Josh Brown and Brandon Cumens set out on a 2,900-mile from Fort Rucker, Alabama to Seattle planning on catching a Seahawks game. If they were lucky, the two Army helicopter pilots also hoped to, as they put it in their Instagram chronicling of their journey, #meetaseahawk.
As it turned out, Brown and Cumens didn't meet a Seahawk; they met several of them. They also met Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider, got a tour of the team's Renton headquarters, including the locker room, and attended Friday's practice.
Brown, who is from Port Angeles, is a lifelong Seahawks fan, and converted Cumens in 2009 when the two were in flight school together—as a tradeoff, Brown became an Alabama football fan. Brown will soon be stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, so at some point he figured a trip to the area was in order to look for a house, so why not plan it around the Seahawks' schedule? After getting the go-ahead from his wife, Brown and Cumens started planning their cross-country trek, which saw them cover 2,900 miles and 11 states in three and a half days, with overnight stops in Memphis, Denver and Bozeman, Montana. And, yes, there may have been some Super Bowl XLVIII-related taunting while in Denver.
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"Try selling the wife on that," Brown said. "'Hey, I'm going to drive 2,900 miles, can I reward myself with a Seahawks game?' And she's like, 'Yeah, I think you can.'"
After connecting with the Seahawks during the trip, it was arranged for Cumens and Brown to attend practice, and they were also given Field Club seats, which allowed them to be on the sideline before the game, which happened to be the Seahawks' 2015 Salute to Service Game. The game was Cumens' first Seahawks game, while it was Brown's first since he attended 2012 Monday night game against Green Bay that ended on a controversial Golden Tate touchdown catch.
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"This has been a great experience," Cumens said Friday. "We're really looking forward to Sunday… I hear it's supposed to be one of the loudest stadiums. I'm looking forward to seeing how loud it really is."
