We can assume that Pope Leo XIV, elected as the new pope this week, is not a fan of the Seattle Seahawks. He is originally from Chicago, and reports have said he is a White Sox fan. That might also imply he is a Bears fan.
He also went to college at Villanova, so maybe he fell in love with the Philadelphia Eagles decades ago. He has no link to the Seahawks. We don't even know if Leo has visited Seattle at any point in his 69 years.
None of that matters too much, though, and his election in 2025 could coincidentally mean great things for a 12s favorite team. Popes are not elected all that often, and Seattle doesn't reach the Super Bowl all that often, but the two things do seem to happen during the same year or season recently.
Election of new pope might mean great things for the Seahawks
Pope Benedict was elected in 2005, and Seattle reached its first Super Bowl that season. Sure, the Seahawks didn't beat the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the organization's first championship (Pittsburgh was helped by the divine intervention of awful officiating), but just getting to the big game was an achievement enough.
The next time a pope (Francis) was elected was in 2013. As Seahawks fans know, that was the same season that the team made the Super Bowl (for the second time overall) and won its only championship. In other words, when a pope has been recently elected, good things have happened for the Seahawks.
Before 2005, the last time a pope had been elected while Seattle had a professional football team was 1978. The Seahawks did not reach a Super Bowl that season, the team's third year of being in existence, but 1978 was the first time Seattle had a winning record (it went 9-7).
So, will Leo's election in 2025 mean good things for the Seahawks? It should. And yeah, maybe all the above is a simple coincidence, but at least it is a positive coincidence. For those superstitious sports fans (and there are a lot of us), we should be thankful for the election of a new pope, as it could mean the Seahawks reach the Super Bowl again for the 2025 season.