Nobody expected this. Not really.
When the Seattle Seahawks opened the 2025 season, they were treated more like a transition team than a contender. A new quarterback. A defense still finding its identity. A head coach in just his second year.
Super Bowl talk felt premature.
Doubts came easily. Sam Darnold was dismissed as a placeholder. The defense was viewed as promising but unproven. And Seattle, in general, was seen as a step behind the league’s true elite.
Byron Murphy II heard all of it.
After the Seahawks’ 29–13 Super Bowl LX victory over the New England Patriots, Murphy didn’t celebrate with bravado. He spoke with purpose — and with memory.
“They tried to write us off all season,” Murphy said. “They tried to write Sam off and said our defense wasn’t like that.”
The phrasing wasn’t accidental. It echoed Geno Smith’s famous line from 2022 — “They wrote me off, I ain’t write back though” — a quote born during Seattle’s first game after the Russell Wilson era ended.
Back then, it was about survival.
Now, it was about validation.
Seattle didn’t just win a championship. They flipped the narrative that followed them for years. Geno Smith is gone, traded to Las Vegas after the relationship with the organization quietly deteriorated. Pete Carroll followed him there. The Raiders collapsed.
Seattle didn’t.
The move to sign Sam Darnold was widely criticized. Analysts called it a downgrade. Fans questioned the ambition. Even with Mike Macdonald’s defense entering its second year and adding talent, the Seahawks were rarely mentioned among Super Bowl threats.
Then the season started — and didn’t stop.
Seattle finished with the best regular-season record in franchise history. They survived a brutal schedule that included three games each against the 49ers and Rams — both 12-win teams. They dominated physically, defensively, and mentally.
And in the Super Bowl, they suffocated New England.
Drake Maye was sacked six times. Three turnovers crushed any chance of momentum. The Patriots barely moved the ball until the game was already decided. It wasn’t flashy. It was final.
That’s what made Murphy’s words land so hard.
“The only thing that matters is the guys in the building,” he said. “We just held our head down and worked.”
That mindset defined Seattle’s season. No debates. No defenses. Just execution.
Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba understood exactly where the game was won. Despite Darnold’s steady play, he didn’t hesitate to credit the defense.
“They got our back,” Smith-Njigba said. “Defense wins championships. We got one today.”
The quote feels familiar because the truth behind it is old. What’s new is how completely Seattle embodied it.
This wasn’t a Cinderella run. It was a reckoning.
Byron Murphy didn’t need to shout. His remix of Geno Smith’s line did enough. It connected eras — from doubt to dominance — and reminded everyone that narratives only matter if teams accept them.
Seattle never did.
They didn’t write back.
They just won the Super Bowl.
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