Seattle Seahawks champions Michael Dickson and Jason Myers may have opened up an avenue for Super Bowl specialists.
Super Bowl LX had a bit of a kick to it.
The Seattle Seahawks’ 29-13 triumph over the New England Patriots was far from special in the conventional sense but its battery on that side of the ball lived up to its namesake.
With five field goals, four in the first three periods, kicker Jason Myers accounted for the entirety of Super scoring before a fourth quarter flurry. Hope of a New England comeback was further stifled by the punter Michael Dickson, who put up just under 48 yards a boot and pinned the Patriots inside their 10-yard-line on three occasions, setting an already fearsome defense up handsomely in a shutdown performance.
Dickson also held the ball on Myers’ five field goals, which helped the latter join an elite group of Seattle triple-hood next to Sue Bird, Rashard Lewis, and Ichiro Suzuki by setting a single-game Super Bowl record. Myers even booked himself a tackle, taking down New England power back Rhamondre Stevenson on a late kickoff just before the latter made it out of bounds.
“We need multiple MVPs,” Dickson said after the game, per the Associated Press. “[Myers] is elite. The attention that goes into the detail with him, it’s really cool to see, and it pays off. And he’s cool to be around. … He’s got that mentality, and it’s really cool to share this experience with him.”
Dickson and Myers Put on a Special Show in Santa Clara
There’s an intriguing opportunity on the road ahead for specialists and it’ll be worth seeing if Dickson, Myers, or any of their contemporaries are able to break the stone hearts of voters.
Alas for the Seattle specialists, but one postgame honor was bestowed to running back Kenneth Walker III. To date, only one Super Bowl has doubled down, as Dallas Cowboys defensive reps Harvey Martin and Randy White split the 12th title after a 27-10 win over the Denver Broncos.
Specialists have not been fully snubbed in the category, but the lone victor in the category (Green Bay returner Desmond Howard in Super Bowl XXXI, ironically also against the Patriots) was required to touch the ball in order to score.
Seahawks punter Michael Dickson was huge in Seattle’s Super Bowl win 🔥
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) February 9, 2026
– 7 punts
– 335 punt yards
– 47.9 yards per punt
– 3 punts inside the 20
– Holder on 5 made FGs pic.twitter.com/IZVK14smJ4
The fact that the MVP award has taken on a dual nature only once likely makes things difficult, as does the relative Sunday snubbing of Myers: if the guy who was literally putting all the points on the board can’t win a game’s Most Valuable Player (and, as scorer of over half of Seattle’s points overall, served as the literal difference in the final), what hope do his counterparts have?
Granted, Walker deserved to be recognized for his efforts, as he and Bad Bunny were perhaps the only ones to find any sorts of movement room on the Levi’s Stadium turf. Sunday was also a relatively tame day at the office for Myers: some of Walker’s runs ensured he didn’t have try any attempts beyond 41 yards, eight longer than a current extra points and almost a chip shot considering the relative ease he and fellow power podiatrists Brandon Aubrey, Cameron Dicker, and Cam Little have had on deep balls this season.
But the forward momentum on the kicking front both in and out of Santa Clara suggests there’s indeed a room for another specialist on the MVP podium. Seattle’s defensive outing showed that such a group led by a shutdown unit still has a place in the modern game, where field position is the most valuable currency on the gridiron. A kicker has the ability to truly put the “v” in MVP under such conditions.
Jason Myers has become the first player in NFL history to score 200+ points in a single season, including playoffs 😮💨@Seahawks | #GoHawks pic.twitter.com/LL5SX61Clb
— NFL+ (@NFLPlus) February 9, 2026
Of course, a kicker and/or punter would need to play the prefect game, complete with long, clutch field goals. Having no touchbacks (Myers had two on Sunday) in an era where the league keeps inching them up would likely also help, but even all that, as Dickson and Myers learned the hard way, might not be enough.
True to the NFL’s offensive-happy nature (it’s hard enough for defenders to pull it off, as only 10 have done in total, and none since Von Miller in Super Bowl 50), the kicker in question would probably have to contribute beyond his usual realm, such as throwing a touchdown pass like Dickson’s Seattle predecessor Jon Ryan did during the 2014-15 NFC title game.
Super Bowl LX Game Play Nearly Set Up For History
It would also have to be a defensive struggle, an endangered species in the NFL if there ever was one, even if Sunday satisfied the lingering loyalists the concept has.
But Sunday showed that the perfect formula for such an unrealized phenomenon exists. That, at the very least, was recognized by the more conventionally-expected contributors in the victorious aftermath.
“J-My is the man,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said, per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. “When he goes out to take a kick, I think everybody on our team lets out a sigh. He’s just automatic. We trust him.”
“Kickers are very important,” the newly-crowned Walker said, per James Seimas of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “You saw J-My tonight. He kept us in the game. He kept us in the lead for, I don’t know, two to three quarters we didn’t score a touchdown. So, shout-out to J-Myers. Shout-out to Mike Dickson.”
Football is a team game but the Super Bowl and the NFL postseason as a whole is peppered with losses that are placed solely on the feet of kickers. It wasn’t on Scott Norwood, after all, that let the New York Giants wander on Tampa Stadium’s field for 40 minutes before his memorable miss ended Super Bowl XXV.
Thanks to Dickson and Myers, it’s finally the proper time to start making amends.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags