The underrated, under-discussed home field advantage for the Seahawks

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 03: Brock Purdy #13 of the San Francisco 49ers shakes hand with Sam Darnold #14 of the Seattle Seahawks following a game at Levi's Stadium on January 03, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. The Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 13-3. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The Seattle Seahawks finished as the No. 1 seed in the NFC and got to play their home course against their divisional rivals all the way to the Big Game. But now they simply head down to California to play a New England Patriots that shares no such familiarity.

It is uncommon for a team to play the Super Bowl in a stadium they've already visited that season. It's even less common to play in the stadium of a divisional rival. The Seattle Seahawks have both of that this year, and even a couple more contributors to a meaningful home-field advantage.

Let's look first at a quirky little trend. Though this doesn't happen often, it's the third consecutive year that one of the Super Bowl teams had already played in that stadium.* In the past two years, the team that had been there before won.
^{*regular season}

In the 2024 season, the Philadelphia Eagles had been to Caesar's Superdome in New Orleans prior to defeating the Kansas City Chiefs. In the 2023 season, the Chiefs had already played in the brand new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before removing the San Francisco 49ers. And would you believe it, the Chiefs also played Arizona in the preseason before winning the 2022 season Super Bowl as well. Weird.

But wait there's more! Sam Darnold used to play for the team in the stadium in which the Super Bowl will be held. WHILE they went to a Super Bowl themselves!

An underrated part of the next 2 weeks for the Seahawks & Sam Darnold.

Technically, he has been through the Super Bowl hoopla.

He was a member of the 2023 49ers. Saw the 2-week circus it is. He's not a Super Bowl rookie, in a way. He's seen the prep necessary.

Thanks, SF pic.twitter.com/4sImuLREIU

- Nick Lee (@NickLee51) January 26, 2026

I mean, come on scriptwriters.

One last bit!

Interstate migration from Washington to California remains one of the higher rates in America in the 21st Century. Census data estimates an average of 35,000 people per year move down the coast, whereas it's nearly impossible to get reliable estimates of movement from Massachusetts to California as it is vastly fewer numbers.

I estimate at least 20-30% of those transplants retain fierce Seahawk loyalty per my experience and haphazard guess work. Coupled with the fact that WA to CA flights in February are easy and abundant, while getting out of The Day After Tomorrow back east is not so simple. All of a sudden you've got the high likelihood that this place will be far more packed with blue and green than...geez I don't even know what the Patriot colors are besides red. And that might not even count - it could just be a misguided and vindictive 49er fan with a lot of money.

In conclusion, it's been a crazy week and it's fun to have fun with football. Which is fun for everyone except Denzel Washington. And possibly Sean McVay, I'm not sure.

• Field Familiarity (Seahawks are 8-4 at Levi's Stadium, by the way)
• Locker Room & Super Bowl environment familiarity from Sam Darnold
• Secret Agents living undercover Fans who've moved
• Much closer

Take that 4.5 favorite and bump it up a couple. Go Hawks.