Let me set the scene. I’m watching the Seattle Seahawks get pummeled by Houston on TV with my wife and daughter. My wife has been laid up with a sore back and hasn’t really left the recliner the last few days. In the 3^rd quarter with the Seahawks still way down, my wife says she really needs to take a quick nap, “Just 15 minutes.” As a good husband, I agree to halt watching the game and push pause on the DVR and go clean up for a while with my daughter. When finished with the dishes, she then goes to her room to lie down. A phone call wakes my wife and as she can’t get back to napping, calls us back to the living room to finish the game. My daughter yells down to start without her as she’s listening to music and relaxing. Roll Seahawks game.

In an amazing turn of events, the Seahawks start coming back. A field goal followed by a 98 yard touchdown drive in which the opposing coach later described Russell Wilson, the Seahawks QB, as “Miraculous” makes the score 13-20.  One of the broadcasters makes a quick comment that “Kiffin is out” and I think “Did USC really fire Lane Kiffin?” So, I pull up a laptop that happened to be sitting next to me. The ESPN headline was as follows:

SEAHAWKS 20   TEXANS 20 with 2 minutes left!

Damn, I broke the first rule of sports and the internet. I had forgotten we were 15 minutes behind the live broadcast.

So for the next 15 minutes or so I have a conversation with my wife based on what I would have said if I didn’t know what the real score was. Finally after the beautiful Pick-6 by Richard Sherman I can have a real conversation. I tell my wife that I had seen the score on ESPN and she admitted that I had done a pretty good job of hiding the truth from her. She even mentioned a couple of my more neutral comments to save her from the real score. She then said “You’re the best husband in the world,” although I think there might have been a twinge of sarcasm in her voice. Then the game goes to overtime.

Excited to share the moment with my daughter, I stand up to run and go get her to have her watch overtime with us but a truly horrible thought entered my head. “The Seahawks were losing when she was on the couch but had come back to tie the game when she had left the room. I can’t tempt fate can I?” I mention my dilemma to my wife and how I had instantly moved from Best Husband to being in the running for World’s Worst Father and her reply was, “Well… We are recording the game so I think it’s alright if we let her stay in her room for a while and rest. She seemed pretty tired.” Wow, Seahawks fan and good mom. She had spun it so that it even sounded like it was in my daughter’s best interest. It was a real learning moment for me.

Well, as we all know, the Seahawks won in overtime to go to 4-0. Amazing. And while I’m slightly paraphrasing the Budweiser commercials to justify my actions, “It’s only cruel, if it doesn’t work.”

Go Seahawks! (And if my daughter happens to be reading “I love you honey!”)