And, after all that, we have come to the end game. As usual, 32 teams began the 2025 season with hopes of lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy as winners of Super Bowl LX, but only two remain, as the AFC champion New England Patriots (17-3) take on the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks (16-3) at Levi’s Stadium.

These two sides are no strangers to the big game, with 14 combined Super Bowl appearances between them before this Sunday’s showdown. The Patriots lead all of the NFL, having played in 11 Super Bowls and won six, while the Seahawks are 1-2 in their three appearances. One of those losses, of course, came against the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, with a last-gasp Malcom Butler interception sealing the Patriots fourth triumph and robbing the Seahawks of a repeat after their demolition of Denver at the end of the 2013 campaign.

Both sides missed the playoffs in 2024, with New England finishing rock bottom of the AFC East. If they can hold off the Seahawks this weekend, the Patriots would become the first team to win the Super Bowl the year after a last place finish in their division since the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles… who, of course, beat the Patriots to claim their first Vince Lombardi title.

Seahawks head coach Mike MacDonald and Patriots counterpart Mike Vrabel — a multiple Super Bowl winner as a player in the Patriots dynasty era — are the first opposing Super Bowl coaches to face off against each other within their first two seasons with a team since 2008, when Arizona’s Ken Whisenhunt locked horns with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin. Vrabel is also looking to become the fifth person in Super Bowl history to claim a ring as both a player and a head coach.

At the end of the day, however, it all comes down to the men on the field…

***

Sam Darnold, set to become the first quarterback from the vaunted 2018 draft class to play in the big game, is looking to become just the fourth quarterback to win the Super Bowl in his first season on a new team, following Trent Dilfer (Baltimore Ravens), Tom Brady (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Matthew Stafford (Los Angeles Rams). Darnold had over 4,000 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in the regular season, but also fumbled the ball 12 times (playoffs included) while throwing 15 interceptions.

Someone who will be keeping a close eye on any Darnold error is Patriots defensive tackle Milton Williams, who has two sacks and two tackles for loss this postseason. Williams, one of several high-profile free agent signings in New England this year, was a member of the Eagles squad that won the Super Bowl last season, and is looking to become just the sixth player in NFL history to win back-to-back titles as a member of two different teams — and the third to win those titles with the Patriots and Eagles after Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount.

On the opposing D-line, DeMarcus Lawrence — who signed with Seattle this past offseason after spending his entire career with the Dallas Cowboys — has at least one sack and a forced fumble in both Seahawks playoff games so far. No one has managed this feat in three playoff games in a single postseason, so Lawrence will have his eyes on Drake Maye’s hands this Sunday, as the second-year Patriots QB has been sacked 15 times and committed six fumbles this postseason alone.

Maye has, of course, been one of the key drivers in getting the Patriots to where they are. He has 40 combined touchdowns in the regular and postseason and will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl. With the vaunted Dan Marino never fortunate enough to lift a Lombardi, a Patriots win on Sunday would make Maye the youngest passer to claim a ring. A win over the Seahawks would also give him a 4-0 start to his playoff career, tying a mark set by a certain Tom Brady at the very beginning of the Patriots dynasty.

While Maye has veteran Stefon Diggs — making his Super Bowl debut after a decade spent wandering the league in search of an opportunity — amongst his targets, no receiver on either side has been able to match the Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who rose to the challenge of filling D.K. Metcalf’s cleats and led the entire NFL in receiving yards during the regular season. Add on his postseason yardage, and JSN’s 2025 tally currently stands at 1,965 yards, with only another 35 required from the Super Bowl to make him just the third player in NFL history — and third in the last five years — to amass more than 2,000 receiving yards in a full season. Curiously, all three players play for NFC West sides, with one of them, Cooper Kupp, now also a member of the Seahawks. The other, if anyone is interested, is current Rams player and former Kupp team-mate, Puka Nacua…

***

In terms of the sides on the field, the numbers suggest a clash between two of the best in the entire league.

The Patriots rank second in points scored and fourth in points allowed, while the Seahawks sit at third and first in the same categories. Defensively, both sides allowed an average of 193 passing yards per game in the regular season, while the Seahawks hold the edge in rushing yards allowed. They surrendered 91 per game, but the Patriots were not a million miles away at 101.

Playing on a neutral field shouldn’t hold too many terrors for either team, as the Patriots are 8-0 on the road this season, while the Seahawks are 8-1. This will be the 21st matchup between the two sides in their history, with the Seahawks owning an 11-9 advantage and taking four of the last five encounters.

The one they lost, back on February 1st 2015, will undoubtedly still sting the most, however.

PREDICTION: Seahawks gain revenge for the Malcom Butler game, but the Patriots keep it close.