‘Once in a lifetime’: The luckiest Seahawks fans celebrated from inside the stadium

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – As fireworks shot into the night sky and blue and green confetti floated down onto the field, the celebration for Seattle Seahawks fans inside Levi’s Stadium was officially on.

Fans stood and erupted in cheers as DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win” blared throughout the stadium and Seahawks players rushed the field, some throwing their helmets.

Sheer joy and pride in their team was a common feeling for fans after Seattle’s dominating 29-13 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday in Super Bowl 60. Others, like Daniel Arcand, were emotional.

“It’s just awesome,” said Arcand. “I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again. It’s once in a lifetime for me. Love it.”

Arcand, a Vancouver, Canada, resident who attended his first Super Bowl with his friend, said the game may have looked boring on TV, but the atmosphere inside the stadium was unreal. He wore a blue Seahawks Brian Bosworth jersey, showcasing his fandom since the late 1980s with his player jersey choice.

“I’m not leaving till they kick me out,” Arcand said.

Many fans stayed in the stadium to watch the trophy presentations on the field.

Some Spokane-area residents made the trip to California to see their Seahawks take home their second Super Bowl championship.

Steve Murphy, of Spokane Valley, was one of them.

“It’s crazy to be here, it’s surreal,” Murphy said. “It’s almost like it hasn’t hit yet … This was just so unexpected and it doesn’t even feel real.”

He was confident Seattle would win heading into the game, and knew the game was over when quarterback Sam Darnold connected with tight end AJ Barner to go up 19-0 in the fourth quarter.

“I quit worrying about it and tried to soak it in after that,” Murphy said.

Late in the fourth quarter, Seahawks defender Uchenna Nwosu intercepted a broken pass by Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and then ran for a touchdown to seal the game and put an exclamation point on Seattle’s suffocating defensive performance.

“That epitomized their season,” Murphy said.

Bryant Judge and his father, both of Spokane, also relished the win.

“I feel so lucky to spend this opportunity with my dad,” he said.

He said it was a fun night to be a Seahawks fan.

“I just loved how totally together this team was,” he said.

The father and son didn’t have immediate plans after the game, but figured they’d hang out and enjoy being world champions.

“I feel like the 12s showed up,” Bryant Judge said. “They brought it the whole day.”

Jackie and Jeremy Mallon, of Sammamish, Washington, said the Super Bowl was a great 20th wedding anniversary present for each other. Their actual anniversary is next month.

It was the second Seahawks Super Bowl title Jeremy Mallon has witnessed in person.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I thought we had a chance at the beginning of the season. I don’t think anyone else did, but I always believe.”

The Mallons, Seahawks season-ticket holders and Washington State University fans, said they always fear the worst when watching their teams play. But, Jeremy Mallon said , he eventually settled down when he realized Seattle was pulling away.

“I’m always on edge, but towards the end, I go, ‘We’re gonna win this. Relax,’ ” he said.

Thousands of Seahawks and Patriots fans packed a tailgating area – eating, drinking and enjoying the music and festivities – hours before kickoff Sunday. Terry and Bryant Judge were two of them.

They weren’t planning on going to the Super Bowl until Thursday when Bryant Judge’s brother-in-law, Mitchell Gunsolus, a Seahawks season-ticket holder, offered the father and son his tickets.

Bryant Judge, finance director at Innovia Foundation, said it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up with his father.

“This is just one of those special experiences we get to share together,” he said.

They booked flights, hotels and were off.

“We just kind of made the plan super quickly, and now we’re here,” he said.

He said it still felt unreal a few hours before kickoff.

Terry Judge, CEO of Hotstart thermal management manufacturing company in Spokane Valley, got choked up listening to his son describe his experience before the game.

“It hasn’t quite soaked in yet,” the elder Judge said.

Sam Herrick, a 2000 WSU graduate who lives in Issaquah, Washington, and his friends enjoyed the tailgate festivities.

Herrick drove down with friends in an RV starting late Friday night and camped out in the Bay Area.

“The Bay Area is pretty awesome,” said Herrick, who’s been a Seahawks fan for four decades and was attending his first Super Bowl.

Neil Munden has been Herrick’s friend since the first grade and was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base in the early 2000s. He was thrilled for the game.

“Once we got through the ticket line, I started shaking a little bit,” he said.

He loved that the Seahawks were playing at Levi’s Stadium, home of the division-rival San Francisco 49ers.

“We’re gonna go down and take pictures in the end zone so we can share with all of our Niner buddies,” Munden said.

Murphy, a longtime Seahawks season-ticket holder and fan since the early 1980s, flew down Friday with his friend, Bob Castle, who he credited for the tickets. Another one of Murphy’s friends, a pilot, got him a free flight to the Bay Area.

“So, free trip to watch the Seahawks at the Super Bowl in the closest venue, 49ers venue, how could I not?” Murphy said Saturday from the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. “I mean, it’s overdone to say ‘dream trip,’ but this is an unbelievable trip.”

The convention center hosted Super Bowl events and experiences for fans leading up to the game Sunday.

Murphy and Castle capped off Saturday night attending the San Francisco-St. Mary’s college basketball game in Moraga, California. Gonzaga will travel to both teams’ home arenas later this month to battle their West Coast Conference rivals.

At the basketball game, Murphy said he and Castle, both wearing their Seahawks jerseys, were shown on the big screen and were booed “mercilessly” from fans.

Murphy said he then held his Gonzaga hat up for fans to see on the screen and the boos continued, which made him laugh.

He said Saturday he was a bit overwhelmed by the experience leading up to the Super Bowl.

“We’re talking about this in the car,” Murphy said. “We’ve been to Final Fours and been to minor -league championships. I’ve been to all kinds of sporting events, thousands of them, but this is the biggest sporting event in the world, right?”

Meanwhile, Robert Heffner, of Bothell, Washington, joined his sons and grandchildren at Levi’s Stadium for another Super Bowl.

Heffner has brought his family to all four Super Bowls involving the Seahawks, including the last one between Seattle and New England in 2015 when Patriots defender Malcolm Butler intercepted Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s pass at the goal line to end the game.

Butler rang a Patriots bell prior to Sunday’s Super Bowl, perhaps a not-so-friendly reminder for Seahawks fans before they watched the game.

Many believe Seattle should have run the ball in the 2015 Super Bowl so close to the goal line with powerful running back Marshawn Lynch, who went by the nickname “Beastmode.”

“We were at the (Super) Bowl in 2015 with the whole family when the worst play in sports history was called, and so we said we’re not going to miss it this year,” Heffner said.

Heffner’s love for the Seahawks goes back to the 1980s when he was a student athletic trainer for the team for six summer training camps in Cheney and Kirkland. He would return to Boise State where he graduated and was an athletic trainer for its football team.

He remembers going to downtown Spokane bars and restaurants, like Clinkerdagger and the Onion during those Seahawks camps.

He was around Seahawks greats like Kenny Easley, Jim Zorn and Steve Largent, the latter of whom raised the 12th Man flag before the game Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.

“Kenny was really, really fun when he first came in from UCLA,” Heffner said.

He even taped the ankles – or at least tried to – of Seattle players, like John Yarno, an Idaho great who was born and raised in Spokane.

“John came into the training room, and got up to get his ankles taped and he said, ‘Where you from?’ ” Heffner said. “I said, ‘Boise State.’ He said, ‘You’re not taping my ankles.’ ”

Seattle fans appeared to dominate the crowd noise Sunday, but halftime performer Bad Bunny also received some applause from fans.

Arcand said the performance was “good.”

“It was better than I was expecting,” said Arcand, 45.

Murphy said it was fine, but he was “here for football.”