SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As he strode towards midfield to meet counterpart Mike Vrabel, a Super Bowl 60 victory secured and his celebratory Gatorade bath complete, Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald held it together.
He allowed for a brief laugh after getting doused in energy drink, but Macdonald, whose Seahawks delivered a convincing 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday, quickly returned to business mode as he approached his competitor. He and Vrabel exchanged a quick-but-earnest handshake.
An instant later, the magnitude of the moment set in. Standing in the middle of the field, gazing to the heavens, the 38-year-old exhaled deeply. Eyes wide, he took in the fireworks launching from the top of Levi’s Stadium and the green and blue confetti that rained down on the field. He doubled over, hands on his knees, emotion washing over him.
His defense had delivered another signature performance, with three takeaways, six sacks and a touchdown. Seattle’s offense had executed with balance and patience; they didn’t turn the ball over during their postseason run. And two years after taking over for Super Bowl-winning predecessor Pete Carroll, Macdonald delivered the second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
After collecting himself, Macdonald meandered around the field, hugging players, assistant coaches and team staffers alike while Seahawks fans, “The 12’s,” cheered and danced in the stands.
Roughly an hour later, with the Seahawks’ locker room in full celebration mode — cigar smoke filling the air, champaign flowing, bass thumping — the coach entered the interview room, took his place behind the mic and did his best to sum up the emotions and the journey that had just ended on the mountain top.
“This is why you coach. This is why you want to do it at this level,” Macdonald said. “Because you have the opportunity to bring the 12’s, the people in our community, and our players who want to be champions, together. That’s what fires you up. For us to be able to do it for our community and our team, it doesn’t get any better.”
Macdonald routinely draws praise for his defensive prowess, and for good reason. This postseason march alone saw him confound three of the sharpest offensive minds in the game in San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan, the Rams’ Sean McVay and New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. But Macdonald delivered a Super Bowl victory because he’s so much more than a defensive coach. He did so because in Year 2, he figured out how to more effectively connect with and lead his entire roster — not just defensive players — and how to forge those men into a more cohesive unit.
Ask any member of the Seahawks organization about Macdonald’s leadership, and they’ll all give similar answers. They all agree that he’s demanding. Whether it’s during the offseason, the regular season or the playoffs, Macdonald finds ways to stretch his players while urging them to give everything they have to make themselves and the team better. But Macdonald also has fostered a culture that’s strong on accountability. It starts with his ability to admit his own faults, even apologizing to players when he falls short as a coach.
Players say that one of the most impactful things that Macdonald has done involves the strong sense of unity that he instilled with the team. From the first meeting of offseason practices, Macdonald stressed the importance of connectivity. He preaches it, but he also practices it by building personal relationships with his players in ways that he did not during his rookie season.
“We joke around and say that he’s pretty much like an AI, and then he’s learning how to be human,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams said. “It’s just an inside joke, though, but I think he’s just a really smart guy. He’s just all about football. But, the way he treats us in the building is like we’re his family now.”
Additionally, Macdonald facilitated greater team-bonding opportunities for his players, building blocks of time into their schedules for this very purpose.
“Every four weeks, we would take an hour of our meeting time, and we would meet in small groups — break out — and we had conversations with guys and just talk,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said. “Some of it was football. Some is just life. It was getting to know each other. You learn how people see the game. You learn how people saw life, how people react to adversity that they’ve been going through, and it was so cool to be able to learn your teammates and go through moments with them.”
The exercises accomplished exactly what Macdonald hoped they would. Offensive players connected with defensive counterparts and special teams contributors. Veterans embraced mentorship roles for younger players. Together, they embarked on a quest for excellence.
Winning the Super Bowl always represented the Seahawks’ ultimate goal, but Macdonald found it wise to simplify things, encouraging his players to set a series of attainable goals that would eventually position them for championship-caliber success.
“You don’t have expectations. You want to hit your daily goals,” Macdonald said. ”We knew at the beginning of the season (that) we needed to hit our daily goals to become a championship team. … ‘Let’s do what we can to get to the playoffs, to win our division, to create as many home games as possible,’ … You have to keep first things first to make that all possible.”
Step by step, the Seahawks began to grow and ascend, and by the most crucial stretch of the season — when, after a Week 11 loss to the divisional-rival Rams, Seattle found itself in a dogfight for the NFC West crown — the players responded with their best football of the season.
“Before we take the field, we look each other in the eyes and we say, ‘Hey, man, we’re about to get this done. We’re the best in the world,’” Williams revealed. “And I don’t think we say it from a place of ego or a place of overconfidence or anything like that.”
The Seahawks simply believed because of the confidence they had that their coaches would position them for success, and the belief that they had in one another’s abilities to deliver on the field. That served as fuel during the finish of the regular season, and that momentum carried into the postseason. They went on a tear, winning 10 straight games en route to Sunday’s climax.
“One of the great things about our team is we grow together.” Macdonald said. “And that’s part of life. It’s been a journey. My faith hasn’t always been strong. You have doubts and it’s been a roller-coaster ride. In the last couple years, it’s been strengthened. … It’s a journey that we’re in together. That’s empowering. And what you saw today is the end-point of a team that was dedicated to becoming this team since we walked in here in April.”
What we saw was also the growth of a coach, who in Year 2 grew into more than a defensive mastermind, but an ultimate leader of men.