Players were “recording everything” on the trip from team headquarters in Renton to their Super Bowl hotel in San Jose, California.
DeMarcus Lawrence has played in more NFL seasons than any other Seahawk.
So he got a cool moment, his first Super Bowl one. It was most likely courtesy of second-year coach Mike Macdonald.
In a nod to this being Lawrence’s first Super Bowl in his 12th year in the league, the Pro Bowl defensive end was the first player, coach, or anybody from the team to walk from its Atlas Air Boeing 747 down the stairs to the tarmac upon the Seahawks’ arrival at San Jose Airport Sunday evening for Super Bowl 60.
Wearing sunglasses and a huge grin at dusk in the mild Bay Area, the 33-year-old Lawrence led Macdonald and the Seahawks into the city where they will be preparing until the fourth Super Bowl in franchise history. That is next Sunday in nearby Santa Clara.
Lawrence was the first of the entire team to receive white, Super Bowl “SBLV Bay Area” caps with the Seahawks logo on the side upon arrival in San Jose.
Seattle will practice this week at San Jose State University. That’s nine miles from the championship game site at Levi’s Stadium.
Pro Bowl quarterback Sam Darnold waved to the camera as he got off the plane. Most players were wearing the gray Super Bowl 60 Seahawks sweat suits they’ve just been issued. Darnold was wearing his, under a black cap and black backpack.
Tight end AJ Barner was wearing one of the white “We. Did. Not. Care.” T-shirts Seahawks players wore on Sunday’s flight.
The shirts commemorate what Macdonald said on a stage on Lumen Field moments after Seattle won the NFC championship game over the Los Angeles Rams last weekend. FOX television’s Michael Strahan asked Macdonald what he felt about many seeing the Seahawks as the third-best team in the NFC West this season, before they beat their division-rival 49ers and Rams in succession to reach the Super Bowl.
Seahawks players credit Macdonald for setting the culture that has spawned what they feel is their unique brotherhood in the team’s last two seasons, when Seattle has won 26 of 36 games. Macdonald has been encouraging his Seahawks to enjoy this week and this accomplishment — while keeping their focus on the task of winning Seattle’s second NFL championship in the franchise’s 50-year history.
“Absolutely. Everything was getting recorded,” linebacker Uchenna Nwosu told KING-5 television’s Paul Silvi.
Nwosu is in the first Super Bowl of his eight-year NFL career. He talked to KING-5 as the Seahawks walked into their team hotel in downtown San Jose Sunday night.
“You’ve got to live in these moments. It’s hard to get to this situation. It’s hard to get to this point in life,” Nwosu said. “We had guys waiting 10, 11, 12 years for their first Super Bowl, me eight.
“So I’m just enjoying the moment.”
The first of the many, extra media obligations the Seahawks have during Super Bowl week is Monday night: the NFL’s annual Super Bowl Opening Night free-for-all of reporting, interviews, skits and more at the San Jose Convention Center.
The News Tribune will be there for that, and for all the team’s events leading up to and including Super Bowl 60.
Klint Kubiak leaving?
Macdonald and general manager John Schneider apparently will have more work to do immediately following the title game next weekend, too.
Hours before the team left its headquarters in Renton to fly to the Bay Area Sunday, news broke that Klint Kubiak looks to be one and done as Seattle’s offensive coordinator.
The Las Vegas Raiders “are zeroing in” Kubiak, 38, to be their next head coach. That’s according to reports Sunday morning, first by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport.
By NFL rules the hiring cannot become official until Feb. 9, the day after the Seahawks play in the Super Bowl.
Raiders owner Mark Davis reportedly met with Kubiak Friday night over dinner at a restaurant in Bellevue, and again Saturday in the Seattle area. The Arizona Cardinals also interviewed Kubiak Saturday for their head-coaching position.
The Seahawks practiced Friday and Saturday at their team headquarters in Renton. Kubiak has been the play caller for the Seahawks’ offense that set a team record for points this regular season while running 50% of the time, with Jaxon Smith-Njigba an All-Pro leading the league with 1,793 yards receiving and quarterback Sam Darnold making the Pro Bowl.
Kubiak has said early last month as he began interviews by six other teams for head-coaching jobs he has not been distracted from his current job: Winning the second Super Bowl for the second time in the Seahawks’ 50-year history. “Had some conversations, and they were good conversations. Very flattered for that opportunity,” Kubiak said last month. “But we’ve worked our entire season, our whole lives for games like this. This is the most important thing.”
Category: General Sports
