Seahawks revel in Super Bowl glory at ‘Lumen South,' leaving 49ers all the smoke

Clouds of celebratory cigar smoke filled the San Francisco 49ers' locker room. Empty Champagne bottles littered the floor. Seahawks players shotgunned beers and danced in front of the sound system. And smack in the middle of everything, shiny and silver and the center of everyone's attention, was the Lombardi Trophy.

There had never before been a scene like this or a celebration like this in the 49ers' locker room. On the 49ers' home field, in the 49ers' own private space, the Seattle Seahawks partied and strutted and reveled in their prowess, after their dominating 29-13 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots.

"Lumen South," safety Julian Love called Levi's. "We love this field. We've had a good year here."

On the one hand, the 49ers should want the team that eliminated them to win the whole thing: It proves that they were beaten by the very best. On the other hand, this is Seattle - the 49ers' most bitter rival - who just got to the promised land, ahead of the 49ers and way, way ahead of schedule. 

"Oh yeah, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't," said John Schneider, general manager and architect of the Seahawks. 

"It's surreal. These guys want to play for each other, they care about each other. They were super confident. They're just a together team."

The Seahawks, one of the youngest teams in the NFL, led by a second-year head coach in Mike Macdonald, did something the 49ers have not been able to do for a very long time. Five of the past eight NFC representatives in the Super Bowl have come out of the NFC West. The Rams lost one Super Bowl but won on their second try. Now Seattle has won. Only the 49ers have not been able to bring back the Lombardi Trophy despite two shots at it. 

That's going to be a bitter pill when the 49ers return to the room where Seattle had so much fun late on Sunday night. After the Golden State Warriors won their first championship on the road in Cleveland, Stephen Curry irritated the Cavaliers the following season when he said he hoped the visiting locker room "still smells like Champagne." When the 49ers gather in their locker room for the offseason program sometime in mid-April, it's very likely - given the vast amount of partying that Seattle was doing - that their room will still smell like Seahawk cigar smoke. 

And, as with the Rams in 2022, the 49ers will find themselves chasing a division rival for the trophy they've found so elusive for 31 years.

"We're going to take it day by day, but we're on the clock now," said tight end A.J. Barner. "Everyone wants what we got." 

"We're going to see what we can do," said Eric Saubert, the tight end who played for the 49ers in 2024. "We hope we can run it back."

On Sunday evening, in front of a pro-Seattle crowd and an audience expected to be upwards of 125 million, the Seahawks flexed their defensive muscle. They had been getting better and stronger all season. In two January games against the 49ers, the regular-season finale at Levi's and a divisional playoff game in Seattle, the Seahawks smothered the 49ers' offense, leaving it helpless.

Kyle Shanahan, appearing on NBC's pregame show, was even able to poke some fun at those grim outings. Asked about the Seahawks defense, the 49ers head coach said, "I know you guys want my expert opinion, but I haven't scored a touchdown on these guys the last two times we played them. So I don't know how good that is." 

On Sunday, Seattle shut out the Patriots for three quarters, holding their offense to just 78 yards. Things loosened up in the fourth: New England finally got on the board and tallied 253 yards in offense in the quarter. 

"Guys were getting tired," said Love, who intercepted Drake Maye in the fourth. "Our defense started this and we wanted to finish it."

The game - with its 15 punts and a Super Bowl-record five field goals - won't go down in the Super Bowl annals as a particularly entertaining game. Bad Bunny's joyous, upbeat halftime show - transforming the Levi's field into a tropical island full of special guests and a strong message of love and unity - was by far the highlight of the event. No shade to Seattle's excellent running back Kenneth Walker III, who won the Super Bowl MVP Award, Bad Bunny was the real MVP.

But Seattle's defensive prowess was awe-inspiring.

"This game may not be exciting to some," former Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman wrote on social media, "but this film will be studied by every team trying to mimic what this Seahawks Defense is doing. Great defensive football is art!"

"It's what I expected from us," said linebacker Ernest Jones IV. "We've been doing this all year. We've been battle-tested. This was nothing."

Well, it was something. Something that will be remembered for a long time.

Over a decade ago, Seattle put its imprint on Levi's. In the stadium's first season, the Seahawks, then the defending Super Bowl champions, humiliated the 49ers on Thanksgiving night and ate turkey on the 50-yard line, while Jed York sent out rash tweets apologizing to the fans for the poor performance. That bitter memory has lingered for years.

That Seattle team grew old. Its stars moved on. The franchise faltered. And then Schneider reloaded through the draft, rebuilt the team, and now - way ahead of schedule - the Seahawks are champions again. And again leaving their mark on Levi's. That cloud of cigar smoke - and all the implications that come with it - will hover over the 49ers' stadium, and the 49ers' franchise, for a very long time.

This article originally published at Seahawks revel in Super Bowl glory at ‘Lumen South,' leaving 49ers all the smoke.