In Santa Clara everything is ready. In fact, on the Italian night between Sunday 8 and Monday 9 February, the sixtieth Super Bowl will be played between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots and, as tradition, the United States will stop. “The other Thanksgiving” as they say. The final act of the NFL season will be played at Levi’s Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers) at 00.30 am Italian time and will put the highly coveted Lombardi Trophy up for grabs in a match which, it should be said in advance, starts without a clear favourite.
Who will succeed the Philadelphia Eagles who crushed the Kansas City Chiefs a year ago? It’s not easy to say before the initial kick-off. This match, which will be the rematch of the sensational XLIX Super Bowl with Tom Brady and his teammates who intercepted the ball on the goal line a few seconds from the end, when the team from the “emerald city” seemed ready to score with the overtaking touch-down. In these 12 years practically everything has changed between these two teams. Tom Brady is now an analyst at FOX, while Seattle has changed and, from the best defense in the league with the famous “Legion of boom”, is now a team much more linked to the attack.
What will be the strengths of the two rivals? The NFC champions will see quarterback Sam Darnold at their helm with running back Kenneth Walker III and the sensational pair of receivers made up of Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The New England Patriots, however, will see Drake Maye try to complete an excellent season together with the runs of Rhamondre and the receivers Stefon Diggs, Kyle Williams and Kayshon Boutte, with a scary defense.
We will see, therefore, who will raise the Lombardi Trophy in the California sky. If the New England Patriots succeed, it will be success number 7 for the Boston franchise, the first after the sensational Tom Brady era, while for the Seattle Seahawks it will be the second.
