Super Bowl Sunday: Who to root for?

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which means that the most watched television broadcast of 2019 is set to air this afternoon, and huge portions of the country will tune in to watch the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots face off with the Lombardi Trophy on the line.

The question posed to Seattle Seahawks fans for the past two weeks since the conference championships were held has been simple: should Hawks fans root for the division rival that beat them twice this season or should they root for the team that bested them in the Super Bowl four years ago?

Let’s take a look at some of the arguments for and against each side.

Never root for a division rival (Go Patriots!)

This isn’t hard to understand. The Rams have been a thorn in the side of the Seahawks for much of the time since realignment in 2002, with the exception being from 2005 until 2009 when the Hawks won ten straight against the Rams. However, since the Seahawks hoisted the Lombardi trophy on February 2, 2014 the Seahawks and Rams have faced off ten times, with the Rams winning seven of those games. That includes Seattle having dropped six of the last eight contests between the two squads, including each of the last three by a combined score of 111-69.

The Rams are the only NFC West team that hasn’t lost a Super Bowl since realignment (Go Patriots!)

This is pretty simple: The Seahawks (2014), San Francisco 49ers (2012) and Arizona Cardinals (2008) have all lost in the Super Bowl since the NFL realigned for the 2002 season. While the Rams lost two Super Bowls prior to that (1979 and 2001), they have not had much postseason success to speak of since the NFL shook things up.

In fact, the Rams lone post-realignment playoff victory prior to this season was the 2004 27-20 defeat of the Seattle Seahawks at Century Link, a week before getting obliterated 47-17 by the Atlanta Falcons in the Divisional Round.

The Rams would have a more difficult time going forward if they win (Go Rams!)

There is a school of thought that exists that if the Rams win, it could lead to some of the the older players on their roster retiring, such as Andrew Whitworth, John Sullivan and Aqib Talib to retire, which would make 2019 more challenging for the team. Along the same lines, there are those who believe that winning a Super Bowl ring could make players who are extension eligible in the coming seasons more expensive, such as Marcus Peters, Tyler Higbee and of course Jared Goff.

How much truth to this there actually is is hard to quantify, but it’s an idea that has certainly been floated out there.

The Patriots are the reason Rick Mirer was drafted by the Seahawks (Go Rams!)

For those who are old enough to remember the disaster that was the 1992 Seattle season, in Week 3 of that year the Seahawks and Patriots played in Foxboro in a barnburner of a game that Seattle won 10-6. As a result of the Seahawks win in that game, when both teams finished out the season 2-14, the Patriots got the first overall pick in the draft and the Seahawks got the second. Now, Drew Bledsoe is never going to wind up in the Hall of Fame, but he was certainly better than Rick Mirer over the course of their careers.

And, Bledsoe was better than the majority of the quarterbacks the Seahawks had through the 90s.

So, as the big game draws near, which team will you be rooting for?