Tom Brady didn’t need much time to remind Seahawks fans why Super Bowl XLIX still stings.
On the Kelce brothers’ “New Heights” podcast, the seven-time Super Bowl champion looked back on the Patriots’ win over Seattle and made it clear where that game sits in his memory. Brady pointed to the stakes, the opponent, and the way New England finished the job.
“We had gone 10 years (without winning), and three times we won it, then I had two where we lost it. And then 2014 came, and we’re going against the Legion of Boom, and we’re down 10 in the fourth quarter, and then we end up having the most incredible last 20 minutes of the game,” he said.
For Seahawks fans, that’s the part that never goes away. Seattle entered that season fresh off a Super Bowl win, a 12-win campaign, and a defense widely viewed as the most feared in the NFL. After crushing Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, Pete Carroll’s team looked set up to chase another title in 2015.
Instead, the ending became one of the league’s most painful what-ifs. The obvious flashpoint has always been Carroll’s decision at the 1-yard line, especially with the most physically dominant running back in the game in his prime.
But the source of the heartbreak wasn’t just one snap. Seattle had chances to finish the game and couldn’t hold the lead.
That loss left behind a trail of questions that still hang over the franchise. What would Russell Wilson’s place in the Hall of Fame conversation look like? Where would the “Legion of Boom” rank among the best defenses ever if the result had gone the other way?
That’s the cruel part of sports: the hypotheticals never really stop. Teams get chances at redemption, but sometimes it takes a while to get there, just as it has for Seattle.
Even so, the Seahawks were beaten by what the piece describes as arguably the greatest quarterback and head coach in league history. That doesn’t make the loss easier to swallow, but it does underline how hard it is to stay on top in the NFL.
For John Schneider, the general manager who built both Super Bowl-winning teams, the lesson is simple: he can’t let this season turn into another version of that same collapse.
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