Sam Darnold crowned his staggering comeback story with once-unthinkable glory, Aden Durde made British NFL history and the Seattle Seahawks became Super Bowl champions for the second time as they beat the New England Patriots 29-13 at Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara on Sunday.
It would also fittingly be Mike Macdonald's No 1-ranked scoring defense that had the final, defining, masterclass say on the 2025 NFL season as they sacked Drake Maye six times and intercepted him twice while snatching a fumble in a suffocating performance against the second-year Patriots quarterback.
Uchenna Nwosu scored a 44-yard interception return, Darnold threw a touchdown pass to AJ Barner, Jason Myers kicked a Super Bowl-record five field goals and Julian's Love fourth-quarter pick extinguished any threat of a Maye fightback.
Playing on his fifth team and in his eighth season, Darnold entered unlikely football immortality as the 2018 third overall pick buried his written-off past and premature career obituaries to reach the pinnacle of football having signed a $100.5m deal with the organisation last offseason.
Seahawks defensive coordinator and London's own Durde was meanwhile becoming the first-ever British-born coordinator to coach at a Super Bowl, the former London Warriors coach and founder of the league's International Player Pathway programme playing an instrumental role in masterminding Seattle's rampant 'Dark Side' defense.
Kenneth Walker starred on the ground with 135 rushing yards as he won Super Bowl MVP, Derick Hall and Byron Murphy II recorded two sacks apiece and Darnold barley needed to call on the NFL's receiving leader Jaxon Smith-Njigba as defense reigned supreme in California.
Bad Bunny made history as the first Latino and Spanish-speaking artist to headline the Super Bowl half-time show as a solo act, lighting up Levi's as a beacon of both California's diversity and the NFL's commitment to its global audiences.
The Puerto Rican artist closed his performance by serenading the flags of Latin America with the words "The only thing more powerful than hate is love" written on the big screen, a symbol of unity coming during a period of heightened tensions across the US amid concerns surrounding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
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Maye's turnover streak, one of few blemishes on his otherwise sparkling campaign, haunted him at the end of the third quarter when he was strip-sacked by Hall to surrender possession.
Darnold was one hand to punish his second-year counterpart with a 16-yard touchdown strike to Barner, who had motioned across the formation into a tight split alignment before sneaking out on a corner route and breaking wide-open to haul in his quarterback's pass for a 19-0 lead with 13.24 left.
In the first sign of life from the Patriots offense all game, Maye attacked a tight window over the middle of the field with a beautifully-placed dagger to Mack Hollins for a 24-yard gain. He then went back to his favoured splash-play target on the ensuing play with a back-shoulder fade to Hollins for a 35-yard touchdown, reducing the deficit to 19-7 with 12.27 left.
Suddenly Maye and Josh McDaniels had summoned a spark, the former seemingly growing in confidence until disaster struck when he was intercepted by Love at the Seahawks' 27 with 8.49 to play.
He then gift-wrapped a pick-six that would epitomise Seahawks football at its full throttle and frightening best, Devon Witherspoon scorching off the edge to incite a Maye fumble that found the sharp hands of Nwosu, who swaggered it back for a 44-yard house call.
Maye's closing remarks to a gruelling day was a late consolation touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson, but the damage had long been done. The 2024 third overall pick had been seeking to become the first quarterback since Tom Brady in 2001 to win a Super Bowl in the same year as his NFL playoff debut.
Charlie Puth vocals had merged with a thunderous Air Force flyover, pretty pyrotechnics and a raucous 'is this Seattle?' crowd in a perfect Super Bowl cocktail prior to kickoff. Tom Brady's arrival among fellow Super Bowl MVPs including Joe Montana had prompted an eruption of Patriots patriotism. Levi's Stadium was bouncing, brimming with unpredictability, an aura of mystery sweeping Santa Clara ahead of a crowning matchup few had projected.
What followed was what many might have anticipated. A stern, stubborn dual of two of the league's premier defenses, with some physical Walker running sprinkled in and three Myers field goals giving Seattle a 9-0 lead at the break. Seattle soon extended their kick-heavy cushion through Myers' 41-yard field goal at the end of a 10-play drive early in the second half.
The tone for a day of defense was underlined on the final drive of the second quarter when Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez broke up a would-be-touchdown pass to Smith-Njigba on the edge of the end zone.
It became his second crucial breakup of the first half after a stunning leap-and-tip to deny the surging Rashid Shaheed on one of few deep shots across the opening two stanzas.
The Patriots were virtually non-existent on offense during a first half that saw Maye sacked three times and register just 48 passing yards.
Defeat denied the Patriots an NFL-record seventh Super Bowl title, while the Seahawks enacted revenge for their loss to New England at Super Bowl 49, which ended in Malcolm Butler's iconic goalline interception.
It closes the curtain on one of the most wide-open NFL seasons in recent memory, the Seahawks catapulting themselves to the top of the tree at the end of what, based on odds, had been the most unlikely Super Bowl matchup in history.
