There is no greater standing American tradition than the NFL’s Super Bowl. Between the game, the halftime show and the advertisements, millions across the country tune in at some point to see the latest and greatest in pop culture. Super Bowl LX brought together two teams from opposite ends of the nation — the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. 

The Seahawks were coming off of a historic regular season, finishing with a 14-3 record at the top of the National Football Conference. They defeated their first playoff matchup — the San Francisco 49ers — in a confident fashion: 41-6. The Seahawks then clinched the NFC championship against the Los Angeles Rams in an impressive show by their offense, led by quarterback Sam Darnold. 

For the Patriots, who were still recovering from the end of the decade-long Tom Brady dynasty, expectations were low coming into the 2025-26 season. Rookie quarterback Drake Maye looked promising, but no one would’ve expected an MVP caliber season with a tied-for-best record in the American Football Conference. It’s possible to look at their season as a fluke, since 11 of the 17 games they played were against teams who had just fired their head coach, and five of their other six games were against teams with losing records. Their route to the Super Bowl was also unusually lax, starting with a faceoff against Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers, notorious playoff droppers, moving to the Houston Texans and C.J. Stroud, who threw four interceptions, and ending with a match against the Denver Broncos, whose starting quarterback Bo Nix was out for the game with a broken ankle.

Understandably, the Seahawks were easy favorites for the final. Assumptions were that the game would be an absolute shutout and that is exactly what happened. The first half was relatively quiet, with Darnold and running back Kenneth Walker slowly making their way through New England’s defense for a total of 12 points, all from field goals. On the other side, Maye was completely shut down by Seattle’s defense, with the Patriots not able to score a single point in the entire first half. The term “war of attrition” comes to mind, but that would imply an even game, and the Patriots were unable to find any sort of positive output on the field other than from cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who recorded four tackles and three blocked passes.

The second half saw a pickup in pace, but the result remained the same. Seahawks’ wide receiver and Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon “Emerald City Route Artist” Smith-Njigba suffered a rough tackle and had to leave the field, giving a glimmer of hope to New England fans. Darnold and Maye traded touchdown passes in quick succession at the start of the fourth quarter, but a pick six from Seattle’s Uchenna Nwosu shut down the Patriots’ hopes. Maye was threw one more touchdown, but it was too little, too late as the two-point conversion on the next play failed. The final score rested 29-13 Seahawks.

For Patriots fans this was a devastating loss, but for those in the stands cheering for Seattle, it was an inevitability. Walker received Super Bowl MVP for his consistent yards during handoffs and Seahawks Coach Mike Macdonald was showered in yellow Gatorade, much to the chagrin of those betting on light blue, the most favored color on sports betting sites.