SEATTLE — The result was poetic for Cooper Kupp.
He helped eliminate the Rams, the team that showed him the door last spring.
But for the Seattle Seahawks receiver, who made some key plays in Sunday evening’s 31-27 victory, he preferred to be poetry in motion.
Kupp didn’t stick around for interviews. He discretely slipped out of the locker room. Gloating isn’t his style.
After celebrating with his teammates and family on the confetti-covered field, Kupp hugged his young kids and handed them off to his wife and dad, then disappeared into a raucous Seahawks locker room already thick with cigar smoke.
By the time the doors were opened to the media, he had packed up and left, letting his key plays do the talking. He had a 13-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter and a seven-yard reception to eke out a pivotal first down in the fourth (although the precise spot of the ball was up for debate).
“I’ve had a pit in my stomach all day,” said his father, Craig Kupp, with an irrepressible smile on his face and a squirming grandson tucked under his arm. “I just want the very best for him and this team, and for this story to be written. I’m just so thankful.”
The Seahawks are headed to their fourth Super Bowl after a lot of people projected them to finish third, or even fourth, in the NFC West. Oddsmakers have them favored by 4½ over New England in the Feb. 8 game in Santa Clara.
Whether it was Kupp, leading tackler Ernest Jones or reserve running back Cam Akers — all former Rams — Sunday’s game had personal overtones. It had to be a quietly triumphant moment for the deep-thinking Kupp, who reads about two dozen books over the course of a season and writes poetry in his spare time.
Turns out, more than one Seahawk was biting his tongue.
“There’s a lot that I would like to say,” Jones conceded. “But God’s granted us this humbly, granted us this win so humbly. I’ve moved past. I’m just glad that my group, my team, that we’re going to the Super Bowl.”
Was this sweet schadenfreude for Kupp?
“I know Coop doesn’t think about it like that,” quarterback Sam Darnold said. “But for him to be able to step up on a day-to-day basis for us, not only in games but also at practice at the facility, he’s a true leader for us.”
Darnold, meanwhile, is redefining his own career in real time. Once written off as a flameout, the former No. 3 pick of the woeful New York Jets made history Sunday, becoming the first USC quarterback to reach the Super Bowl as an NFL starter.
Carson Palmer got to the altar, making it to the NFC Championship game with the Arizona Cardinals in the 2015 season before losing to Carolina.
“Sam is the definition of what a Trojan is,” former USC and NFL quarterback Matt Leinart texted Sunday night. “He’s never given up, he’s continued to fight on even though he’s been viewed as a castaway. I’m really happy for him and how he’s handled everything. Now he’s starting in a Super Bowl. LFG!!!”
This game was a quarterback masterpiece, with Darnold and Matthew Stafford putting up nearly identical numbers. Stafford completed 22 of 35 for 374 yards with three touchdowns; Darnold connected on 25 of 36 for 346 yards and three touchdowns.
Their passer ratings were a photo finish: Stafford at 127.6 and Darnold at 127.8.
Seahawks safety Julian Love, who began his career with the New York Giants when Darnold was with the Jets, had a crosstown view of the quarterback’s career evolution.
“He got a bad rap early, and I think that’s not fitting for who he is as a person or as a player,” Love said. “He shows it when he works hard. He’s humble about it. He takes no shortcuts in the process.
“Everyone in the building loves him. He’s just a good guy. He’s a guy you can enjoy playing golf with, and a guy that you can take pride in leading you on the field. All of that criticism is not warranted. He showed up when it mattered, and he won us a game today.”
Whereas those great Seahawks teams during the Pete Carroll era were a collection of richly talented characters — they were Legion of Boom bombastic — this laser-focused group has to some degree taken on the bookish personality of second-year coach Mike Macdonald.
Macdonald was a straight-A student in high school and graduated summa cum laude with a finance degree from the University of Georgia.
“Geek is a compliment,” he told the technology news site Geekwire in August. “I’ve been called a football nerd.”
Oh, well. Check the scoreboard. Revenge of the Nerds.
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