Seahawks stifle Patriots to win Super Bowl LX

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🚨 Headlines

⛳️ Gotterup wins again: Rising star Chris Gotterup beat Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff to win the Phoenix Open, capturing his second victory of the year after also taking last month’s season-opening Sony Open. The 26-year-old, who began last year ranked 191st, is up to No. 5.

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🏀 Top teams fall: No. 14 UNC stormed back to beat No. 4 Duke, 71-68, at the buzzer and hand the Blue Devils just their second loss; No. 22 St. John’s upset No. 3 UConn, 81-72, to end the Huskies’ 18-game win streak; No. 10 Michigan State beat No. 5 Illinois, 85-82 (OT), behind a huge game from sophomore Jeremy Fears Jr. (26 pts, 15 ast).

🏈 Canton makes change: In light of the Bill Belichick controversy, the Pro Football Hall of Fame vote will return to being an in-person discussion among the 50-member committee. Since the pandemic, voting has been virtual.

🏀 Who ya got? Damian Lillard (ruptured Achilles) isn’t expected to play this season, but the Trail Blazers star will still compete in the All-Star 3-Point Contest alongside Devin Booker (Suns), Kon Knueppel (Hornets), Tyrese Maxey (76ers), Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers), Jamal Murray (Nuggets), Bobby Portis Jr. (Bucks) and Norman Powell (Heat).

🏈 NDSU to MWC: FCS powerhouse North Dakota State will shell out $17 million to join the Mountain West Conference as a football-only member starting this coming season. The Bison have won 10 of the past 15 FCS national championships.

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🏈 Seahawks reign supreme

The Seahawks put the clamps on the Patriots in Super Bowl LX, holding them scoreless for three quarters en route to a 29-13 victory and the franchise’s second championship.

New team, same formula: The Seahawks won this Super Bowl the same way they won their first: with a suffocating defense. Back in 2014, it was the “Legion of Boom” stifling Peyton Manning and the Broncos. 12 years later, it was the “Dark Side” shutting down Drake Maye and the Pats.

• Two years ago, Seattle bucked the “offensive guru” trend and hired the defensive-minded Mike Macdonald to lead their team. Little did they know he’d lead them all the way to the mountaintop, while vanquishing two such gurus (Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan) along the way.

• Maye couldn’t get anything going against the league’s No. 1 defense, ending the night with three turnovers and six sacks while facing near-constant pressure. The MVP runner-up was also battling an injured throwing shoulder that required a pain-killing injection before kickoff.

Recipe for success: The Seahawks are the first Super Bowl champions to go the entire postseason without committing a single turnover. That elite ball security helped them cruise most of the way, winning their three playoff games by an average margin of 18.3 points and trailing for a grand total of 1 minute, 35 seconds.

Player of the Game: Kenneth Walker III (27 carries, 135 yards; 2 receptions, 26 yards) became the first running back to win Super Bowl MVP since Terrell Davis in 1998. The award held special meaning for the Tennessee native, who shared with reporters that this was the first game his father ever attended, due to a fear of crowds:

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“My dad, he comes up to Seattle all the time to watch the games, but never goes to [them] because he don’t like crowds. So this was his first NFL game, and we won a Super Bowl … It means a lot to me, and I know he’s proud of me for real.”

More standouts:

• Devon Witherspoon (Seahawks): Walker deserved his MVP, but you could also make a strong case for Witherspoon. The defensive back made plays all over the field, including a sack and three QB hits on well-timed blitzes. Get to know the name, if you don’t already.

• Jason Myers (Seahawks): Seattle’s longtime kicker made five field goals (Super Bowl record), had 17 points (Super Bowl record) and finished the season with 206 total points (NFL record), breaking LaDainian Tomlinson’s previous mark of 198.

• Michael Dickson (Seahawks): 7 punts, 335 yards (47.9 average). Three were downed inside the 6-yard line. Two were returned… for four total yards. He’s the highest-paid punter in football ($4.05 million per year) and he showed why on Sunday.

• Christian Gonzalez (Patriots): New England’s Pro-Bowl cornerback was spectacular in defeat, breaking up every pass that came his way… in jaw-dropping fashion. His final line: 22 coverage snaps, 2 targets, 2 forced incompletions.

What are the odds? The Seahawks are one of the unlikeliest championship teams ever when judging by preseason title odds (60-1). In fact, the only U.S. pro sports teams to overcome longer preseason odds and win a championship were the 1999 St. Louis Rams (150-1), the 1991 Minnesota Twins (80-1) and the 2003 Florida Marlins (75-1).

Yes, but: This was no Cinderella story. While the Seahawks didn’t garner much preseason hype, they quickly emerged as a juggernaut and were considered legitimate contenders for much of the year. In the end, Seattle won 17 of their 20 games and lost three by a combined nine points, putting them in elite company among some of the best NFL teams ever assembled.

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More Super Bowl 60:

📸 Super Bowl snapshots

Pregame: Picture perfect weather and a thrilling jet flyover — timed up beautifully to the end of Charlie Puth’s rendition of the National Anthem — set the stage for Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Field.

Other performances: Green Day got things started with a medley of their biggest hits, Brandi Carlile sang “America the Beautiful” and Coco Jones performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Halftime: Bad Bunny’s celebrity-filled performance featured an elaborate set that transformed the field into his native Puerto Rico. In addition to cameos from the likes of Pedro Pascal and Ronald Acuña Jr., as well as a real wedding that took place live on stage, Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin both joined for guest singing appearances.

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A message of unity: The Grammy winner’s final number concluded with him holding a football that read, “Together, we are America,” while the scoreboard behind him read, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Postgame: Thousands of Seattleites poured out of their respective bars and watch parties, and swiftly migrated to Pioneer Square to celebrate late into the evening. There will be a parade on Wednesday, but why wait to party?

Live on the scene: “Bad Bunny beats filled the air with jubilation … With fireworks going off and car horns blaring, a dance party formed outside the Polymarket Portal, where fans in Seattle and Boston could see each other live.” (Seattle Times)

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🎿 Vonn breaks leg in harrowing crash

Lindsey Vonn’s remarkable attempt to compete in the Olympics on a torn ACL ended in devastation on Sunday when she crashed just 13 seconds into her run, losing control after her pole clipped a gate.

Heartbreaking scene: The event, later won by American Breezy Johnson, was halted for more than 20 minutes as Vonn, screaming in pain, was airlifted off the mountain. She underwent surgery for a fractured left leg (the same leg that was missing an ACL) and is reportedly in stable condition.

From Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wolken:

It was devastating to watch, even more brutal to hear. For a nation that had become enraptured in Lindsey Vonn’s comeback story, the helpless cries of pain as she lay on her back and as the mountain fell silent will be hard to erase from memory.

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Downhill skiing is often breathtaking. It is sometimes gruesome. And for the second time in nine days, the image of an American sports heroine being strapped to a board and lifted into a helicopter churned the stomach.

But that’s skiing down a mountain at 80 miles per hour. That’s the risk Vonn signed up for when she decided to compete in an Olympics nine days after an ACL tear during a different competition in Switzerland.

That’s what happens sometimes when you go for it. And that’s exactly what Vonn did.

Like clockwork, there will undoubtedly be detractors who say Vonn shouldn’t have tried something so dangerous, so audacious.

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But Vonn, 41, has lived her entire life audaciously. She also knows more about what can happen on a ski slope, for better and worse, than the rest of us put together.

She understood what could happen. She deserved the chance. And now, only she can answer whether the consequences for her body were worth it. It’s not our business.

Read the full story.

🥇 Big numbers: Olympics edition

⛸️ 50 years

Ilia Malinin pulled off the first legal Olympic figure skating backflip in 50 years on Saturday — then landed another on Sunday — to help the Americans defend their gold medal in the Team Event with a narrow victory over Japan.

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Welcome back(flip): Backflips were banned from the Olympics for safety reasons after American skater Terry Kubicka became the first to pull one off in the 1976 Games. France’s Surya Bonaly landed one illegally at Nagano 1998, receiving a deduction, before the ban was finally lifted in 2024.

📺 21.4 million viewers

Friday’s Opening Ceremony averaged 21.4 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, a 34% jump from the 2022 Beijing Olympics, which were the least-watched Winter Games in history.

ICYMI: Some of the most memorable moments included musical performances from Mariah Carey and Andre Boceilli, a parade of colorful espresso makers in a nod to Italy’s place in coffee culture, and “White Lotus” actress Sabrina Impacciatore’s musical number depicting 100 years of Olympic history.

🥇 13 completed events

Norway is the early leader with three gold medals (men’s skiathlon, men’s 5000m speed skating, women’s normal hill ski jump) out of the 13 events that were completed through Sunday, while host nation Italy has an Olympics-leading nine total medals (1 gold, 2 silver, 6 bronze).

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History in sight: Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (skiathlon) won his sixth gold medal, putting him just two shy of matching the record. With five events left, he could leave Italy as the winningest Winter Olympian ever. Some people are just built different.

💰 $23 million

Eileen Gu, an American-born freestyle skier who competes for China, was the fourth highest-paid female athlete of 2025 with $23 million in earnings. According to Sportico, all but $20,000 of that came from endorsements.

The social media age: While sponsorships have always been crucial to the earning potential of Olympic athletes, financial success no longer hinges on whose image lands on the Wheaties box. Now most of the action happens on social media, where Gu and her 2 million Instagram followers are near the top of the “influencer” food chain.

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📺 Watchlist: Monday, Feb. 9

⛸️ Figure Skating, Rhythm Dance

Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, skating partners since 2011 and married since 2024, kick off their Ice Dance competition today with the Rhythm Dance (1:20pm ET, USA). The duo already helped power Team USA to gold in the Team Event over the weekend.

How it works: Rhythm Dance features performances of no more than 2 minutes, 50 seconds, set to this season’s theme of “music, dance styles, and feeling of the 1990s.” The second segment, Free Dance, is longer and has fewer restrictions.

 🥌 Curling, Mixed Doubles Semifinals

The final four take the ice this afternoon in Cortina (12pm, USA), where Team USA will face Italy in one semifinal and Great Britain will face Sweden in the other.

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Meet Team USA: Cory Thiesse (Duluth, Minnesota) and Korey Dropkin (Boston), former college classmates and curling partners since 2022, will contend for a medal after advancing to the semifinals for the first time in team history.

🏒 Women’s Hockey, Prelims

Team USA continues its quest for a third gold medal in today’s match against Switzerland (2:40pm, USA) after dominating their first two games against Czechia and Finland by a combined score of 10-1.

Collision course: Canada, the only other nation to win Olympic gold (five times), faces Czechia this afternoon (3:10pm, Peacock) before taking on the U.S. tomorrow in a potential preview of the gold-medal match.

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🥇 Medal Events

Austrian snowboarder Anna Gasser has won both Olympic gold medals in Women’s Big Air since the event debuted in 2018. Can she make it 3-for-3 in her final Winter Games?

• 🎿 Skiing: Men’s Team Combined, Slalom (8am, USA)

• ⛸️ Speed Skating: Women’s 1000m (11:30am, USA)

• ⛷️ Ski Jumping: Men’s Normal Hill (12pm, Peacock)

• 🏂 Snowboard: Women’s Big Air (1:30pm, Peacock)

Daily schedule.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 1 Arizona at No. 11 Kansas (9pm, ESPN) … The top-ranked Wildcats (23-0) are off to the best start in Big 12 history.

• 🏀 NBA: Thunder at Lakers (10pm, Peacock) … OKC is 0-2 since Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) hit the injury report.

• 🏀 NCAAW: No. 16 Kentucky at No. 4 Texas (7:30pm, SEC); No. 11 Oklahoma at No. 7 Vanderbilt (9pm, ESPN2) … Four of the SEC’s nine ranked teams.

• 🏒 NCAA Hockey: Boston University vs. Boston College (7:30pm, NHL) … The 73rd Beanpot Championship.

• ⛳️ TGL: The Bay vs. Los Angeles (7pm, ESPN2) … Luke Clanton, Neil Shipley and Min Woo Lee vs. Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala.

Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events happening in your city. Get tickets now!

🏆 Super Bowl trivia

The Seahawks are one of nine NFL franchises to win multiple Super Bowls since the turn of the century (2000-present).

Question: Can you name the other eight?

Hint: Four AFC, four NFC.

🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top plays of the weekend

Watch all 13.

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Trivia answer: Patriots (6x) Chiefs (3x), Buccaneers, Eagles, Giants, Rams, Ravens, Steelers (2x)

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