Seahawks-49ers battle spills over into public transportation

There are many rivalries in American sports that have spanned the test of time longer than the one between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers, but few burn as hot currently.

We all know the Seahawks beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship game on the way to their first-ever Super Bowl victory. And we all know about Seattle’s Richard Sherman unleashing a now infamous verbal tirade about 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree after the game.

But bet you didn’t know about the brouhaha bubbling in San Francisco about the color of the seats in the new BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) trains.

Yup, they’re blue and neon green — the exact colors of the hated Seahawks.

Check out public feedback details on our new train car design & give us your thoughts: http://t.co/1mzMqvcKxn pic.twitter.com/OpcopfpC1k

— SFBART (@SFBART) January 14, 2014

One San Francisco-area resident, Nasir Safdar of Stockton, started his own petition on Change.org to urge BART to consider a color change.

From Safdar’s petition:

The Seattle Seahawks are the chief rivals of the San Francisco 49ers. To outfit BART car seats in the team colors of the Seattle Seahawks (i.e. neon green and blue) is an outrage and a slap in the face of every San Francisco 49ers fan who rides BART. We call upon BART General Manager Grace Crunican (who oddly enough worked as Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation prior to joining BART) to scrap plans to adorn BART car seats in neon green and blue and instead choose other colors.

As of the publishing of this post, the petition had nearly 1,500 signatures from folks threatening a boycott if the seats aren’t changed.

Here’s a sampling of some comments from those who signed the petition:

Chris Manwill CONCORD, CA

I hate the Seattle Seahawks and I will boycott BART until there is a change

Steve White REDWOOD CITY, CA

Bart management should have thought this through before making a decision. Who would want to ride in cars with a rival teams colors displayed. This is insensitive to the Bay Area. Why not choose neutral colors. This was intentionally done and the people responsible should foot the bill to change the colors.

Seng Vangsta FRESNO, CA

I’m a die hard niner fan, same as for my entire family. We are frequent visitor of SF and the bay area..When we in town we used the BART system. I will quit riding it if the color scheme resemble our hated enemy to the north.

Evan Sheehy WALNUT CREEK, CA

Although this may seem petty and minuscule in the scheme of things, it’s establishments such as the niners and other sports teams that can really bring a community together. To humiliate this fraternity and all it’s supporters by representing the #1 rivals in the very way that most the fans will be getting to the game is ridiculous. I strongly stand behind changing the color of the seats by any means necessary. Thank you.

We in Phoenix say let the constant bickering continue. Maybe it’ll be enough to allow the Cardinals to sneak by both teams.

On second thought, does anybody know what color the seats are on the light rail? We may need to start a petition of our own!

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