Seattle’s 12s celebrate Super Bowl champion Seahawks

Twelfth man? More like millionth man.

Hundreds of thousands of Seattle Seahawks fans were at Lumen Field and lined downtown streets Wednesday morning to celebrate their Super Bowl LX champions.

Seahawks Head Coach Mike Macdonald, who has led the team since just 2024, thanked the fans during a trophy ceremony at Lumen Field before the parade kicked off.

“Having a football team is just the best thing going,” Macdonald said. “We love the 12s. You guys are the best in the world. And now, we’re the best football team in the world.”

“We had one goal,” said wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, also known as JSN, holding up the Vince Lombardi Trophy, “to bring this home... to the best fans in the world.”

RELATED: Seahawks dominate Patriots in 29-13 Super Bowl win

The Seahawks crushed the New England Patriots in Sunday’s big game, never losing the lead and finally winning 29-13. Seattle’s “Dark Side” defense made the win seem inevitable early on. The Seahawks led 12-0 at the end of the third quarter — all thanks to four field goals kicked by Jason Myers — and that gap widened to 19 before the Patriots even got on the board.

Tight end AJ Barner, who caught a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, took the mic at Lumen Field in a fur coat and cowboy hat.

“I got a few things for y’all,” he hollered. “First, we did not care. Second, we still don’t care. Third, the Super Bowl Hawks live here.”

The decisive win was retribution for the Seahawks, who lost to the Patriots in the 2015 Super Bowl after a heartbreaking interception at the goal line that led to a New England victory 28-24.

That was firmly in the past Wednesday.

“The Seahawks, they’ve broken our hearts many times,” said lifelong fan Andres Muñoz as he waited for the parade to begin. “It was literally the perfect way to bring home this win, to get our revenge on the Patriots where the 49ers play.”

Muñoz was referring to the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle’s biggest rival. This year’s Super Bowl was played at Levi’s Stadium, home of the 49ers, in Santa Clara, California.

Muñoz was out early to post up along the parade route with his wife, Adanech, and young daughter, Ayelech.

“Being a Seahawks fan and Seattle sports fan in general is a way of life, and we’re trying to pass down this culture to the next generation,” Muñoz said. “It’s important that she sees this as a historic moment, and we couldn’t be happier to have her with us.”

Seattle expected anywhere from 750,000 to a million fans to turn out along Fourth Avenue. Blue-and-green-clad spectators started lining the streets hours before the festivities officially kicked off.

Many fans didn’t have to travel far to reach the celebrations — it was still no easy task as roads and public transit quickly became congested.

RELATED: Seattle public transit survives blitz on Seahawks celebration day

Other fans traveled great distances to join the fun, fans like Rahul Prasad from Ohio.

His parents were India, so when he started watching football in middle school, he didn’t have any familial allegiance. They lived in a small town in Ohio, where generations of Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, and Pittsburgh Steelers fans dominated the scene.

Prasad decided he’d pick his own team, and chose the Seahawks, in part because of the logo — he liked that it celebrated the local Native American culture. The team’s logo was inspired by a carved transformation mask created by the Kwakwaka’wakw people of British Columbia.

Prasad has stayed loyal to the team ever since. So, when he recently finished medical school, he bought himself a ticket to the Super Bowl. And when they won, he saw an opportunity to celebrate with his fellow 12s at long last.

“It was surreal how everything lined up,” Prasad said. “I’m sure we’ll be back in the big game in the future, maybe even as soon as next year. But if it’s another 10 years until we do, I feel like this fanbase will just be rock solid and maintain the same intensity of support. You don’t see that in a lot of cities.”

Luckily for Prasad and his many new friends, the typical Seattle winter weather chose to skip the celebrations. It was a chilly but sunny day. Fans were bundled in their warmest gear, though they were decidedly better off than fans who turned out in much more frigid conditions in 2015.

JSN fan Serenna Duncan was fitted out from head to toe for the parade, which she took the day off from work to attend. She missed the celebration in 2014, when the Seahawks trounced the Denver Broncos 43-8 to win Super Bowl XLVIII, and she wasn’t going to miss it this year.

“I’ve just really enjoyed this experience as a Seattleite, a Washingtonian,” Duncan said, waiting with four Sharpie markers at the ready for her chance to get an autograph from JSN or Kenneth Walker III, who was named Super Bowl MVP. “Anything that can give me a collective experience right now.”

An athlete herself, Duncan said sports teach you to constantly evolve, and that’s what she sees the Seahawks doing.

“We’re a team that is willing to accept anybody who’s willing to try,” she said. “We ask that these players give their best, and time and time again, we get these people who are willing to do that. And I think our city is just willing to receive that same energy and give that back.”

Lifelong Seahawks fan Randy Hicks embodied that energy on Wednesday. He looked as though he could’ve been part of the parade, wielding a massive flag emblazoned with the number 12. He said he’s had it for about 16 years, carried it at the 2014 Super Bowl celebration and flies it at his home every gameday. Hicks said it represents family.

“It reminds me of my father, who’s passed,” he said, his eyes welling up. “It just means togetherness, family, community. I just love everybody coming together. ... It’s been overwhelming.”

And if the Seahawks have their way, this won’t be Seattle’s last chance to celebrate a big win.

Defensive end Leonard Williams promised more to come: “We not done. We coming back next year.”

Katie Campbell and Noel Gasca are reporters with KUOW. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.