SI MMQB: The Blueprint for This Moment

With the Super Bowl arriving, the path to this game was not the same

Welcome back to The MMQB Newsletter The Super Bowl is only more than 48 hours away. To reach this stage, some teams have established paths to set themselves up to be part of it. Conor Orr explores how the Patriots use a critical bonding philosophy to help shape a team of lovable misfits.   Orr also explores how an Englishman takes charge of the vaunted Seahawks' defense, while Gilberto Manzano breaks down which team has the edge at every position. In his latest dispatches from the Bay Area, Albert Breer details the Seahawks' "loose and focused" vibe before the biggest game of the season. And in case you missed it: Drew Brees led a class of five NFL legends that were elected to the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame Class, and Matthew Stafford won his first MVP award. Super Bowl LX Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images The Unlikely Origins of the Patriots' Four H's Bonding Exercise By Conor Orr Ellen Geraghty would like to make one thing very clear: Despite being a Patriots fan who lives and works in Massachusetts, she refuses to claim responsibility for, and cannot in good conscience become the face of, one of the most stunning and unpredictable Super Bowl runs in recent NFL history.  Noted. However, the therapist and former college basketball standout, along with her wife, Erika Valek, a fellow therapist and basketball star who played at Purdue, are an important part of a serendipitous story; characters in an unfolding of events that, when set into motion decades ago, arrived unknowingly at the doorstep of Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and unleashed a force of humor, positivity, vulnerability and friendship that helped shape this team of lovable misfits. "It's a testament to the fact that it takes a village," Geraghty says. "And, people being generous enough to share their expertise and things that work. A lot of people tend to hold their cards close, and this is one of those examples where people are willing to share. And that's pretty cool." READ MORE FROM ORR  Seahawks Are 'Loose and Focused' and Ready to Roll Against Patriots By Albert Breer Some more thoughts on Super Bowl LX heading into the final day of media availability here … The Seahawks' mantra under Mike Macdonald has been "loose and focused"—and that's the vibe you get being around the players. They may have football's best roster. They know it. And you can tell they think it's going to show in a significant way on Sunday. One other observation: You can physically see the might of the Seahawks' defensive front. The Macdonald defense, built in a football lab when the Seattle coach worked under Wink Martindale in Baltimore seven years ago, is founded on having a run wall with hard, sturdy edges. The wall, in this case, is defensive tackles Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams. The edges are Uchenna Nwosu and DeMarcus Lawrence. Seeing those guys in person informs you of why it's so hard to move them off the ball. • The progress Sam Darnold has made over the course of his eight years is obvious. The simplest way I could get it covered from the coaches that work with him—he's playing much faster than he was years ago, which is a simple result of seeing things faster as he's gained experience. He's cut his snap-to-throw time way down. He's become more willing and able to take checkdowns. He's avoided negative plays as a result. READ MORE FROM BREER Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images How Seahawks DC Aden Durde Became the Coach Who Could Break a Major Barrier By Conor Orr As nearly every Seahawks all-defense meeting comes to a close, the coach goes to dismiss the room and yells "BREAK IT UP!"  What follows, admit a number of Seahawks players, is a cacophony of poorly executed British accents repeating the phrase, attempting to match the tone of the man who just ran the presentation.   "We are very unserious," Seahawks safety Julian Love says, smiling.  "Guys, to this day, still do it," defensive end Leonard Williams says. That's because Seattle defensive coordinator Aden Durde still very much sounds like the kid who grew up in Middlesex, England, clawed his way through the British American Football League, the NFL Europe and NFL practice squads before embarking on a career of coaching, mentorship and, ultimately, a boundless love for a sport he could only see on highlight shows playing weekly on terrestrial television. READ MORE FROM ORR Join the SI Olympics Newsletter Stay ahead of the action — sign up for nightly updates from Italy and never miss a moment. Click to Subscribe! Cary Edmondson/Imagn Images A Position-by-Position Breakdown of Who Has the Edge in Super Bowl LX By Gilberto Manzano Now that we're nearing the end of the Super Bowl festivities, it's time to get serious about the big game on Sunday between the Seahawks and Patriots. We decided to take a close look at each team's position groups to find out which side has the edge. It was tough to pick between Sam Darnold and Drake Maye. Does Darnold get the nod for having better postseason performances than an MVP finalist in New England? The Seahawks and Patriots were neck and neck in most of the offensive categories. But the toughest decision was determining which secondary was better, with both teams featuring star cornerbacks in Christian Gonzalez and Devon Witherspoon.  Let's get to the results before we kick off at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. READ MORE FROM MANZANO Darren Yamashita/Imagn Images How One Fan's Paranormal Encounters Could Help the Seahawks Vanquish Their Ghosts By Greg Bishop Consider this Seahawks season an exercise in exorcisms. All ghosts—Sam Darnold's reference to seeing them in 2019, Russell Wilson's Super Bowl XLIX interception, lingering organizational tension from then to now, to cite just three examples—have been busted or can be, in two days, at Super Bowl LX. This is where Keith Linder enters the conversation. In 2011, he moved from Austin to Seattle, for a job as a software engineer at Microsoft. He rented a house in Bothell, Wa., which is located northeast of downtown. He chose from the offerings on Craigslist. At that point, neither Linder, nor his girlfriend, Tina, knew anything about paranormal activity. "No," Linder tells Sports Illustrated in a phone interview last week. "We got baptized." The strange started on May 1, 2012. They started hearing this sound, like a baby was coughing, incessantly, day and night. Maybe, they thought, those noises were coming from their neighbors. They were not. They searched every inch of their rental home. And, still, cough-cough-cough. READ MORE FROM BISHOP Around the league • Eva Geitheim: Pro Football Hall of Fame Unveils Class of 2026 After Bill Belichick Controversy   • Ryan Phillips: Matthew Stafford Wins First NFL MVP Award Listen to your Big Game Playlist Get the print edition of Sports Illustrated delivered to your door Click to subscribe! We may receive compensation for some links to products and services included in this email. 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