Graney: Super Bowl play call in 2015 still stings for Seahawks

I was there. Witnessed it first hand.

And even after all these years, I still can’t believe the Seattle Seahawks chose to throw the ball instead of run it.

But they did.

And for it, the New England Patriots owned a fourth Lombardi Trophy.

Seattle and New England meet Sunday in Super Bowl LX. The last time we saw these teams matched against each other in a season’s biggest and final game was 2015 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

The Patriots would survive 28-24 before 70,288 and a global television audience that was likely unified in its shock about Seattle’s play-calling in the final seconds as anyone in attendance.

It’s when the Seahawks chose a pass on second-and-goal from the 1-yard line with 26 seconds remaining. They had a timeout left. They had the bruising and skilled Marshawn Lynch in the backfield.

They almost assuredly cost themselves a second straight Super Bowl championship.

Instead, Russell Wilson threw an interception to New England rookie defensive back Malcolm Butler at the goal line.

In one snap, you had one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history and one of its most questionable.

In one snap, the fates of two franchises were altered.

He owned it

“I told the guys in the locker room that they were on the precipice of winning a championship,” then-Seattle coach Pete Carroll said following the loss. “Unfortunately, the play goes the other way. There is nobody to blame but me. I don’t want them to think anything other than that. You can ask all you want. I’ll tell you again if you want to hear again. We were going to run the ball to win that game, but not on that down. That’s it.

“I made it. I made the decision. I said, ‘Throw it.’”

Understand: New England had two timeouts remaining and chose not to call one. They were going to live or die with the title being decided on if they could stop Lynch.

Never had to worry about it.

It all meant Tom Brady would win his fourth Super Bowl as New England’s quarterback, tying him with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only ones to own such prominence.

Brady would have been 3-3 in Super Bowls had the Patriots lost, and been assigned more than just a little blame after throwing two key interceptions.

But it went the other way. He waltzed directly into the conversation as the greatest of all time after also tossing four touchdowns.

You might also remember Seattle lost all of its 24-14 lead in the fourth quarter as Brady led the Patriots back to a lead they would not relinquish. Mostly because of one call.

“I’m a little surprised we (didn’t run),” Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said at the time. “It was an unfortunate play. What I would have done is irrelevant. We went with that play. We trusted our quarterback, and they made a play.”

Carroll went 3-14 in his time as Raiders coach before being fired after one season. As forgettable a run as it was in 2025 — by far his worst season as a head coach — it probably doesn’t compare to the sting of that one loss. To that one call.

I mean, it was the Super Bowl.

Some 2026 drama?

“(Wilson) threw the ball, and I caught it, but I felt like if the wide receiver would have ran the route harder, he would have given them another chance, but it didn’t happen,” Butler told the Seattle Times last week. “But I think (Wilson) made the right decision.”

“You’ve got to take a shot at life. I took my shot — just knowing situational football. If I would have dropped that ball, Malcolm Butler would not be in the picture.”

Had he dropped the ball, maybe Carroll re-thinks things on third down and hands the ball to Lynch. Maybe he opts for another throw given the clock situation. We’ll never know.

In one snap, you had one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history and one of its most questionable.

And now, the same teams meet for a Lombardi Trophy all these years later.

If there is even close to the drama that 2015 created, it will be one heck of a game.