SAN FRANCISCO — Neither team began the season among the favorites to reach the Super Bowl.
The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots both were regarded as long shots.
But not by their coaches and players.
On Sunday, the Seahawks and Patriots will play in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium.
After the Seahawks defeated the Rams in the NFC championship game, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was asked during a postgame broadcast about being an “afterthought” behind the Rams and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West.
“We did not care,” Macdonald proclaimed, making public an attitude players adopted throughout Macdonald’s two seasons.
The Seahawks reflect their second-year coach, safety Julian Love said, by keeping an intense but “matter-of-fact” approach.
“He tries to keep the main thing, the main thing,” Love said. “He doesn’t like to make … grandeur out of everything.
“Like, he’ll say, ‘Who do we play next, and what time do we play?” And then we’ll all say in a team meeting, constantly, just like every meeting, ‘We don’t care!’ That mindset and his quote … that’s just how he’s been all year, all the past two years and that shows who we are as a team now.”
The Seahawks won their last seven regular-season games and finished 14-3 to capture the top seed in the NFC. After a first-round bye, they routed the 49ers and beat the Rams to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2015, when they lost to the Patriots and fell short of repeating as champions.
Quarterback Sam Darnold, cast aside by the Minnesota Vikings after he led them to a 14-win season in 2024, played well throughout the season and spectacularly in the playoffs.
Running back Kenneth Walker III leads the rushing attack, and George Holani has stepped into a complementary role that Zach Charbonnet filled before suffering a knee injury in the divisional round against the 49ers.
Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba was voted the NFL offensive player of the year after catching 119 passes, 10 for touchdowns. Darnold also relies on receiver Cooper Kupp, the 2021 NFL offensive player of the year and Super Bowl LVI most valuable player when he played for the Rams, and the electric Rashid Shaheed, along with tight end A.J. Barner.
Linebacker Ernest Jones, linemen Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy and DeMarcus Lawrence, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and safety Nick Emmanwori are among the standouts for the Seahawks “Dark Side” defense that gave up a league-best 17.2 points per game in the regular season.
Jason Myers is the kicker, All-Pro Michael Dickson the punter and Shaheed the dynamic kick returner.
Like the Seahawks, the Patriots and their fans were similarly inspired by a speech receiver Stefon Diggs made before a preseason game, when he proclaimed “We all we got. We all we need.”
After finishing 4-13 last season, Patriots owner Robert Kraft fired first-year coach Jerod Mayo and hired Mike Vrabel, a former Patriots linebacker and three-time Super Bowl champion who coached the Tennessee Titans for six seasons.
“We were intentional about making sure that when the players returned there was a program in place that they could look at, that they could believe in, that they wanted to be a part of and that they wanted to protect,” Vrabel said. “That’s what we set out to do.”
Vrabel, the NFL coach of the year, led the Patriots to a 14-3 record and their first AFC East title since 2019. The Patriots then defeated the Chargers and the Houston Texans before beating the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2018 season, when they defeated the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.
Quarterback Drake Maye is a dual threat who became an MVP finalist while leading an offense that averaged 28.8 points a game.
Diggs is Maye’s top target — he eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving for the seventh time — and tight end Hunter Henry plays a prominent role. Receivers Kayshon Boutte, Mack Hollins and Demario Douglas and tight end Austin Hooper also have made plays.
Running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 13 rushing touchdowns during the regular season.
Defensive lineman Milton Williams, linebackers K’Lavon Chaisson and Robert Spillane, cornerback Christian Gonzalez and safety Jaylinn Hawkins are among the key players for a defense that gave up 18.8 points a game during the regular season — the league’s fourth-best mark. Sack leader Harold Landry III is questionable because of a knee issue.
Andy Borregales is the kicker, Bryce Baringer the punter, and Marcus Jones is a second-team All-Pro punt returner.
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