This Sunday 7th February, 11:30 PM UK time, the final game of the 2025 National Football League season will kick off. Perhaps most importantly, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny will be the halftime show’s star. This year is Super Bowl LX, and the New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some of you may hear that and get a distinct whiff of déjà vu—like this matchup seems as though it has happened before. Your instincts would be right! At the end of the 2014 season, these two teams met for Super Bowl XLIX. The Patriots won that time around, with Malcolm Butler making a key interception at the goal line when the Seahawks threw a pass to try for a necessary touchdown. This became one of the most criticised calls in NFL history, as they had only one yard to score, with Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch on their team, one of the league’s best in short-yardage situations. No discussion of the Seahawks is complete without mentioning their elite past defence. While they barely lost XLIX, they dominated the Broncos the previous year with an embarrassing 43-8 score, even though the Broncos had set league records for most yards gained and most touchdowns scored. That was the Legion of Boom, and that was then. Let’s look forward to this year.

This year is Super Bowl LX, and the New England Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks…

This time around, the Seahawks have arguably the league’s best wide receiver, Jackson Smith-Njigba (though I am partial to Ja’Marr Chase…). Will this year’s edition go any differently? The Seahawks’ offence has carved up a string of tough opponents this year, with Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp as the team’s other wideout. The Patriots’ defensive backs are quite strong, though, so Kupp and JSN won’t have the easiest games. Throwing them the ball is Sam Darnold, who was inexplicably traded from the Minnesota Vikings after a fourteen-win season. Now he has led his new team to fourteen more wins and the Super Bowl. While this Seahawks defence is not quite as legendary as the LoB, it is still quite good and was ranked number 1 at various points this year. Their pass rush will press the Patriots’ offensive line and their quarterback, Drake Maye, very harshly. The Seahawks are favoured to win. They’ve got the defence, the offence, and the experience.

Almost diametrically opposed to this are the New England Patriots. Tom Brady is gone, Bill Belichick is now coaching at the college level, and their team is young and untested. Detractors will look at their schedule (bottom 5 in strength in this year’s NFL) and their playoff route (against the Chargers’ 32nd- ranked O-line, then C.J. Stroud’s 4 picks and 22.3 QBR, followed by a backup Jarett Stidham who hadn’t thrown a pass in five years). Their supporters would argue that Drake Maye has still played well, and Mike Vrabel’s coaching was the reason for so much of their opponent’s collapse. Their rookie offensive tackle, Will Campbell, has improved throughout the season, and only struggled against the Texans’ top-rated defence. The Patriots’ defence is nothing crazy, but they certainly aren’t at the bottom of the league. As I said above, their secondary is the more exciting part, and has already crippled receivers like Mike Evans, Tee Higgins, and more. It will be exciting for this team to face an incredibly strong opponent. It’s not too often you see a team with its first big test on such a stage.

The Seahawks are favoured to win. They’ve got the defence, the offence, and the experience.

From my perspective, the Seahawks are favoured to win because they just need to keep doing what they’ve been doing—shutting down great QBs (as they did to Brock Purdy in week eighteen) and scoring points. But they can’t let Maye find a rhythm. The Patriots need to get everything right, which they haven’t always this season. Their offensive line has made some mistakes, and Maye has thrown some bad games. But they definitely can, which is why most predictions are close. Make sure you tune in to see who will take home the Lombardi! 

Image: Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia Commons