities and talk trash and cause online chaos to the super crazy day one fans.
Transitional to media
To show transition this community brings positive and kindness to our media. This is shown by how everyone in the online community is very kind and posts anything they will boost morale in fans and the players that may even be in the space. Even after the assignment I went back in the community to observe and make a post to see what the community would react to it. I posted something that was similar to other fans. It was about Geno smith being hopefully in the pro bowl. He has had an amazing season as a starter in his career. I only noticed the fans bringing him up and liking the post and other posts about him. The reddit page brings nothing other than being a positive space for fans. They had mods that help keep it a safe and a friendly environment for Seattle Seahawks fans like others and I to post and share memes, stats, and anything about our team.
conclusion
After that going back to the seahawks reddit, the first time I realized how much better their community is and that the fans are supportive and post way more positive posts than other teams reddit communities. With that it shows how they are a team that doesn’t spread negativity and has good trash talking and does not bring down other teams and players. After coming back to the Seahawks community, I realized how it still remains to be one of the few positive and translates to the media and fans the best.
