Sam Darnold climbed off the bus he was riding on top of. He wanted to walk and touch the people who wanted to touch him.
DeMarcus Lawrence did the Super Bowl quarterback one better. The 12th-year, Pro Bowl defensive end just won his first Super Bowl three days earlier. He reached up to the top of the bus to grab the team’s new Vince Lombardi Trophy. Shirtless, Lawrence walked up 4th Avenue. He let some of the hundreds of thousands of roaring fans touch football’s crown, desperately-sough-after jewel.
Jason Myers marveled at all the people. At all the smiles. All the fun.
And, especially, all the noise.
“I’ve been here for seven years. I always knew what the 12s were like,” the veteran kicker who once slogged with the woebegone New York Jets told KING-5 television along the parade route Wednesday.
“But this is crazy! This is beyond belief, what the 12s are like.” This was the second Seattle Super Bowl victory parade in the 50 years of Seahawks football. It was the third major city parade for a major professional sports title, following the 1979 SuperSonics winning the NBA championship.
It was for you.
It was for Seahawks fans from across the Pacific Northwest and the world. It was for those who have been season-ticket holders since the team played in the Kingdome, including the many who were there for the inaugural, NFL expansion season of 1976.
This day also was for the hundreds of thousands of Seahawks fans who may not have the means, time, family or work situations to go to games.
The parade and stadium trophy celebration before it were free events. Fans who usually only get to see their Seahawks on television and behind helmets and under shoulder pads in games got to see them up close, in the happiest moments of their football lives.
Tyler and Caroline Saty brought their three children — 11-year-old T.J., 9-year-old Jack and 7-year-old Amelia — to the parade. They left their home in Vancouver, Washington, at 3 a.m. to get a spot at 4th Avenue and Stewart Street just north of Westlake Center. Tyler’s dad has had season tickets for decades. Tyler attended the team’s playoff wins over the 49ers and Rams last month. Mom was wearing a bishop’s/Pope’s costume. Dad was wearing a Darth Vader suit and mask, befitting the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense that led the NFL in fewest points allowed this season.
“This is the largest crowd I’ve ever been around,” Tyler Saty told The News Tribune. “We were saying this is what New York City and Times Square must be like on New Year’s Eve.”
He looked at his kids he and his wife let miss school Wednesday for this I-remember-when PNW event.
“They love they’re ‘Ginger Cuz,’ Saty said. That was Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch’s nickname this season for Darnold.
The crowd city officials estimated from 700,000-1 million people came to the parade on a sunny, 50-degree Pacific Northwest day. They saw Mike Macdonald in a new light.
He is the team’s stoic, deep-thinking, worried coach. His star cornerback Devon Witherspoon playfully calls “nerdy, in a good way.” Wednesday, Macdonald was smiling and laughing like a little boy on Christmas morning. His joy after a season of intensity was palpable.
Atop an Army Humvee, fitting for the son of a West Point graduate and former Army officer, Macdonald was taking videos on his phone of the hundreds of thousands doing the same at him. Macdonald also was leading chants with the fans of his now-famous line on international television on Lumen Field after the Seahawks won the NFC championship to get to the Super Bowl: “We. Did. Not. Care.”
Coach Mike Macdonald. Unbridled joy. Capturing the #Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade through downtown Seattle past Westlake Center for himself.@thenewstribunepic.twitter.com/HkYQPsB9BZ
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 11, 2026
Special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh is as cerebral, analytical and innovative as anyone in the Seahawks’ building. He was wagging his tongue. He was pantomiming putting a Super Bowl ring on his finger. He was pumping his fist and roaring from atop an open-air bus.
He looked more like Ozzy Osbourne than a football coach.
Special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh (white cap) pumping his fists, ready to fit a Super Bowl ring on his finger before this #Seahawks parade even ends. pic.twitter.com/0KbRoY7lGM
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 11, 2026
This team plowed through 20 games. It won a franchise-record 17 of them. The players fully, 100% participated in voluntary offseason practices starting way back in May. They bulled through training camp in July and August.
They mimic their coach’s mantra of staying, playing “loose and focused.” But they’ve been grinding for 10 months.
Wednesday, they let loose.
Without much focus.
Wide receiver Jake Bobo leaned over the railing of the bus. He shook and sprayed a gold bottle of champagne on fans in the International District, on the corner of 4th and Jackson.
NFL offensive player of the year Jaxon Smith-Njigba was next to Bobo. He wore a denim jacket — with no shirt underneath.
AJ Barner was flexing. In more ways than one.
The second-year tight end was wearing a black cowboy hat, sunglasses and fur coat, over a white tank top. He looked like he was auditioning for a Boogie Nights sequel. Eventually he lost the coat. But never his cigar. Or his smile.
Running back Zach Charbonnet was next to Barner. He was carrying a gold bottle of champagne. It wasn’t full.
General manager John Schneider reached into a bag and from the top of his military vehicle underhand tossed candy to the crowd lining the street.
It was opposite the overhand, bazooka shots of Skittles Lynch fired into the crowd the only other time the Seahawks had a Super Bowl victory parade through downtown. That was 12 years ago.
General manager John Schneider softly underhand-tossing candy to fans lining 4th Ave.
The opposite of the overhand, bazooka shots of Skittles Marshawn Lynch fired at fans the only other time the #Seahawks had a Super Bowl victory parade through downtown Seattle, 12 years ago. pic.twitter.com/7ok17qp3pl
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 12, 2026
Offensive tackle Abe Lucas from Everett was wearing a gray, Washington State University hoodie he’d cut the sleeves from. It’s what he wore in the locker room at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, Sunday night during the team’s celebration for beating the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl 60.
Lucas pointed at each person in the crowd along 4th Avenue that he saw wearing WSU Cougars gear.
Julian Love held up the Lombardi Trophy from the back of a bus — only after Lawrence finally gave hit up from his walking and sharing of it with the crowd.
Defensive tackle Byron Murphy danced and pranced from atop the same bus Love, Barner and Charbonnet were preening on. Murphy flashed his hand to the crowd. He also pretended to put on a Super Bowl ring.
The Seahawks will be getting those in a few months.
Black cowboy-hatted, tank-topped AJ Barner was a star of the #Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade.
In the back in the white-sleeved coat Byron Murphy is practicing his fitting for a Super Bowl ring while wearing his MOB chain Shaquill Griffin got every teammate. pic.twitter.com/XSoMl4JaWp
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 11, 2026
Vince Lombardi Trophy stadium event
The parade went from about 11:30 a.m. to close to 1, up 4th Avenue from just outside Lumen Field to just below the Space Needle and Seattle Center.
The fun — and we mean fun — began in the stadium at 10 a.m. The players and coaches walked onto the field to a stage with the banner SUPER BOWL LX CHAMPIONS across the top.
Rookie guard Grey Zabel carried two, stacked cans of Busch Light. That’s the beer the native of Pierre, South Dakota, said the night the Seahawks drafted him in the first round last May he was going to be “diving into” as soon as he got off a phone interview.
Rookie tackle Mason Richman wore red-white-and-blue striped pants, and a T-shirt with Macdonald’s “We. Did. Not. Care.”
And there were red Solo party cups. A LOT of red Solo party cups.
Ernest Jones was enjoying his, even before he got on stage.
“I’m going to keep it buck: I’m probably the last person they should have gave the mic to,” the middle linebacker told the Lumen Field crowd of 50,000, while holding the Lombardi Trophy.
He thanked team chair Jody Allen, Schneider and Macdonald for setting the team’s course with their leadership. Jones then turned to his teammates crowded onto the stage behind him.
“But also, shout out to these bad-assed m***** f****** who play this game!” Jones bellowed, unedited onto live local television. The defensive signal caller then brought back his resounded, R-rated support of Darnold he uttered in his postgame interview, also on live TV and radio, in November. That was immediately following Darnold throwing a career-high four interceptions in the team’s loss at the Los Angeles Rams. It was the Seahawks’ only defeat in their final 15 games.
“Quite frankly, if you’ve got anything to say about my quarterback, you got anything to say about our defense, you got anything to say about our O-line, and you got anything to say about the city of Seattle,” Jones said, “I got two words for ya’:
“F*** YOU!”
The stadium roared.
Ernest Jones warned ‘em.#Seahawks middle LB doubles down on his message to all those who have things to say to Sam Darnold, about their defense, their offensive line—and the city of Seattle.
“F*** YOU!” pic.twitter.com/q2L9OqJG8V
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 11, 2026
“We not done! We coming back next year!” 11th-year veteran defensive lineman Leonard Williams said.
“I’m not f***** leavin’!” Darnold took the microphone and yelled out: “Yeaaahhhhh, 12s!
“I just want to say: I talked a lot this past week about belief. A lot of people, you know, didn’t believe in me. But it didn’t matter, because the one’s that are close believed in me— including y’all. I appreciate y’all so much.
“That short list also includes Jody Allen, John Schneider and Mike Macdonald. Man, I appreciate the belief y’all have in me, signing me this past year.
“Last and certainly not least: These players man, for believing in me.
“This defense, man. Give it one more time, for this defense!”
Darnold then introduced “a guy who does a lot of the dirty work.”
Barner, the tight end from Aurora, Ohio, the University of Michigan and University of Indiana who caught a touchdown pass from Darnold in the Super Bowl and was now in his Boogie Night get up, said he had three things to say.
“First, We. Did. Not. Care.
“Second. We. Still. Don’t Care. “One more. One more. Third, the Super Bowl Hawks live here!
“God bless. Go Seahawks! We love you, Seattle!”
Is AJ Barner auditioning for the Boogie Nights sequel?#Seahawks tight end with three messages at their Super Bowl victory celebration in Lumen Field. pic.twitter.com/Oy1bdzPDG7
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) February 11, 2026
GM John Schneider’s toasts
Schneider addressed the crowd by offering toasts with his red Solo cup.
“To Jody, Paul (Allen, her brother and the late Seahawks owner) would be so proud of you, for how you’ve led this organization,” the GM said in the stadium’s public-address system. “To JODY ALLEN!”
Then Schneider turned to his left, where the shy Walker was standing. Walker would rather run through a defense without blockers then talk publicly and have attention showered upon him. He was at Disneyland with Darnold for his Super Bowl MVP parade Monday, and he and the quarterback sat stoically, comically on the park’s Tea Cups Ride.
Darnold said he and Walker agreed before the ride started not to touch the center wheel, so they wouldn’t spin. Asked what they talked about during the ride, Darnold said: “About how everybody was staring at us.”
Wednesday at the stadium Schneider bellowed: “Let’s give it up for Ken Walker?”
Walker shook his head back and forth, side to side. He wanted no part of that.
“Mike Macdonald came into our lives,” Schneider said of the first-team head coach he hired in January 2024 as the NFL’s youngest head man, at 36. “And he pretty much crushed it!”
Drink.
The GM also said: “Culture is an artifact of relationships.”
The Seahawks’ championship culture made about 1 million friends feel even closer to them, three days after they won the Super Bowl.
