The Super Bowl ultimately defines careers in the NFL more than any other factor or metric.
Joe Namath is a Hall-of-Fame legend for delivering on his bold guarantee that his underdog New York Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, never mind that he finished his career with 173 touchdown passes and 220 interceptions.
Running back Terrell Davis played just four full seasons and ranks 61st all-time with 7,607 rushing yards, but he too is in the Hall of Fame because he starred on two Broncos Super Bowl teams.
Quarterback Eli Manning isn’t yet in the Hall of Fame, but he gets strong consideration every year and will probably eventually get in because he’s one of six QBs to win two Super Bowl MVPs — even though he never received a single regular-season MVP vote nor first/second-team All-Pro selection.
On the other side, Marty Schottenheimer is eighth all-time among head coaches with 200 regular-season wins (with a .613 winning percentage), but he’s not in the Hall of Fame because he never got past the AFC championship game. Dick Vermeil is in the Hall of Fame with a career record of 120-109 (.524) because he took the Eagles to a Super Bowl and won one with the Rams.
RELATED: Read all of our coverage leading up to Super Bowl LX
Super Bowl LX on Sunday night between the Patriots and Seahawks will shape more legacies.
Here are the five participants with the most to gain with a Super Bowl championship.
1. Seahawks QB Sam Darnold
Have you heard this story yet?
How Darnold went from perceived first-round (No. 3 overall) draft bust with the New York Jets, to failed trade acquisition for the Carolina Panthers to cheap backup QB rental for the San Francisco 49ers to surprise belated breakout with the Minnesota Vikings to now Super Bowl starter with the Seattle Seahawks.
Sure, it’s been noted ad nauseum the last two weeks, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling.
Even despite having his long-awaited breakout season with the Vikings last season, leading the team to 14 wins while passing for 4,319 yards, 35 TDs and 12 INTs, Minnesota decided not to bring Darnold back and instead turn things over to unproven second-year QB J.J. McCarthy. (That move costs the Vikings a playoff shot this year and ultimately cost GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah his job).
Darnold had struggled in a high-stakes Week 18 showdown vs. the Lions and then again the next week in a playoff loss to the Rams, so despite his big season, there were still major doubts about his ability to win the big games.
The fact that Seattle won 10 games last season and then signed Darnold, a clear upgrade over previous QB Geno Smith, and was still slotted as a 60-1 long shot to win the Super Bowl says it all about the perception of the well-traveled QB.
That perception has already changed greatly, though, as Darnold backed up his Vikings success by also leading the Seahawks to 14 wins and passing for 4,048 yards, 25 TDs and 14 INTs.
But really, it took Darnold’s performance in the NFC championship game — completing 25 of 36 passes for 346 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs to outduel NFL MVP Matthew Stafford and the Rams in a 31-27 win — to give Darnold his deserved credit.
Playing well in a Super Bowl victory would cement his status as a legitimate star quarterback, but more so, it would forever vault his legacy into a different tier and “former draft bust” would be replaced by “Super Bowl champion” at the top of his bio.
2. Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel
Vrabel can make NFL history Sunday night as the first person to ever win the Super Bowl as both a player and later head coach for the same franchise.
In fact, Gary Kubiak — the Broncos’ backup QB to John Elway on three losing Super Bowl teams and then the head coach for Denver’s Super Bowl 50 championship team — is the only other person to even reach the Big Game as player and coach for the same franchise.
Beyond that historical footnote, Vrabel would rise up the list of all-time New England sports legends if he leads the Patriots to a championship in his first season after taking over a team coming off back-to-back 4-13 finishes.
Vrabel won three Super Bowls as a star linebacker for Bill Belichick’s teams, and to be the coach to revive the franchise following the lull since the Belichick/Tom Brady Era is the stuff of legend, truly.
Vrabel has already proven his stature as one of the NFL’s best coaches, winning his second NFL Coach of the Year award this season after previously earning the honor during his time with the Tennessee Titans, which included three straight playoff berths and an AFC championship game appearance.
But winning it all elevates Vrabel to an even higher stature and makes him a true New England/Boston sports icon.
3. Patriots WR Stefon Diggs
Diggs was as emotional as any Patriots player after beating the Broncos in the AFC championship game to advance to his first Super Bowl.
He could appreciate what it meant more than most.
Diggs had fallen short in the NFC championship game with the Vikings after the 2017 season and in the AFC championship game with the Bills after the 2020 season, among other postseason heartbreak with the perennially tortured Bills.
He’d left Buffalo in what seemed like a mutual parting and tore his ACL in his lone season in Houston last year. His career was at a true crossroads.
The Patriots gambled that Diggs could return to form and gave him a three-year, $63.5-million contract heading into a season in which he would turn 32 years old.
And he delivered, providing the Patriots with the No. 1 WR they were lacking, totaling 85 catches for 1,013 yards and 4 TDs during the season and a TD catch in the divisional round vs. Houston, his former team.
Now, he gets his long-awaited shot on the sport’s biggest stage.
Diggs is still a ways off from Hall of Fame consideration, but it’s more within reach than some may think.
He’s 38th all-time with 11,504 receiving yards but only 2,841 yards from moving into the top 10, and he’s now posted seven 1,000-yard seasons in the last eight years with the injury-shortened 2024 season the lone exception. Every WR in that top 10 aside from Steve Smith and Reggie Wayne is in the Hall of Fame, and Wayne has been a finalist the last seven years.
Diggs is 24th all-time with 942 receptions and only 134 away from the top 10 and 160 away from the top 5. Anquan Boldin, at No. 10, is the only WR in the top 10 of that list not in the HOF (along with TE Jason Witten and not-yet-eligible TE Travis Kelce). Diggs had at least 85 receptions in his last five full seasons.
Diggs ranks tied for 43rd all-time with 74 receiving TDs (with HOF hopeful Torry Holt and others) but is far from the top 10, with still-active Mike Evans currently 10th with 108.
But boosting his resume, Diggs has 80 postseason receptions for 982 yards — which both rank top 20 all-time — and 5 TDs
So, yeah, he should put himself in HOF territory numbers-wise, and being the No. 1 WR for a Super Bowl champion — especially this late in his career — would really augment his case considerably.
4. Seattle Seahawks DE DeMarcus Lawrence
For 11 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, Lawrence was one of the league’s better defensive ends, reaching four Pro Bowls, earning a second-team All-Pro selection and tallying more than 60 sacks.
But he never came close to a Super Bowl and left to join the Seahawks as a free agent last offseason, while delivering this blunt reason for his decision.
Lawrence has been an impact addition for Seattle with 53 tackles, a team-high 11 tackles for loss, 6 sacks and 3 forced fumbles with 2 defensive TDs during the season to earn another Pro Bowl nod. He’s added 2 more sacks and 3 forced fumbles in two postseason games.
With 108 career tackles for loss, 67.5 sacks, 24 forced fumbles, 2 interceptions and 3 defensive TDs, he’s probably still a ways off of Hall of Fame consideration while already 33 years old. Every player with at least 139.5 sacks is in the HOF while Dwight Freeney (125.5) has the lowest total of any DE in the 2000s to reach Canton.
But a Super Bowl nonetheless changes Lawrence’s legacy, and if he can maintain his production for a few more years (not unheard of at that position) and win multiple championships, then maybe that changes his HOF candidacy.
5. Patriots QB Drake Maye
This one is not like the others, obviously.
Maye hasn’t overcome any prolonged adversity or waited a decade for his Super Bowl shot. He doesn’t even yet have a legacy to redefine or reshape for that matter.
But let’s not ignore the obvious either.
Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl with the Patriots in his second season (albeit first as a starter), launching his Hall of Fame career and the New England dynasty to follow.
If Maye, already the MVP runner-up this year, leads the Pats to a Super Bowl title in his second season, the narrative is going to be hard to deny.
Let’s be perfectly clear — expecting any QB to match what Brady accomplished with seven Super Bowl titles (six in New England) and all his other feats is absurd. Expecting any franchise to pull off a run like those Pats had is also hard to imagine.
We’re just saying, the chatter would at least start.
Either way, Maye would continue pushing his way up the list of best quarterbacks in the NFL if he caps this breakout season with a title, while laying the foundation for a career with limitless upside.
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