Seattle Seahawks Fan 12

This is the second Starbucks Card for the Seattle Seahawks, released September 2nd, 2014. Last years Seahawks Card was released before they won the Super Bowl, so its assumed that this is a tribute to the hometown team.

Now, what does it all mean? The number refers to “the 12th Man,” the nickname for the Seattle Seahawks' devoted, tenacious and record-breaking loud fans.

The number falls frequently from the lips of Seahawks coaches and players in their pregame preparations and postgame recaps. It is on cars and trucks, in windows and on balconies, on jerseys and T-shirts. It's shaved into men's hair and painted onto women's pedicures. It's even the root of many a bargain — 12-cent cups of coffee at Starbucks, $12 Seahawks tattoos around town. 

“Oh, my gosh, it has become the hallmark of Seattle,” said Paul Johns, assistant director of fan development for the Seahawks. “It's just beautiful, the fan enthusiasm.”

Let us pause for a brief primer on the terminology: One fan is a 12, a group of fans are 12s, the entirety of the crowd in the stadium is the 12th Man, and when one or more fans are performing activities in support of the Seahawks, they are twelving, as in, “Put your jersey on and come down, we are twelving so hard in this sports bar!”

Many people outside Seattle often assume the 12th Man phenomenon originated this year, or maybe during the team's 2005 season — the last and only other time the Seahawks made the Super Bowl, Johns said. But the 12th Man tradition goes back decades and stretches well beyond Seattle.