Super Bowl LX: How Do the Seahawks and Patriots’ 1st Super Bowl Champs Compare to These Teams?

• As Super Bowl LX is approaching, with the Seahawks and Patriots as surprising participants
• They met in Super Bowl XLIX, but that was the Russell Wilson-Tom Brady Seahawks and Patriots, so there’s no comparison
• But the teams’ 1st Super Bowl-winning teams somewhat mirror these teams
• How do they compare and what does it mean for Super Bowl Sunday?

Malcolm Butler is Not Relevant Here

The Seahawks and Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX matchup is considered a classic with coaching missteps, unheralded stars, a missed opportunity for a dynasty, and debates over credit/blame.

The Seahawks were the defending champs after destroying Peyton Manning and the Broncos the year before in Super Bowl XLVIII. They were on the 1-yard line and about to add Tom Brady and Bill Belichick to their list of vanquished, along with another Lombardi Trophy.

But disarray reigned.

Either Pete Carroll or offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell decided to throw instead of handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch. Belichick watched impassively from the opposite sideline and, seeing the chaos, chose not to call a timeout. And a play that the Pats specifically practiced with Butler in the run-up to the game happened.

It’s one of the biggest “what ifs?” in NFL history.

It needs to be mentioned because…it needs to be mentioned. But it’s not really relevant for this game.

The teams’ first Super Bowl winners, however, do hold some level of comparative importance. The teams are similar now as they were then.

The Seahawks Hammered Peyton Manning in Super Bowl XLVIII

Peyton Manning and the Broncos were the only story in 2013. There was justification for that. Manning won his second consecutive MVP that year. He threw 55 TD passes against 10 picks. And Denver was a 2.5-point favorite in the game.

The Seahawks had other ideas. Then, they were almost an afterthought and few realized exactly how good they were. Russell Wilson did not have the Manning pedigree. He was a 3rd round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and forced Seattle to play him ahead of Matt Flynn. Pete Carroll had been a failed NFL coach. His style was still questionable in an era when head coaches were expected to be of the Belichick ilk or have an offensive pedigree like Andy Reid.

But they’d built a punishing defense with Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Bobby Wagner, and the rest of the original Legion of Boom.

And then there was Lynch, who refused to speak to the media beyond, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” and rammed defenders in an old-school smashmouth style. With that punishing defense, they would easily have fit in with the 1960s and 70s and the Bill Parcells Giants.

The 2025 Seahawks are similar in that their defense is as hard-hitting (or harder-hitting) than the original Legion of Boom. Their quarterback, Sam Darnold, has a 1st round pedigree. But he quickly became a circumstantial bust, bouncing around and looking for a starting opportunity before fate intervened. He had a star turn for the Vikings and became the Seahawks’ starting QB.

Although Seattle is favored in this game (-5), the focus has been largely on the Patriots. The narrative leans toward New England, particularly since they rebuilt and returned to the Big Game so quickly after bottoming out following the departure of Brady and the end of the Belichick era.

The conventional wisdom gives the Seahawks more options to win the game than the Patriots. Of course, that was what doomed the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

The Patriots Shocked the World in Super Bowl XXXVI

To this day, there are still puzzled looks at the 2001 Patriots and questions as to how they managed to win the Super Bowl.

Of course, some, like Rams running back and Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk, insist it was the first incident of Belichick and Co. cheating to gain an advantage by filming their practices.

It’s been repeatedly debunked, but it was a widow into the future.

There is an alternate universe with that Patriots team from start to finish.

Had Mo Lewis not blown up Drew Bledsoe with the Pats losing to the Jets and about to go 0-2, how would their season have gone?

In that world, they would not have known who or what Tom Brady was. After 11 games, they would have been 4-7 with Belichick seeing the future and saying to himself, “I’m gonna get fired anyway, so let’s see what this kid can do.”

Then Bledsoe, the Pats’ $100 million QB, would have gone to owner Bob Kraft and said, “This $&^#*@%&* is blaming me?”

Even if Brady, stuck in the middle and unable to get a rhythm, played ok and went, say, 3-2 over the final 5 games, the Pats end at 7-9 with the star QB and head coach unable to co-exist.

Bledsoe: “Keep this guy if you want, but you might as well trade me.”

What does Kraft do with the star QB when he’s at odds with the miserable coach who nobody seemed to like and was behaving the same way he did on and off the field as when the Browns fired him five years earlier?

It’s highly likely that Bledsoe would have won the power struggle. Belichick would have been Parcells’ defensive coordinator in Dallas by 2003.

But they hit their stride with Brady, who didn’t have the power to ignore Belichick or challenge him. He followed the gameplan and was cognizant of ball security. He was a better fit for what Belichick wanted to do.

Still, there were “what the hell?” moments like the tuck rule.

The tuck rule was a real rule.

It was a stupid rule, but it was a rule that made no sense, ever. But it was a rule.

The Pats were better than they were given credit for. The foundation was still in place from the Parcells Super Bowl run with Willie McGinest, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Troy Brown, Ted Johnson, and others.

However, none of that happens without Brady.

The 2025 Patriots were not expected to be contenders. Most thought that if they were lucky in Mike Vrabel’s first year as head coach, they could contend for a Wild Card. Those who felt burned out or were tired of the Patriots after them spending so long at the top were wallowing in their seeming dysfunction, having fired Kraft’s handpicked replacement for Belichick, Jerod Mayo, after a 4-13 season.

But with Drake Maye improving rapidly under Vrabel and Josh McDaniels, the team winning games against admittedly weaker opponents, riding a team-oriented strategy tailored to combating what their opponents do well, they suddenly won 14 games. Again, no one seems to grasp how they’ve gotten this far, beat two good teams in the playoffs (with another snow game in Denver), and are back in the Super Bowl. They’re underdogs, just like in Super Bowl XXXVI.

How Do the Parallels Translate for Super Bowl LX?

While it’s different coaches, different quarterbacks, different players, the parallels between the Seahawks’ and Patriots’ first championships are clear.

Seattle is a defense-oriented unit that hits hard and relies on its running game and tactical passes.

New England has a brash, young QB, a smart coach, and a team-centric style of play. They were not expected to be here.

As the game commences, it will either go the same way the Seahawks Super Bowl XLVIII did with a quick knockout, or it will go the way of the Patriots’ XXXVI win when everyone except the Pats were wondering how this was happening, and an upset.

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