America has already started choosing sides for Super Bowl 61, and the early picture looks a lot like every other NFL rooting map: home markets stay loyal, rivals line up against the heavy favorite, and most of the country simply wants a target.
The Los Angeles Rams are the team drawing the most attention this time around. After a loaded offseason, they sit at the top of early futures boards, and oddsmakers have already made Los Angeles the early Super Bowl favorite.
That kind of status turns a team into a lightning rod fast. Puka Nacua is back, the defense got louder, and Matthew Stafford is still in place, which is enough to make the Rams the obvious team for the rest of the league to push back against.
Seattle is right there in the conversation too. The Seahawks are the defending champions and still carry a national footprint, but champions rarely stay popular outside their own region.
That was part of the story in last winter’s lead-up to Super Bowl 60, when most of America leaned Seattle. New England had New England, plus a few snowbird states, and not much else.
That regional loyalty still shows up first and loudest. Washington will be with Seattle, no questions asked.
Southern California is messier, splitting between the Rams and old NFC West grudges that never fully go away. New England is waiting on Drake Maye again, while Buffalo is still behind Josh Allen and another January push.
The map also has a SoFi Stadium wrinkle that changes the way California would look if the title game landed there. The Rams and Chargers share the building, so a home Super Bowl would divide Los Angeles in two. If the Chargers were the team making the run, the whole thing would flip again and turn the state into a local civil war.
But the bigger force behind these early rooting maps is simpler than geography. Fans usually do not pick the favorite because they love it.
They pick against dynasties, against division rivals, or against the team most likely to irritate a neighbor. That is how the last Patriots run created instant fatigue outside New England, and how the Chiefs wore out the rest of the country during their long stretch of success.
Super Bowl 61 is still a long way off, with seventeen weeks and the playoffs still to come before any of this matters. For now, though, the map says plenty about the mood around the league: home states in team colors, the middle of the country mostly gray, and a lot of America waiting for the next team to root against.
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Charles Kippy Browns death at 71 brings back a name that still carries weight in Seattle circles, especially for anyone who remembers the Seahawks rise under Pete Carroll. Browns football life stretched from being the first Black quarterback at Memphis State to coaching stops across the NFL and college game, but his years with Seattle stood out as part of a run that helped shape a Super Bowl unit and left a strong impression on the people around it.
Pete Carroll was among those sharing condolences and memories, a reminder that Browns influence went well beyond the playbook. Former players also recalled the positive impact he had, the kind of steady presence that mattered in a building chasing championship standards, and his passing closes the book on a career that connected different eras of football while leaving a lasting mark in Seattle. [Read more 🡒]
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For Seattle, that makes an already tricky opener feel a bit more layered. Henderson has not practiced since the injury, but the expectation is still that he works his way back in time for the matchup, giving New England another option out of the backfield as the Seahawks begin their season trying to sort out a Patriots group that may be healthier than it first appeared. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Tackle Depth Concern Just Got Harder To Ignore
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Seattle is still leaning on its current group, with Abe Lucas and Charles Cross anchoring the tackle spots, but the move underscores how uneasy the team is about its margin for error there. For a unit that needs to stay intact, especially with injury questions hovering over the position, adding Hart keeps the Seahawks covered for now while leaving open the possibility that the issue could get a lot more complicated if the depth chart is tested. [Read more 🡒]