Life as Super Bowl-winning coach is good for Mike Macdonald

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, July 15, 2026

STATELINE, Nev. — Mike Macdonald swears his life hasn’t changed since he became a Super Bowl winner five months ago.

The Seattle Seahawks coach said that on Friday as he overlooked the majestic Edgewood Golf Course, next to Lake Tahoe, with a crowd waiting to watch him and others play in the celebrity-laden American Century Championship.

“I grew up watching the tournament and you never really thought you’d be in a position to be able to play in it,” Macdonald said. “I grew up playing with my dad, and so those are like our best memories, and we played the majority of my life. I never played competitively and I didn’t play much once I started coaching, but I was able to get back on the course a few times this year.”

With his dad, Hugh, in attendance, Macdonald went on to finish 38th (out of 90) at the tournament. The Seahawks start training camp in 10 days and everything will return to normal.

Actually … it hasn’t been that different.

“You get to do things like this, which is pretty cool, but … you don’t feel any different winning the Super Bowl,” Macdonald said. “I mean, it’s a blessing. It’s really cool, but you just go on about your life.

“People know it’s pretty historic and there’s not many people to get that opportunity to do it — and that’s special — but I’ve got an 18-month-old kid at home, and that’s where most of our attention is. He doesn’t really care that we won this Super Bowl.”

While Jack Macdonald is starting to develop a personality, he will also be joined by a sister soon enough. His dad and his mom, Stephanie, are pretty happy, and they do get a kick out of how people are happy to see them. A solid throng of Seahawks fans was in attendance in Lake Tahoe over the weekend and Macdonald happily signed autographs and posed for selfies with them.

“The 12s are everywhere and everybody has been super nice,” Macdonald said. “It reminds you why we do it, right? You bring people together and bring joy to people’s lives and you have the team that you’re proud of and you love going to work with. There’s nothing any better than that.”

How do Macdonald and the Seahawks get that feeling again? How is he preparing his team to try to repeat?

“It’s kind of just like last year. We never really won anything going into last year and so we really focused on who we wanted to be and how we wanted to do things,” Macdonald said. “Now, the circumstances have changed, but the focus is still on who you want to be and to do things every day and keep evolving.

“We want to keep growing without feeling like we’re defending anything. If you go into it thinking, ‘Hey, we want to defend this,’ then you’re thinking about the result rather than the process.”

Macdonald said he has watched the Super Bowl just once since beating the Patriots 29-13. (He went viral Friday for saying that he got some help preparing for that game from a secret someone with “a conflict of interest,” but later added that no, it wasn’t Tom Brady.)

He said “a million things had to go right” for the Seahawks last season, and that’s why he doesn’t spend much time worrying about how tough his division, the NFC West, is. He is vaguely aware that it’s tougher this season with the Rams trading for reigning defensive player of the year Myles Garrett and the 49ers signing veteran wide receiver Mike Evans.

“Every team is going to grow every year, that’s just the way the NFL goes,” Macdonald said. “We don’t play them tomorrow, so I’m not really worried about them right now.”

So, no reaction to those moves?

“No reaction,” Macdonald said. “I mean, look, those are great players, and they’re doing what they do. It probably feels like that’s what’s best for their teams, what they need to do, and that’s good. When it’s time to play those guys, we’ll be ready and put together a game plan and go rock and roll.”

The 39-year-old Macdonald loves that process, starting with sorting through the data and finding the best way to attack teams with different defensive coverages.

“They have to beat us, and our players had some great resolve last season,” Macdonald said.

He does acknowledge that the NFC West features three of the best teams in the NFL.

“It’s an interesting dynamic because of the way that we’ve gone back and forth, and it all evolved pretty quickly over two years,” Macdonald said. “There is a lot of carryover and some great play callers. … Mike LaFleur is going to do a great job, too, and it’s gonna be interesting to see what the Cardinals do because of his diverse background and how they build it. They’ve got some great players, too.”

One day after the Seahawks and Patriots open the NFL season in a Super Bowl rematch, the 49ers and Rams get their own spotlight game 16 hours away in Australia …

“Yeah, I don’t care,” Macdonald said. “Don’t care. If you start worrying about what everybody else is doing, it’s just mentally taxing. It’s so much easier if you don’t.

“Let’s just worry about the Seahawks and being the best version of ourselves and getting better every day.”

And with that, the new celebrity smiled, shook hands and got back to enjoying a special weekend with his family and sun-tanned golf fans.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.