Seahawks diehard suiting up for postseason

Whidbey’s biggest — and best dressed — Seattle Seahawks fan experienced something of a premonition earlier this season.

“I’m confident that we’re going to win. I’ve seen it. I knew when we were going to win the Super Bowl (in 2014). … I could see it halfway through the year,” Shannon Love said. “About halfway through this season I go, ‘God, this is really familiar. I’ve been here. … We’re going to do it.’”

Having missed only three or four games in about 50 years as a season ticket holder, and attending the vast majority of games in suits and ties, “Mr. Love,” as he is better known, is a famed ‘Hawks devotee. The Langley resident was among those early fans responsible for establishing the 12s’ raucous reputation, earning him local celebrity status and media attention from outlets including The New York Times.

Love will witness whatever comes of Saturday’s playoff game — the Seahawks’ first since the 2022 season and third-ever pitted against the San Francisco 49ers — from his inherited front-row, south end zone seats.

Love, originally from Bellevue, began attending Seahawks games in 1977 as a 19-year-old; his parents bought season tickets the year after the team’s inaugural season. Those tickets have remained in the Love family ever since, passed down from his father, to his mother, then finally to Love in the early 2000s.

No matter the stadium — the Kingdome, Husky Stadium or what is now Lumen Field — Love finds himself well-documented on television broadcasts. But it is not just the proximity of his seats to the field which distinguishes him.

Love’s game day attire of choice is a suit often supplemented with a fedora, white glasses and other wild accessories. He used to wear a large fur coat to games that unwillingly earned him the nickname “Sea Pimp,” a moniker he disliked but which spread quickly. Love’s is a fashion statement considered unique even among a fanbase comfortable in face paint and wildly colored wigs.

“I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff, but I had well over 120 suits and then 50-60 pairs of shoes, 60-70 hats, ties, cuff links, shirts,” Love estimates. “It’s everything. And I’m adding and adding and adding.”

Blending in is a no-go, so the opposing team’s colors are a frequent determiner of Love’s outfit choices. If the Seahawks are playing, say, the Carolina Panthers, odds are Love reaches for a monochrome white outfit featuring green and blue accents.

Love said he “was always into” seeing his father, a judge and the first full-term mayor of Bellevue, wear suits to work. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the sharply dressed mobsters of the 1930s are some of his style inspirations. He yearns for a bygone era of sports fashion, before game day gear like replica jerseys became commonplace at sporting events around the country.

While it is difficult to pin down exactly when jerseys caught on, a Sports Illustrated article from 2016 estimates they did in the early to mid ’70s. Prior to that point, fans typically donned “what is now considered business attire” to games, it reads.

Self-expression is important to Love, and he is a firm believer in the individuality of fandom. He credits Brian Bosworth’s arrival in Seattle with motivating him to spice up his wardrobe. The linebacker played three seasons in the National Football League — all with the Seahawks — and attracted attention with his blond mullet and outspoken personality.

“He gave (us) permission to be crazy,” he said.

Love, interviewed in a green-and-white striped suit with turquoise rings adorning each of his fingers, said he continues dressing up in honor of his parents. In doing so, he is giving other fans permission to be crazy, too.

“People should have the right to wear whatever they want to wear, and I encourage that,” he said. “If I’m this crazy, you can be this crazy.”

Clothing is, ultimately, a means of embracing community for Love, and community is the greatest benefit of sports fanaticism in his eyes. Fans from “all walks of life,” he said, are welcome to cheer on their team the way they want to.

“People are so open, they’re so loving, they’re so supportive,” Love said. “It’s a very, very social experience. And if you’re looking to expand your social circle, boy, I can’t think of a stronger environment than that to start with.”