OverDrive - Willson on who has the physical edge in Super Bowl LX, his own experience in the Super Bowl, and what to expect on Sunday

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

TSN Football Analyst Luke Willson discusses who has the physical edge in Super Bowl LX, recapping the wild Super Bowl XLIX final sequence, and what to expect from the Patriots and Seahawks on Sunday.

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Jamie Noodles, McLean, Luke Wilson. Just explain what you just did. Yeah, because I'm pretty sure your mic was on. Yes. I thought our boy Al Roker just bought by. I swear it was him. If Al Roker is here, Dugie, you have to get him on the set. He will.

Mark Davis, the owner of the Vegas Raiders, and Al Roker, we have to have them. One and one A. Yes, I would take them over Darnold and Drake May. Yeah. Like, if we had an option to interview both quarterbacks for Al Roker and Mark Davis. Dude, you get a green screen with Al Roker with a fake umbrella? Yes. I'm all in.

Outrageous numbers. We got a top list of who we'd like to see around here. Yeah. Mark Davis was number one. We'd like to see. We're going to go to P.F. Chang's here. Really? Mine would be John Gruden.

I saw him last night. Yeah, yeah. He's around. So I saw him last night. I was having lunch. I still got his cell from what I was, you know. So I shot him at Dex. I said, I just want to say you're the most electric man on television.

He's phenomenal. He said, thanks. Look, I appreciate. I hope to see you around. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

He is intense. Well, the reason we brought up Mark Davis is because we were talking about this Tom Brady stuff, where Brady, I guess, has gone on the record or did some interview and said he doesn't have a dog in the fight. So people in New England, including former teammates, are going nuts on them. Which I thought, I don't have any problem with the... With Brady or with the reaction of Brady? No, with the Brady comment. Like, why should he?

He doesn't know anybody on the team. He knows Rabel, sure, but there's some ties there. like it's not the same staff. Totally agree, man. People have asked me about Seattle this week. I want Seattle to win, but I want them to win strictly because they're playing New England

and what happened to us for the fans of Seattle. Am I like going to feel some sort of like we won a Super Bowl hopefully when Seattle wins? No. Like all of my teammates,

Jaron Reed actually is one guy did play with. I'll be happy for Jaron. All the guys that I was tight with are not on the team. The entire staff is different. I'll absolutely be thrilled for the front office. I'll absolutely be

thrilled for, you know, the equipment guys. They're all the same. But like, I'm pulling for him. I'm not like, let's go. Right. Is that, that makes me a bad guy? No, I think it speaks to your connection to, like, once the connections are gone, now, I think, again, a part of the argument is that

Vrabel is a connection to Brady. Fair. Right? And it's like, how are you not rooting for Vrabel? I think, again, I don't care enough about any of this stuff. Right, right. But my impression was, a lot of the former teammates were defensive guys saying, how are you not rooting for Vrable? Vrable's our guy.

They love Rable. K.J. Wright, he's coaching in San Fran right now. K.J. Wright came back and was coaching a head coach. Or he was coaching the Seahawks. Yes. And you were like, I don't care. You'd be like, well. If Pete was still there?

If Pete was still there right now, I'd have on both my single ring. You'd have a connection. Yes. But that's the relationship. So I'm with you on that. Like, if he has a relationship on Brable, with Brable? I just don't think it's, who cares of a former player? I get it, it's Tom Brady.

The guy says I don't have a dog in the fight. I can't believe the snapping that some guys are doing. Yeah, I would agree. And, like, he is in the national media. You know, he calls games. He's obviously not calling this one, but, like, what do you want him to cheerlead for New England? That's what I said. If two years from now, New England's back in there against somebody else,

and he's calling the game, you know that clip is going to go viral. like, I want, you know, I want New England to win. Like, people will be pissed if it's Green Bay or something like that. Yeah. I get it. I just, you know, I think there's so much fake outrage. Like, you really think those players are like, oh, you know. I find that hard to believe.

Yeah, I find it hard to believe. And listen, Brady's a different beast, though. Yeah. Like, anything he says, people respond to it. He's got a different orbit, and he's, you know, he's in a different world. So if they win, if Seattle wins, you don't, you're not calling for a ring around. We've had this argument before. Should the alumni get a ring?

Would the alumni and that? I'm going to send the first guy I'll send a text to. His name's Eric Kennedy. Goes by E.K., he's been there for, I'm going to guess, 30 years now, and he's the head equipment guy. I call him a Seattle Seahawks Godfather. Mentor to me, like, I'll shoot E.K. a text right away.

Congratulations him. Yeah. I'm then going to send a text to a gentleman by name of Trent Kirchner, who's the assistant GM. Guy, again, look up to you. I'll send John a note. And after that, you know, I'll trickle through a minute of sports science, a couple guys like that,

and that's about it. And I generally will feel great for them, but, like, I don't have a connection with anybody on the staff. Yeah. You know, I actually saw a coach on their staff the other day, and he's an assistant to an assistant, but he was on the sideline, and it, like, sent a shiver down my spine

because he was on the Detroit staff when I was there, and I thought he was utter numpy. And I'm like, oh! He's coaching on this team. He's about to get a ring. Yeah. Yeah, so he won't be getting a text. I'll tell you that.

Who do you like on Sunday in the physicality department? Because I know you've talked about it in the past. Both defenses. Like, I'm not on this train and this, I hope you give it to us. We have a chat tomorrow. Give it to us. I am not on this train that this is going to be a blowout. Like, I am on this train that New England is a very fundamentally strong team

with a lot of very hard-nosed good football players. And again, I'll go back to my time with the Legion of Boom. Everyone wants to talk about what happened, what happened after we went to two. Beyond some of the drama we had, what also happened was we lost a lot of fundamental players. Like, I don't know how you'd call them in hockey. Not the stars, but the guys that are just below the stars that are epic, epic football players. Right. We couldn't afford to pay them because we had to pay the stars.

Like, I look at New England, it's a team full of guys who are just straight-up ball players, especially on defense. So I think New England's defense is very, very good. And I think Seattle's defense is obviously elite. And both of those are going to be very physical units. Well, Al's brother actually sent me a text. And like 70% of the bets are coming in on Seattle. Really? Which is a little bit interesting, like that there's such a public favorite.

You know, like you'd understand that when Kansas City was in, when the Patriots were in. Like it was just a natural public favorite because everyone knows them. And I'm putting five bucks down. of putting 10 bucks. I'm going to bet on the team I know better. It's still four and a half. Well, that's what I was about to get to, yet the spread isn't moving. Like, are you surprised it's stayed at four and a half? I think it's going to be four and a half by kickoff.

I don't see it moving much. Yeah, I don't see it moving much. I think part of why New England is not getting much many bets is that they're just a very hateable team. Why? Why? Because it won so much. They're winning, yeah, they're jealous.

You know, and it's like, it's not the most, and I respect it. the way they do it but it's not the most entertaining style of play you know you look at Vrable last two weeks ago in the championship game the third down just roll out and throw it a mile out of bounds you know the next third down they run wide zone like we're playing old school ball we don't care what it looks like we're here to win where you know not a lot of people love watching that so that's where it gets a little funky I actually quite enjoy it like I love the minutia that goes through Vrabel's mind.

Again, I mean, if I'm gambling, I'm going for Seattle, but that's who I'm pulling for. Yeah. But I don't, doesn't surprise me, no one's rooting for New England. And all the cheating back in the day. Well, I mean, that's been a big topic of discussion, obviously with the Hall of Fame and Belichick not getting in, and then Robert Kraft didn't get in on his first chance. So another one that annoys me with that is like this idea of cheating, in the NFL, cheating, And the sense that, you know, Belichick was doing it, has been going on forever.

It goes on in college. Now they do it better than everyone else. What's SpyGate? SpyGate? Like, trying to look at signals. Like, we would do this in college. We actually, our coach did a skit where, like, we'd have scouts or, like, GA's running the stadium to make sure nobody's hiding in our press box trying to watch us. This is a Rice Plan Yusin.

What do you think it's like when you're playing the NFL? When we play New England, due to SpyGate, this is no BS. I don't know if this is legit or not, but we'd go. We were practicing, I think, Arizona State. And, like, we'd go in our locker room and, like, seven or eight guys would be leaving. And they're looking around. We had heard Paul Allen hire an X-CIA team to make sure nothing was bugged in our locker. Like, sweep it.

Sweep the room. Like, guys would be in there doing this. And that's true. And it's like, and, again, we're all wondering, like, who are these people? They're like, room's clear. Because they're looking. Rooms clear. We got that kind of money, and there's any possible anxiety of.

about it. Why not? Why not? Why not? They were sleeping? How loud? It's like CIA's in there. Go. Yeah. Go. Do not. I mean, we all saw what happened. It comes down to one play. You know, if you know the play, which they did know the play, not due to cheating. You never know.

You know what's funny? And sometimes I do wonder, when they're like, man, we practice play all year. We ran all the time. I'm like, did we run it all the time? Right. I have wondered why Well, Butler jumped Like it was as if

He had something in his Be like, go, go, go There is a little closure for me this week that I was like I had no idea And I saw an NFL film's thing And it still sucks But it almost made me feel like a tad bit better Was the guy

Who was at the point on that infamous plate Was Brandon Browner Who jammed Jermaine Curse and Butler could kind of go run Yeah Browner played for us the year before and got into some troubles, let's say, and didn't finish the season with us. And he was known as being one of the greatest press corners in the game.

So I remember when I was digesting it, and for the last 10 years, I've been like, why would we run a route where Browner could press the point? Right. Well, I didn't realize that basically Browner was supposed to be where Malcolm Butler was, and Malcolm Butler is supposed to be covering Germain-Curson man. and Browner picked up what was going on and switched live. Wow. So Browner was like, yo, you take him.

You got to give credit where it's due, especially like a high-octane moment like that. I saw that and I was like, this makes way more sense on why we thought this would work. And then, yeah. Is there like a dock on this, that one play? There's an NFL film. Well, I said that on the one play. Yeah, there's another crazy thing. Maybe the crazier play.

Not crazy. back. I take that back. But the most unsung play of that Super Bowl was the play before. And if you guys, we're in the huddle, curse makes a catch. It's first and goal from the 6th. We call wide zone to the tight end. I'm the tight end

noodles. So I remember sitting there and I'm like I got to do my job here. Like, this is going in. Yeah. I'm trying to get horizontal. This is the decent house. Try and get horizontal and vertical movement. Basically move them on diagonal. Don't get being side. I come do-do-do. I get enough movement. I'm like,

This should go. This should go. Marchon cuts it right inside. High Tower, presses Russell O'Cong, who is their tackle off him, and plays underneath. Fundamentally,

it is the most insane idea to ever do this. Playing underneath, being like he slots under while Marcia's going there. He basically does it, sticks his shoulder in there, and trips Marcia's ankle

and lands at the one. Really? And I finally saw as Brian Flores is talking about it, and a couple of their coaches because they're on the staff being like, this is one of the best plays I've ever seen. And it gets lost in the soul thing. Was that pure instinct?

Pure instinct? Because it's interesting you say like Browner and Butler switched. Would Belichick be aware of that? Or the players, like, it just seems like, Belichick would be like, you're not, you don't have the power to just do that. Like, how do you have the power to do that? Because I don't know how this thing was edited.

Especially on the goal line of the Super Bowl. And if they switch and it ends up going in. Exactly. If you switched up and you misread the plan, it's like, wait a minute, what the hell? Like, how dare you do that to the call I've already put in for like defensive alignment? It was bizarre. Yeah, that's crazy. To make things worse, boys, when Marchand landed on that one, I vividly remember thinking even better.

They're either going to burn their time out or more times coming off the clock. Right, and not giving Brady the ball back. I can go back to that moment, like sitting there and being like, oh, wow, I'm so glad he got stopped. with the one. That was how you felt because it's like we're not, we've got three downs a one yard. Yeah, you're getting in. Yeah. So anyway. So Luke Wilson with us. We're live Radio Row

in San Francisco. The game planning, like there's so much that goes into it. Mike McDonald said recently, like he sees his kid 30 minutes a week. I saw it. Which I find crazy. Like you can't find more than 30 minutes. You're coaching so hard.

Yeah. That like you have to be at the facility. But how much of a, like, How many new plays are you even implementing in a Super Bowl? How much allowance are you having to go off script when the script itself got you to the Super Bowl? So how does that work? Yeah, every week in the NFL, you install, you reinstall your entire playbook every single week. But you have to use plays every single week that are still in there. It's not so much, there will be repeats.

And like, someone's like, all right, like, for us, we were a West Coast offense. so I'll do like real simple ones, but like double right two jet Aggie. Aggie, the AG, so if you hear double right, two jet, all go. Double right, two jets, the protection, all go. But now we can run Aggie out of five different ways. So it'd be like, here's our Aggie thing. It would be like, here's Dice Right Aggie, here's Double Right Aggie, here's Trips left, Y, right, Aggie.

Here's Aggie snap. Here's Aggie X delay. So like that's where it gets like, hey, this week we're going to run Aggie. but then on top of that, we really think that this corner is going to play soft, so we want the extra delay. And that's like the wrinkle for the install. So now all of a sudden it's like, again,

and I'm being a bit dramatic, but we have six different versions of Aggie, and now we haven't even gone to personnel. Here's 12 personnel Aggie. Hey, we're going to scatter a bunch left, then go Y right, Aggie out of 21 personnel because we like the matchup that they put in. I know this sounds like crazy,

but it's actually not as... Once you get what Aggie means, it's not as complex as I'm making it sounds. It's just adjustments, like progressions. Progressions, adjustments, like what gets weird for Seattle and with Eamon Worry's injury, and it sounds like he's going to play, but Seattle doesn't

match defenses, and boys, I love the ball talk. Tell me if it's too much. No, you're getting heavy, but we love it. We love it. Super Bowl week. Yeah, yeah, I love it. So... Don't you think Super Bowl week or Super Bowl the actual game is a great time for like the Philly special play. Yes.

Some kind of goofy like just out of this world play. Well, I love it. The Onside kick, right? Like one of the more famous plays of all time. Now's the time to do it. I think so, man. We always just say, you know, I'd play if it's a Super Bowl or we do if it's we need to win the Super Bowl.

It's like, it was a very weird moment where you're like, it is the Super Bowl. Like the saying you've said your whole life, it applies right now. Right. But it's almost a game of chicken where you're. saying because both sides are like, who's got the stones to do that? Like, are they actually going to try it? Yes. And, well, apparently that Philly special, Foles went up to our board there.

He asked for it. I've seen that. Yeah. And said, let's try it. And obviously, they tried it and it worked out. If you try it and it doesn't work out, is Nick Foles getting cut or is the O.C. getting fired? Is the head coach going down in flames?

I think there's, but you got to put it on the line, man. There's a balance of how good you feel about it. and there's a balance of, like, how the game is going, you know? But it would not surprise me if we saw some wrinkles in this game, especially out of New England. Like, if this ends up being a game where it's 17 to 10, it's a grind, and New England's struggling to move the football, you've got to pull it out.

You've got to pull it out. Yeah. Well, that's it, man. I mean, we spent two weeks trying to predict how it's going to play out. And I get the impression most people see it, similarly, like close game, good defense and special teams are going to factor in significantly. Take the under. We might. We'll find out tomorrow, man.

Don't mess with them. Don't start to stay humble, man. Let me ask you, is there a blowout opportunity? Like, what's the percentage, many Jerry's percentages on a blowout? What do you go blow? How many points? 14, two touchdowns plus. 1%.

1% chance. You think it's going to be tight. Because you guys, like, going into your first Super Bowl against Denver, it was like 1% chance. This guy called this old man and said, don't worry, pops were winning in the Super Bowl. I swear to you. I swear to you. But what if, like, that's what I'm saying, though. What if, like, Hunter Henry right now is saying, I'm telling you we're going to win this 3610?

I think he's wrong. We'll see. Okay. I think this game has, the stat that worries me. Okay. Both teams need to run the football. Seattle has not averaged yards per carry. I think they're 25th on yards per carry.

They don't run the ball super efficiently. They did twice against San Francisco to end the year. Again, the L.A. Rams game, Seattle's average rush was 2.9 yards. The Rams have a very weak secondary. They've got shredded all year. New England does not have that. New England's secondary is not that. So if Seattle cannot run the football efficiently,

they're not going to score a ton of points. On the flip side. Seattle was number one on defense in the league at yards per rush given up. So again, with the problems they're having with Will Campbell at the left tackle, the problems Drake May is having with the pressure, if New England can't run the football, this has straight Greece special teams game written all over it. I hear you.

But I know, listen, I'm not predicting a blowout. Yeah, yeah. I would say it's a higher percentage chance. I feel like the general public would suggest if there was going to be a blowout, it's Seattle blown out New England. but again, I look at Darnold. You're not a Darnold guy. A couple of picks.

A couple of Picks sixes and it gets carried away and all of a sudden you're like, you're in a dark place. Dude, I think the fact you're even dreaming up Picks Sixes, it's just, it's too, it's too crazy. It can happen though. I'm just saying it can happen. You get a fumble six. I'll tell you what's tough for me right now.

Something like that. After speaking with Hayes last night, we had dinner. I actually made him feel the same way about this game. This is where you're wrong. I see the game the way I see the game. You happen to see it. That's not great. I happen to see it.

I think Seattle wins, but I'm terrified of the turnovers. Because to further your point... New England's been great at it. New England's back end is very confusing. They don't really play. They play this weird coverage. They don't show it. It's very hard to pinpoint what they're actually rolling into.

So if we get to one of these greasy games and we're struggling with run the ball and there's some frustration. and all of a sudden, whoop, there's a pick. It ain't going to be good. Watch yourself. Watch yourself. Because you can bet all that stuff on Fandole, like a team to win by 14,

a team to win by 20. You know, you can predict the score. Like, that's where the crazy odds get there. Like, the weird, like a fumble out of nowhere. A helmet hits a hand. Like, that's the, you know. How do you control it? You know, like everyone says it.

Like, got to control the ball. Got to watch the turnovers. The bills would have been hammering that for a while. week and they had five turnovers in a game. Yes. Right. So you can say it all you want and you can do everything you can, but if you don't get the protection or protection, you're in trouble.

Somebody can just have a bad day. Like a team can have a bad day. And it happens to be on the Super Bowl day. And that's what... I would say that Denver had, you know, I thought we're, I've told you guys this, I thought we would smoke Denver. But I would also say like Denver had a brutal, like you start the game with a ball over.

A safety immediately. Yes. You know, you gave up a kick return touchdown. Right. You know, that's not what they're known for. Yeah. You're spotting us nine points against the Legion of Boom. Trouble.

With the ball in your hand, too. Can't return that a safety and a punch. That's trouble. You have to work for it, really, and then you're like, okay. That's trouble. And we had the fumble six, so they spotted us points, like the turnover. Yeah. Like, just kept going.

Correct. It's like he's giving us points, boys. We'll appreciate it. It wasn't good. Well, tomorrow's a big day. Alice Brother, we believe we'll be a part of the program tomorrow, right? If he walks up here and he's here, it'll make my life. If he did a little tumble and fell into this step.

Like a Chris Farley coming out of the back or something. I think it would honestly shut this place down. What I would love is he showed up like beforehand and set up his own table in there with the cards. With the cards. With the cards. Yes. A card show. He could become the official card guy of the NFL.

We need house brown. I have to say, if he set up a card table over there, I would go like this. I think it's even further. I think it's half cards, half discounts on cruises. It would be a difficult one. You're right. He could do the whole thing, man. Charcutteries, cards, everything, man.

We're caught a locker, baby. What's up, big dog? Let's go. Hey. You're doing all right? I like that. You got to stay for the interview. Stay and stay with us.

Yeah. All right. Where you going right now? Never dies. All right. Luke Wilson around. Well, I don't know if you're staying going. We don't know, man.

We're at Super Bowl. It's crazy around here. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is bromance.

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