Should NFL fans believe what happens during a season, or is it all pre-planned from the beginning? Some fans are asking themselves that question after the prophetic tweet by the league in September.
Prior to the start of the season, the NFL put out a graphic featuring a player on every single team. The caption teased Super Bowl LX, and featured the Lombardi trophy in the background.
Upon first glance, you might not think there's anything suspicious about the tweet, but fans have been quick to point out the placement of New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, both of whom are front and center ... extremely close to the Lombardi trophy.
Because some fans can't deal with the reality of their team losing legitimately, some have jokingly — we think — decided that the NFL's placement of those players was intentional. That maybe the league knew the Patriots and Seahawks were always bound to meet in the Super Bowl and put both players close to the Lombardi trophy as a harbinger of the future.
The cries over the graphic reached a point where league PR man Brian McCarthy actually responded to it, saying there was no "controversy" over the image.
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Of course, any critical scrutiny of that theory immediately falls apart. From a betting angle, Super Bowl LX is the most unlikely the league has seen in at least 50 years.
No one expected either team to make it this far, which is evident in the graphic, which clearly prioritized putting the players and teams most likely to reach the Super Bowl in the foreground. There's a reason Saquon Barkley is the most prominent player in the graphic, as the Philadelphia Eagles entered the year as the reigning Super Bowl champs.
But the NFL season rarely goes the way anyone expects. Last-place teams can surge to the top of a division (look no further than the Chicago Bears) and previously dominant teams can slip off the radar due to a tough schedule and a key injury (see the Kansas City Chiefs). The fun of the NFL — and sports, generally — is that they can never be fully predicted. How a team looks on paper can change the instant that team actually takes the field.
There are plenty of reasons why the Patriots and Seahawks defied the odds this season. For New England, the decision to hire Mike Vrabel, combined with the MVP-like emergence of Drake Maye, elevated the team to the next level. For the Seahawks, a dominant defense, combined with a truly excellent season from Jaxon Smith-Njigba and a strong coaching staff, pushed the team back to the top of the NFC.
Did the NFL really foresee that in September? Of course not, but it sure makes for a fun coincidence.
