How does it feel to make your first Super Bowl, only to be considered a villain by your hometown?
More than one young Patriots player is wrestling with that reality as they prepare to face the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX Sunday.
“The whole city of Seattle is against me. It’s kind of hilarious,” New England fullback and Washington state native Jack Westover told WEEI.com at his locker.
Westover, 26, grew up in Bellevue, Washington – just across the lake from Seattle. At 14 years old, he was the perfect age for the Seahawks’ dramatic loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX to really sting. He remembers watching the game at a party with parents, at a friend’s house, while his own dad was actually there – in Arizona.
“It was heartbreaking at the time,” he admitted, and said he was a Seahawks fan growing up. “But, I’m glad to be on this side now, that’s for sure. Your whole life is surrounded by that. At the time, it probably put me in a little bit of tears.”
Some 30 miles away, at another Super Bowl party in Snohomish County, 14-year-old Efton Chism III was in his own state of shock when Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler picked off Russell Wilson to seal the Patriots’ comeback victory.
“We were all at our buddy’s house. When they threw the pass to Jermaine Kearse, it was like oh man, it could all be over here,” the Patriots wide receiver recalls. “They ran it one time, they were down at the one [yard line]. Then, all of the sudden, I remember – we were up on a balcony looking down [at the TV]. We were like…what just happened?”
Both Westover and Chism are relative newcomers to New England, joining the team in 2024 and 2025, respectively, but they’ve both earned field time in this Patriots playoff run. Westover played nearly 39% offensive snaps and 66% of special teams snaps in all three games, and recorded an 8-yard reception against the L.A. Chargers in the Wild Card. Chism, who worked his way onto the 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent, caught a pass against the Chargers for 20 yards, and returned kick-offs against both the Chargers and Houston Texans.
Eleven years after Super Bowl XLIXm Westover still feels some animosity from Seattle fans. That’s not a big surprise, considering how that one play ended the Legion of Boom’s Super Bowl appearances. Seattle has only been to the big game three times. The Butler pick is the last memory their fans have of being that close to another ring. They won in 2014, but Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and Malcolm Butler spoiled their dynastic dreams.
The Patriots, meanwhile, only had to wait seven years between bowls, and MVP-caliber quarterbacks, for their 12th (ironic number) appearance.
“It’s brutal. They say, ‘Jack, I’m rooting for you, but go Seahawks.’ Right to my face. It’s like hundreds of people,” Westover said, laughing.
But neither he, nor Chism, let the noise from their hometown get to them.
“I’m happy to be the villain, according to them,” Westover said.
“You kind of find out the people in your corner,” Chism said.
He said he’ll know a lot of people in the stands at Levi Stadium personally, and he knows many of them will be in blue, green, and silver.
“My family – they’re all wearing Pats gear,” Chism said. “My girlfriend’s family – they’re all wearing Pats gear. That’s all that matters.”