The Seahawks are bringing in reinforcements at running back for Super Bowl LX.
Two running backs on Seattle’s practice squad, Cam Akers and Velus Jones Jr., were elevated to the active roster for Sunday against the Patriots.
With running back Zach Charbonnet out because of a knee injury, Seattle wants to make sure it has plenty of options to run the ball on Sunday. Kenneth Walker III will start at running back and George Holani will be Walker’s backup.
Akers hasn’t carried the ball a single time for the Seahawks this season, but he does have Super Bowl experience, having played for the Rams when they beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl after the 2021 season.
Jones was most recently active for the Seahawks in their divisional round win over the 49ers, carrying six times for 10 yards.
Fans who waited until the last minute to buy their Super Bowl tickets are finding some bargain-basement prices — at least by Super Bowl standards.
Ticket sites are now listing cheap seats for less than $4,000, which is a lot of money for most sporting events but represents a significant drop over the last two weeks.
Thirteen days ago, when the Patriots and Seahawks won their conference championship games to earn their spots in the Super Bowl, the cheapest seats available were about $6,500.
According to TicketData.com, tickets to the Super Bowl are now less than tickets to last month’s College Football National Championship Game.
Tom Brady may be changing his tune about having no dog in the fight between the Patriots and Seahawks at Super Bowl LX.
Brady, who won six Super Bowls with the Patriots and one with the Buccaneers, said this week that he had no rooting interest because he’s no longer with the Patriots. But Brady posted an Instagram story on Friday with a picture of himself and Patriots owner Robert Kenneth Kraft in which he said he wants Kraft to get another ring to match the seven that Brady has.
“You know I got your back RKK,” Brady wrote. “Get that 7th ring so we can match.”
Brady took plenty of criticism, including from former Patriots teammates, for his comment that he wasn’t going to be a Patriots fan while watching the Super Bowl. Perhaps his Instagram post is an attempt at softening that criticism, as the Patriots attempt to win their first Super Bowl without Brady.
The Associated Press informed the 50 voters for the various NFL awards that, after the announcement of the winners, the ballots would be disclosed. The AP ultimately chose not to do it.
We asked the AP about the decision to refrain from revealing the ballots.
“We’ve given out the AP NFL Awards for many years, and sometimes we try new approaches,” AP director of media and corporate communications Patrick Maks said via email to PFT. “For example, last year for the first time we released individual voter ballots. This year for the first time we worked with a third party to tabulate votes. As ever, there are no restrictions on voters revealing their individual ballots after the awards are announced, if they choose to do so.”
Last year, the ballots were disclosed even though the voters were not informed in advance that it would happen.
The AP also did not release the full tabulation of points for the awards, opting to list the top five and, where applicable, any others who received first-place votes.
For 2025, the MVP vote was the closest it had been since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair shared the award in 2023. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford finished with 24 first-place votes and 366 points. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye secured 23 first-place votes and 361 points.
A first-place vote counts as 10 points, a second-place vote is worth five, a third-place vote equates to three points, a fourth-place vote is worth two points, and a fifth-place vote counts for one.
Two first-place votes went to Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who finished third. One first-place vote went to Chargers quarterback Justin Hebert, who did not finish in the top five.
Sam Monson disclosed (possibly while under the impression that all votes would be revealed by the AP) that he gave Herbert the first-place vote.
Without full disclosure of all ballots, it’s impossible to pinpoint the specific decision(s) that may have swung the final MVP outcome away from Maye and toward Stafford.
Regardless, transparency is good. Last year, the AP applied full transparency. This year, the AP did not. Next year, who knows?
Whether and to what extent the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s selection process changes in the aftermath of the Bill Belichick snub remains to be seen. For now, however, the Hall of Fame will be making a pair of important procedural tweaks.
In a Friday phone conversation with PFT, Hall of Fame President & CEO Jim Porter said the annual selection meeting will happen on an in-person basis in 2027. During the COVID pandemic, the meeting switched to a virtual gathering of voters. It has remained that way.
He also said the selection meeting and final voting will occur closer in time to the announcement of the annual class of Hall of Famers. This year, the meeting and voting were held on January 13.
Porter initially made these disclosures in a Thursday night interview with Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.
Ideally, the annual selection meeting will happen early in Super Bowl week, when most if not all of the voters will already be present in the host city. Then, the new Hall of Famers can be revealed during the NFL Honors ceremony, on Thursday night.
If nothing else, a tighter timeline will limit the opportunity for leaks. Beyond that, the in-person discussion and debate could be more meaningful and efficient than an all-day Zoom call with 50 different voters participating.
