The 2026 NFL season kicks off Wednesday night in Seattle, and you better believe it’s gonna be a firework show, not just on the field, but in the heads of the New England Patriots. They are the Super Bowl losers, and our Seahawks, the Super Bowl winners, are set to make them relive every agonizing moment right there on the Lumen Field turf.
A Decade of “Sour Grapes” Never Fades
Remember Ron Rivera? The guy who used to coach the Panthers? He’s the Cal Bears’ GM now, but a decade later, the sting of Super Bowl 50 still bites him hard. The Broncos beat his Panthers 24-10. Rivera still talks about an incompletion to Jerricho Cotchery that he felt *was* a catch, a play that, in his mind, changed the whole game. “Can you tell, Henry, I’m still bitter?” he asked. Imagine that. Just seven months after that loss, his Panthers had to open the 2016 season with a Super Bowl rematch against those same Broncos in Denver. They lost that one too, 21-20. Rivera didn’t mince words back then either, saying, “A lot of people say it’s not sour grapes. Well, it is sour grapes.” He openly voiced his discontent with the NFL’s decision to schedule such a brutal opener. He admitted he probably tried to ignore the banner ceremony, doing whatever he could to block it out and focus his players on the game ahead. Our 12s know that feeling, the kind of deep, competitive frustration that just doesn’t fade.
Mike Vrabel’s unenviable Task
Now it’s the Patriots’ turn to stare into that Super Bowl rearview mirror. Mike Vrabel, the Patriots coach, is trying to play it cool. “I am not going to reflect back on it,” he said last week. “We say the same thing every time we lose. We got outcoached; we got outplayed. When we win, it is on our players. But that is a long time ago and we will need to play better. We will need to coach better to give ourselves a chance in that environment.” Rivera, however, knows better. He called it “the hard part” for New England, having to relive it. The Patriots, with most of the same players, will stand on *our* field while *our* Seahawks raise that shiny championship banner. It’s totally our right to celebrate that victory, but let’s be real, it’s almost cruel for the Patriots to be the ones forced to watch. Rivera put it perfectly, thinking back to his own experience: “I just didn’t think that it was right to do that. Let them have their moment in front of somebody else. Why do we want to rub it in, even more so? Why do we want to make … the team that lost the Super Bowl relive it?”
The Patriots might try to tell themselves it’s a new team, a new season, a new game. But when that banner goes up, it’s a gigantic, undeniable reminder of what happened this calendar year. Vrabel will have his work cut out for him, not just with the game plan, but trying to get his squad’s head in the right space after watching us hoist our hardware. The NFL hasn’t pulled this stunt since Rivera’s Panthers got burned, which tells you everything about how controversial it was. Now it’s back, and it’s happening right here in the Emerald City. Our boys are ready to defend their turf and kick off the 2026 season with a bang against a team that’s already got a psychological hill to climb. Get loud, Seattle!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Fox Sports.
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