Seattle’s Super Bowl Moment: Macdonald, Walker, and a City Ready to Celebrate
The confetti’s barely settled in Santa Clara, but the Seattle Seahawks are already shifting gears - from champions to the hunted. After a gritty, statement-making win in Super Bowl 60, the Seahawks are flying high.
Literally. While most of the team boarded a plane bound for SeaTac just after noon Monday, head coach Mike Macdonald was headed in a different direction - south to Los Angeles, trophy in hand, for a guest spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“My mom’s stoked,” Macdonald said with a grin, standing beside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, just hours after his team claimed the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy.
At 38, Macdonald became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl since Mike Tomlin in 2009. But he’s not caught up in the moment. If anything, he’s already thinking about what comes next.
“I told the team on Saturday night: I’ve got a bad habit of hemmin’ and hawin’ in my office, thinking about plays, what we’re going to run, how it’s going to go,” Macdonald said. “Then you get around the guys and those worries just go away. It becomes clear real quick - they’re locked in, they’re ready to play our style of football.”
That style? Relentless, physical, and unapologetically theirs. And on Sunday night, it was more than enough.
Just 15 hours after the cigars were lit in the locker room of their NFC West rival, the San Francisco 49ers - the same team they beat to get to the big game - Macdonald was already acknowledging the new reality.
“We know we’re target number one now,” he said.
Kenneth Walker: MVP and Headed to the Happiest Place on Earth
Walker, the Seahawks’ workhorse running back, was also heading south - but not for late-night TV. He’s Disneyland-bound, as is tradition for the Super Bowl MVP. And after the performance he put on, the honor wasn’t even up for debate.
Walker racked up 135 yards on 27 carries, punishing defenders with his trademark blend of vision and burst. He also added a crucial 20-yard reception that set up a field goal, finishing with 161 total yards from scrimmage. It was a fitting exclamation point to a contract year that saw him rise from steady contributor to postseason hero.
“No, I haven’t slept,” Walker admitted with a smile. “I didn’t party, though.
Just went back to my room and chilled with my family. This moment was big for me.
Still surreal.”
Walker said he had a feeling this game was going to be special the moment he saw the game plan from offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak - who’s expected to take over as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
“Yeah, definitely,” Walker said. “We planned all week to get the ball in our playmakers’ hands.
I had a few plays to catch the ball, and everything. So I knew there were going to be opportunities out there for me.”
He made the most of every one of them.
Seattle’s Ready to Celebrate
The city of Seattle will get its chance to celebrate with the team on Wednesday morning. The Seahawks announced plans for a championship parade - only the second in franchise history - that will begin at Lumen Field at 10 a.m., with the parade rolling up Fourth Avenue through downtown at 11.
It’s a moment this city’s been waiting a decade for, and one this team has earned every step of the way.
Leonard Williams, the veteran defensive lineman in his 11th year, summed it up best.
“It’s just amazing seeing everybody smile,” Williams said. “That’s what makes this moment so special for me. Seeing my teammates who have put the work in, put the grind in - everybody on this team deserves it.”
From Macdonald’s steady hand on the sideline to Walker’s MVP performance in the backfield, the Seahawks didn’t just win a Super Bowl. They announced themselves as a force - and they did it their way.
The trophy’s coming home. The city’s ready.
And the rest of the league? They’ve been officially put on notice.