MISSOULA — The dust has fully settled from Super Bowl LX now two weeks removed, and for Patrick O'Connell the reminiscing has begun.
Playing — and winning — in the world's largest annual sporting spectacle with the Seattle Seahawks, the experience has started to sink in with O'Connell as he looks back at what they accomplished.
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"I believed in myself, I was never going to quit on myself," O'Connell told MTN Sports. "I was never going to quit on my team. I was going to show up every single day being the same person and just working my tail off because that's the only way I know how to do it and that's the only way that I'll always do it.
"So I'd just say it makes it that much more worth it being able to know where I came from and being able to do the things that I've done."
The Kalispell native and former Montana Grizzly All-American took in everything in the lead up to the game.
The challenge was staying focused and in routine — making it just like any other game, knowing full well it was anything but.
"I got some good advice a couple days before the game from one of our coaches who had been in the Super Bowl before and he just said, man, when you run out of that tunnel, just like look around, just take it all in and soak it all in and just look around the whole stadium because the atmosphere is going to be awesome," O'Connell said. "You're going to realize that this is the Super Bowl and this is what you're doing and you're playing in the Super Bowl.
"Once I got into that final 48 hours, I just had like this calmness about me. I just knew we were going to go perform at the best of our ability because of the way that we trained and the way that we prepared. I got the best sleep I've ever had before a game the night before, which is weird."
Those distractions were tough to ignore too.
"You're like, holy smokes, this is really it," he added. "This is what you see on TV when you're a kid. And now I'm warming up preparing for the Super Bowl. And you know, you got people like Roger Federer and Carmelo Anthony and obviously all the Seahawk legends that won the Super Bowl before on the sideline watching you warm up and then it's go time."
The Seahawks dominated the Patriots, and after making one tackle in the game, O'Connell got to be part of an iconic moment when he and teammate Brady Russell doused head coach Mike Macdonald with a Gatorade bath.
"I think it was about 50 seconds left on the clock," O'Connell recalled. "I'm just kind of hovering over by the Gatorade. And Brady Russell's already over there, standing by the Gatorade with the lid off. He's like, 'Let's get coach.' And I'm like, 'Sure, all right, let's do it.' And we were just kind of eyeing coach as he's walking up and down the field. And then we had to kind of duck and we even dodged to get through traffic and stuff to go find him. But obviously we got him with a good hit.
"I was up on stage with the trophy and Michael Dickson, our punter — shout out to him — he took me under his arm and he's like, 'Man, just turn around right now and just look at this. We just won the Super Bowl and just look at the atmosphere. Look at what we just did and everything.' That's something I'll remember forever just because I was just walking in the locker room like it was any other game after the game. And he took me under his wing and showed me that and it was pretty cool to see him do that."
The on-field celebration ensued after, with teammates and all of O'Connell's family who attended the game.
From there, more festivities followed until the team's parade back in Seattle, another soak-it-in moment.
"I think they said there was about a million people there, which is incredible in itself. So many rows deep, like just streets are filled up," O'Connell said. "You can just see like these waves of people and everyone just filled with so much emotion because of what we just did. And that's one of the most special things is seeing that because of how our play and how our win just affected the whole city and everyone that supports the Seahawks."
And through it all, one element of the entire experience stands above the rest.
"I think what meant the most was just being able to have my whole family there and being able to celebrate this moment and this journey with them," O'Connell said. "They've bee my whole support system and just being able to lean on them throughout all these hard times has been such a blessing. And then being able to celebrate the pinnacle of the sport, the highest achievement of the sport, sharing that moment with them is what it was all about. That was the most important thing for me."
