The Seattle Supersonics could claim a rivalry with the Portland Trailblazers, but then they left for Oklahoma City (Editorializing alert: The author, a Seattle native, remains unhappy with Oklahoma City and plans to hold that grudge for quite a while). The feud between fans of the Portland Timbers and the Seattle Sounders, in the MLS, is real enough, but the rivalry cupboard is bare in baseball and football.

That distance between cities has always meant a certain remove from the national sports consciousness. Of course, the Mariners haven’t been good for a decade, and the Seahawks don’t have a great track record either, save a trip to the Super Bowl in 2006 (More editorializing: We was robbed!).

So perhaps it’s no surprise that the vast majority of the country is rooting for the 49ers this weekend over the Seahawks.