The 'Dark Side' rises. How the Seahawks defense powered Seattle to the Super Bowl

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jarran Reed can’t quite remember if the nickname surfaced during OTA’s or training camp, but the Seattle Seahawks lineman recalls a group chat forming among the defensive leaders in the summer to figure out what the defense should be called.

“We had an identity,” Reed said, “but we had to find a name."

There were a couple other names thrown around, but “Dark Side” was the clear winner, a nod to Seattle’s dreary fall and winter weather and the deafening crowd noise at Lumen Field.

Those who have sought to stack up this defense against the Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman-led “Legion of Boom” teams from the 2010s have been met with resistance by the Seahawks defenders.

Reserve cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett said the defense didn’t want to be compared to the group that delivered the first championship in team history with a suffocating performance against the Denver Broncos in 2014, but rather for it to be appreciated for its own success.  They'll have the opportunity to help bring a second title to Seattle when they face the New England Patriots on Sunday.

“We kind of wanted our own thing,” Pritchett said. “So, the Dark Side just kind of stuck.”

Fitting for a group that is decidedly more anonymous than the star-laden “Legion of Boom.” This defense is a well-rounded unit devoid of any truly notable stars but also few shortcomings.

During the regular season, no team allowed fewer points per game (17.2), and Seattle finished in the top seven in the league in sacks and interceptions. Despite much of the secondary being injured in the regular season, the Seahawks ended the year 10th in the NFL with the fewest passing yards allowed per game (193.9).

From edge rusher Boye Mafe’s point of view, the unit doesn’t have any true soft spots, a source of pride for him.

“It’s very rare that you can say that about your defense, that you can say that about your team that you feel there’s no weak links,” Mafe said. “So, as you have that opportunity, it’s one of those things where you just have to seize the moment.” 

There are myriad reasons Seattle’s defense has been so stingy. For one, head coach Mike Macdonald has been the Seahawks’ primary defensive play-caller, and he brought with him an aggressive scheme that worked well when he was defensive coordinator for both the Michigan Wolverines and the Baltimore Ravens. 

The Seahawks frequently deploy five or more defensive backs, which allows a defensive front featuring Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II, a duo that tied for the team lead in sacks (7), to go to work. 

Versatile safety Nick Emmanwori, who broke up three passes in the NFC championship game and had 11 pass breakups during the regular season, has looked like anything but a 21-year-old in his rookie season, too. 

“Nick’s done a tremendous job since he walked in the door, shoot, since we brought him in for a visit pre-draft,” Macdonald said. “I think what’s great about Nick is you can see the physical talent, the physical ability. But his eagerness to learn, and the sense of urgency for detail and his hunger to be great really stands out.”

It’s an apt description for the defense as a whole, one which is led by the vocal presence of linebacker Ernest Jones IV. In turn, the Seahawks’ robust defense has brought out the best of Seattle’s offense on a weekly basis during practice.

All year, quarterback Sam Darnold has been impressed by the intelligence of his teammates on the other side of the ball and their ability to anticipate what opposing quarterbacks intend to do. The Seahawks had the fifth-most interceptions (18) in the NFL in the regular season. 

“They just do a great job,” Darnold said, “and make it really hard on the offense.” 

Safety Coby Bryant knew something special was brewing from the first day of training camp. 

Fast forward six months, and not only has the defense earned its nickname, but it has also guided Seattle within one win of securing its second Super Bowl title.

“Obviously, there’s more work to be done,” Bryant said. “We still got a job to finish on Sunday.”

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Seattle Seahawks' DeMarcus Lawrence speaks during a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Seattle Seahawks safety Julian Love speaks during a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon speaks during a news conference on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed speaks during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

The Washington Post laid off one-third of its staff Wednesday, eliminating its sports section, several foreign bureaus and its books coverage in a widespread purge that represented a brutal blow to journalism and one of its most legendary brands.

The Post's executive editor, Matt Murray, called the move painful but necessary to put the outlet on stronger footing and to weather changes in technology and user habits. “We can't be everything to everyone,” Murray said in a note to staff members.

He outlined the changes in a companywide online meeting, and staff members then began getting emails with one of two subject lines — telling them their role was or was not eliminated.

Rumors of layoffs had circulated for weeks, ever since word leaked that sports reporters who had expected to travel to Italy for the Winter Olympics would not be going. But when official word came down, the size and scale of the cuts were shocking, affecting virtually every department in the newsroom.

“It's just devastating news for anyone who cares about journalism in America and, in fact, the world,” said Margaret Sullivan, a Columbia University journalism professor and former media columnist at the Post and The New York Times. “The Washington Post has been so important in so many ways, in news coverage, sports and cultural coverage.”

Martin Baron, the Post's first editor under its current owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, condemned his former boss and called what has happened at the newspaper “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”

And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the layoffs “part of a broader reprehensible pattern in which corporate decisions are hollowing out newsrooms across the country.”

In an speech to members of the Washington Press Club Foundation, Pelosi said: “A free press cannot fulfill its mission if it is starved of the resources it needs to survive. And when the newsrooms are weakened, our republic is weakened.”

Bezos, who has been silent in recent weeks amid pleas from Post journalists to step in and prevent the cutbacks, had no immediate comment.

The newspaper has been bleeding subscribers in part due to decisions made by Bezos, including pulling back from an endorsement of Kamala Harris, a Democrat, during the 2024 presidential election against Donald Trump, a Republican, and directing a more conservative turn on liberal opinion pages.

A private company, the Post does not reveal how many subscribers it has, but it is believed to be roughly 2 million. The Post would also not say how many people it has on staff, making it impossible to estimate how many people were laid off Wednesday. The Post also did not outline its finances.

The Post’s troubles stand in contrast to its longtime competitor The New York Times, which has been thriving in recent years, in large part due to investments in ancillary products such as games and its Wirecutter product recommendations. The Times has doubled its staff over the past decade.

Eliminating the sports section puts an end to a department that has hosted many well-known bylines through the years, among them John Feinstein, Michael Wilbon, Shirley Povich, Sally Jenkins and Tony Kornheiser. The Times has also largely ended its sports section, but it has replaced the coverage by buying The Athletic and incorporating its work into the Times website.

The Post’s Book World, a destination for book reviews, literary news and author interviews, has been a dedicated section in its Sunday paper.

A half-century ago, the Post's coverage of Watergate, led by intrepid reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, entered the history books. The Style section under longtime Executive Editor Ben Bradlee hosted some of the country's best feature writing.

Word of specific cuts drifted out during the day, as when Cairo Bureau Chief Claire Parker announced on X that she had been laid off, along with all of the newspaper's Middle East correspondents and editors. “Hard to understand the logic,” she wrote.

Lizzie Johnson, who wrote last week about covering a war zone in Ukraine without power, heat or running water, said she had been laid off, too.

Anger and sadness spread across the journalism world.

“The Post has survived for nearly 150 years, evolving from a hometown family newspaper into an indispensable national institution, and a pillar of the democratic system,” Ashley Parker, a former Post journalist, wrote in an essay in The Atlantic. But if the paper’s leadership continues its current path, “it may not survive much longer.”

Fearing for the future, Parker was among the staff members who left the newspaper for other jobs in recent months.

Also on Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which stopped print editions and went all-digital at the end of last year, announced that it was cutting 50 positions, or roughly 15% of its staff. Half of the eliminated jobs were in the newsroom.

Murray said the Post would concentrate on areas that demonstrate authority, distinctiveness and impact, and resonate with readers, including politics, national affairs and security. Even during its recent troubles, the Post has been notably aggressive in coverage of Trump's changes to the federal workforce.

The company's structure is rooted in a different era, when the Post was a dominant print product, Murray said in his note to the staff. In areas such as video, the outlet hasn't kept up with consumer habits, he said.

“Significantly, our daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years,” he said. “And even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience.”

While there are business areas that need to be addressed, Baron pointed a finger of blame at Bezos — for a “gutless” order to kill a presidential endorsement and for remaking an editorial page that stands out only for “moral infirmity” and “sickening” efforts to curry favor with Trump.

“Loyal readers, livid as they saw owner Jeff Bezos betraying the values he was supposed to uphold, fled The Post,” Baron wrote. “In truth, they were driven away, by the hundreds of thousands."

Baron said he was grateful for Bezos' support when he was editor, noting that the Amazon founder came under brutal pressure from Trump during the president's first term.

“He spoke forcefully and eloquently of a free press and The Post's mission, demonstrating his commitment in concrete terms,” Baron wrote. “He often declared that The Post's success would be among the proudest achievements of his life. I wish I detected the same spirit today. There is no sign of it.”

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

One Franklin Square, home of the Washington Post newspaper in downtown Washington, Wednesday, February. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

FILE - A person walks into the One Franklin Square Building, home of The Washington Post newspaper, June 21, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

One Franklin Square, home of the Washington Post newspaper in downtown Washington, Wednesday, February. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

One Franklin Square, home of the Washington Post newspaper in downtown Washington, Wednesday, February. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

A sign for the Washington Post is seen at the company's offices, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A sign for the Washington Post is seen at the company's offices, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A sign for the Washington Post is seen at the company's offices, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A sign for the Washington Post is seen at the company's offices, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)