Is it 2015?
The last time the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots faced off in the Super Bowl, Tom Brady won MVP, Russell Wilson was still a respectable quarterback, and Malcolm Butler made an infamous interception with 20 seconds left in the game that handed the Patriots their fourth Lombardi Trophy. (That was the game where the entire world learned that when you’re at the one-yard line, you do not pass the ball, you run it).
As much as 2010’s nostalgia is surging right now, we’ve gotta get over that league-altering decision to pass. The terrible way the Seahawks lost is burned into NFL lore forever, but we’re over it! Right? Right. Tom Brady isn’t even playing in the NFL anymore and there are new gun slingers in town, ready to win their shootout and ride off into the California sunset as they make their own mark on history.
The Seahawks and Patriots play in Super Bowl LX on February 8 in San Francisco, and this is everything you need to know before the game kicks off (and the expensive commercials grace our screens).
The teams
Why the Seahawks could win
I’m going to start off with the Seahawks because they’re one of my favorite teams and I’ll be real about that bias. (Also, after the Patriot’s complete dominance of the NFL for years, I am not ready to root for them again just yet, and most of America feels the same way).
In a season that was defined by its parity, the Seahawks were one of the few teams that emerged as the undeniable best with a finishing 14-3 record, but it took a while before people even began to consider them real contenders. Dwarfed by the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in the same division, the Seahawks weren’t even predicted to do all that well—let alone make it all the way—when the season began back in September.
In fact, this Super Bowl is making history for the most unlikely matchup of teams… ever.
For the Seahawks in particular, they had a second-year head coach still making his way, a newly signed quarterback, and an iffy identity after losing franchise mainstay Pete Carroll, who left in 2024 after coaching the team for 14 years. While the Seahawks could be, and have traditionally been, competitive, no one looked at them twice.
That changed as the season went on, mainly due to the Seahawks’ cruising and dominant defense. There used to be the Legion of Boom, now there’s the “Dark Side” defense, which was officially ranked this year as one of the best defenses of all time. Anchored by players like Ernest Jones and Leonard Williams, the Seahawks were #1 in the league this season for points allowed per game (17.2) and sixth in yards allowed per game (285.9).
If stats make your brain fuzz out the way they do for me, know this: the Seahawks secured the best seed in the NFC and had their best record in franchise history for a reason this year. Not only did they beat teams like the Rams and 49ers along the way, they completely chewed up those teams, spat them out, and stuck them along Seattle’s gum wall.
They say defenses win championships, and if that’s true… we can cross our fingers that the Patriots’ new dynasty will be held off for at least another year.
Why the Patriots could win
It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that it felt like we were finally done with the Patriots cursedly making it to the Super Bowl every single year, but the last time the team played in the big game was 2019. Which feels like it was simultaneously two years ago and ten years ago because the Covid-19 pandemic has warped our minds, but that was seven years ago.
For seven great years, we didn’t have to deal with or even think about the Patriots that much. (Another AFC team promptly took their place as the villain everyone loves to hate, but we aren’t talking about them).
Seven years is long enough to allow some happiness and respect for the Patriots and their fans. After the immortal combination of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick left the franchise, the Patriots were lost for a while and flipped through their fair share of quarterback/head coach combinations, until they finally landed on something that really clicked.
Like the Seahawks, the Patriots’ quarterback and head coach are actually pretty new to the team. Unlike the Seahawks, the 14-3 Patriots don’t have a sweltering defense and they will have to prove that they’re more than just their lucky breaks (the Pats had the weakest schedule in the league this season).
What the Patriots do have is Drake Maye, a quarterback who broke through in his second year and had an MVP-level season. This kid came out of nowhere and I’m mad that the Patriots have him, but that’s fine.
The Patriots have a really good quarterback, an excellent head coach, and a creepy statue of Tom Brady smiling down on the franchise. If the Patriots show that they’re more than just their pedigree and lucky schedule, we could be on the verge of seeing AFC championships featuring the Patriots versus the Chiefs for several years to come.
The quarterbacks
Seahawks: Sam Darnold
Sam Darnold is part of the 2018 draft class, which included other quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Baker Mayfield. Amazingly, Darnold is the first quarterback in that list to appear in a Super Bowl.
If you like redemption stories where people rise from the ashes, this is the quarterback for you to root for. Darnold was third pick in 2018 by the New York Jets, where he was thrown into playing games right away, had some terrible years, and saw ghosts. After several dead-end years in New York, Darnold was relegated to quarterback bust and he bounced around the league supporting a few teams as a backup.
It wasn’t until last year, when Darnold played with the Minnesota Vikings and led them to the playoffs, that people started seeing him as a decent quarterback. The Vikings made a mistake and let Darnold go in the offseason (a decision which even Vikings players and personnel have admitted they’ve regretted), and Darnold promptly signed with the Seahawks, where he… again played excellently. In the NFC championship game, Darnold was at his absolute best, quieting the doubters and his ghosts.
If Darnold can finish his redemption arc, that’s incredible—and his team believes in him.
Patriots: Drake Maye
Drake Maye is just 23 years old and only in his second year playing in the NFL. That just feels kind of unfair, but Maye’s excellent season is undeniable and he’s a huge reason why the Patriots are in the Super Bowl.
Maye is up for multiple NFL awards this season, including offensive player of the year and Most Valuable Player, with 31 touchdowns and almost 4,400 passing yards. He leads the league in completion percentage (72%), which is impressive enough, but even more impressive when you factor in his high accuracy for deep throws. That combination is just insane. When you watch Maye, you’re watching a really special player.
Just like they say defenses win championships, you also often hear that quarterbacks carry their entire team on their backs. While that’s not entirely true in Maye’s case, his playmaking ability could make or break who wins the Super Bowl.
The coaches
It’s the battle of the Mikes. Mike Macdonald, who’s in his second year of head coaching for the Seahawks, faces off with Mike Vrabel, who’s in his first year of coaching for the Patriots.
Macdonald was a defensive coordinator before being hired by the Seahawks, which explains the team’s roaring defense. He’s fostered a tight-knit culture that players have praised and has risen from a mostly unknown to a respectable defensive genius. And, this is Macdonald’s first-ever head coaching job, which makes it even more impressive that he’s been able to bring his team to the pinnacle of the sport so soon.
Vrabel, on the other hand, actually played for the Patriots in the 2000s as a linebacker. He could make history as the first person ever to win a Super Bowl for the same franchise as both a player and a coach. Vrabel is also defensive-minded and seemed to remake the Patriots into an entirely new team overnight. He gets along with his players so well, he laughs it off when they headbutt him.
With two relatively new coaches who are firing up their teams, this Super Bowl is likely to go one of two ways: an explosive showdown that we all live to see during high-stakes games like this, or a boring 10-13 game like the last one the Patriots played in as each defense dismantles the opposing quarterback.
The drama
With the Chiefs out of the playoffs this year and so many good teams sprinkled throughout the NFL, this is one of the few times where the Super Bowl matchup features players that no one would have bet on at the beginning of the season. These big games without the Chiefs can feel special in itself.
This year, there’s a lot on the line for both teams, their coaches, and their quarterbacks. Will the Seahawks’ Dark Side defense become as well-known as the Legion of Boom? Have Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel made a deal with the devil to become the league’s next hated dynasty? Or is this season’s success a likely one-and-done thing as both teams fade into the dust next year?
February 8 will tell us a lot and cement the legacies of Darnold and Maye in particular, one quarterback a veteran trying to prove that he was excellent all along, the other the new kid on the block. Either way, hopefully we get more infamous moments like this one that will live in our heads rent-free until the league returns in the fall.
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