With reporting by Shane McMahon/UW News Lab – Special to CHS

Inches from sealing a historical back-to-back Super Bowl victory, the Seahawks went down the way they went up — in shocking, agonizing fashion. The team took its fans along for the ride in packed bars and restaurants across Capitol Hill Sunday. By the time the last audacious Seahawk play had been called with disastrous results, the hopes for parties in the streets like we saw last January had faded completely. Fans were left to ponder why the team didn’t opt to simply run the ball in to seize the championship. And why Budweiser chose this weekend of all weekends to run an ad about beer “brewed the hard way.”

At R Place

 

At Throwbacks NW party at Sole Repair

And the 4th quarter tension at the Wildrose

Later on the sad, sad streets….

Capitol Hill shrugged off the Superbowl loss tonight pretty easily by naming an appropriate MVP. pic.twitter.com/Hla3aX6k0l

— Liz Kueper (@lizkueper) February 2, 2015

Capitol Hill businesses without a TV were mostly closed or empty Sunday from 3 to 8 PM — like the streets, parks and buses in the area. Places with TVs all had the same thing on, Super Bowl XLIX.

“It was like a ghost town tonight,” said Carly Patterson a Seahawk fan who saw the streets of a mostly deserted Pike/Pine during gametime.

While the tragic ending led to some awful post-game silence outside, earlier in the night, Capitol Hill establishments were packed with rowdy and energetic fans before and during the game.

“The game brings people together when your team is in it,” fan Kyle Parrish told CHS.

While visiting Seattle for the weekend from southwest Washington, Parrish watched the game with his father and brother.

The rollercoaster second half caused rapid mood swings for the fans, none more than the sequence of three plays in the final minute and a half.

The improbable, never-give-up spirit of the fans emerged  in the Jermaine Kearse catch to defy logic, followed by a Marshawn Lynch bruising run to the New England 1-yard-line set up a potential go-ahead touchdown with less the 30 seconds remaining. The shared feeling of last-minute magic was in the air.

Then, crushing silence.

A Russell Wilson pass in the front of the end zone intercepted by New England’s Malcolm Butler brought the dreams of a “Re-Pete” crashing down. The Patriots would win 28-24.

The fans stuck with their team to the very end, sharing “Sea-Hawks” chants indoors and outside afterwards.

“I’m so proud of this team,” Cameron Parrish said when heading out into the subdued atmosphere outside with his brother and father. “We’ll be back next year, no doubt.”