In September, 32 NFL teams kicked off their regular season; four months later, two organizations remain in the hunt for a Super Bowl. The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks will kick off later today with their eyes set on the Lombardi.
The 2025-2026 season has been a wild one, to say the least, and this matchup in Santa Clara feels like a fitting end to the campaign.
Seattle entered the year with 60-1 (+6000) odds of winning the Super Bowl, while New England was slotted at 80-1 (+8000). Neither team made the postseason last year, and both hired their head coaches within the past two seasons.
It’s a major shake-up from the recent history of “Kansas City vs. insert Philadelphia or San Francisco here,” and I welcome it, even if others want to call it a “boring” matchup.
Not to mention, it is absolutely huge for both of these organizations, in the event that they win. This isn’t just the Chiefs or Eagles stacking another ring.
Here, I’ll dive into that so you can know exactly what a win in today’s Super Bowl will mean for these two teams.
The Ultimate Redemption: Seahawks Can Avenge 2015 Loss, Chart New Course With Win
It is entirely possible that the Seahawks 2015 decision to pass at the goal line, rather than running it in with Marshawn Lynch, is the biggest “what if” in NFL history.
In hindsight, that loss was really the end of Seattle’s success in that era, and it put Tom Brady, who had not won a Super Bowl in a decade, on a track that would finish with a record seven championships over 23 seasons.
Ten years after that Malcom Butler interception, Seattle has a chance to right its wrongs by knocking off New England for their second ring; it would be the ultimate revenge.
Aside from the history part of this, the future is just as big for the Seahawks today. They are four successful quarters away from charting a wholly new course in their organization as the clear-cut leaders of the NFC, and perhaps the entire league.
With a young and brilliant coach at the helm, a franchise quarterback under contract and at his peak, and a defense that is booming with talent, all they really need is the ring to prove how dominant their future could be.
Seattle, and their raucous fan base, enters this game expected to achieve all of this with their -4.5 point favorite status. Time will tell if this is the beginning of a new era or a flash in the proverbial pan.
The Return To Glory: Patriots Can Get Back On Top, Cement Maye-Vrabel As The New Big Duo
I’m 23 years old. That means that the New England Patriots have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl for 40% of my life.
It is a familiar stage for the organization; nobody can question that. The only difference is that this is essentially an entirely new regime that is on the doorstep of yet another Super Bowl victory.
Mike Vrabel, in his inaugural season as the Patriots’ head coach, could become the second New England HC to raise the Lombardi Trophy, following his old boss, Bill Belichick’s, six-title run between 2001 and 2019.
His young quarterback, Drake Maye, would be the youngest starting quarterback in the history of the NFL to win the Super Bowl.
Together, they would be cementing themselves as the next big QB-HC duo in the league, and reinstating New England as the premier franchise in the sport after a seven-year hiatus from the big game.
Boston has been the city of champions since the turn of the century, and for the first time as underdogs since Brady’s first championship, the Pats can add to that lineage with one more win.
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