Fresh off a Super Bowl win, a 12-win season, and with the most feared defense in the National Football League, Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks looked like a lock to win back-to-back Super Bowls in 2015.
They thrashed Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, and while Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were a force to be reckoned with, everything seemed to favor the league's brewing dynasty.
If you're a Seahawks fan, you already know what happened, so we won't reopen that wound. Suffice to say that if you were to ask Tom Brady what his favorite Super Bowl win is, this would be an easy choice. Talking to the Kelce brothers on their "New Heights" podcast, the seven-time Super Bowl champion twisted the knife in Seahawks fans' hearts, even after all these years.
Tom Brady will never forget his Super Bowl win over the Seattle Seahawks
“We had gone 10 years (without winning), and three times we won it, then I had two where we lost it. And then 2014 came, and we’re going against the Legion of Boom, and we’re down 10 in the fourth quarter, and then we end up having the most incredible last 20 minutes of the game,” he said.
Time and time again, Seahawks fans and even their detractors have stated the obvious. Yes, Pete Carroll should've run the ball at the 1-yard line, especially having the most physically dominant running back in the game right in the middle of his prime.
While that's fair, that wasn't the only moment and mistake that led to this infamous defeat. The Seahawks had every chance to hold onto their lead and secure their second Super Bowl in franchise history.
It's crazy -- and sad -- to think how things could've been if it weren't for Malcolm Butler and Carroll's inexplicable play-calling decision. Russell Wilson would probably be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, right? And how high would the "Legion of Boom" rank among the all-time great defenses?
It may not have felt that way at the time, but that's the beauty of sports. It's full of hypotheticals and regrets, but it also gives teams another shot at glory. It might take a while, like with the Seahawks, but there's always a shot at redemption.
At the end of the day, the Seahawks lost to arguably the greatest quarterback and head coach in league history. That doesn't make it any less painful or any better, but some things just feel inevitable in sports. He must've made a pact with the football gods, who knows?
This just goes to show how difficult it is to stay at the top and how quickly things can change in this line of business. It's also a test for general manager John Schneider, the architect behind both Super Bowl-winning teams, as he just can't allow the same thing to happen again this season.
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