SAN JOSE, Calif. — Welcome to The Dark Side of the Boom.

Eleven years after the Seahawks rode their iconic “Legion of Boom” secondary to back-to-back Super Bowls and won a championship, the franchise is returning to the big game in no small part because of rebuilding a back end of the defense that has brains where their predecessors had brawn.

“There’s one Legion of Boom and we know that,” safety Julian Love said. “A lot of those guys are still around [the team] and we get a lot of inspiration from them, but we’re not them. We know who we are. We carry ourselves way differently than those legends. We are trying to create an identity for ourselves.”

The 2025 Seahawks defense is self-nicknamed “The Dark Side” — a persona that began up front with the veteran linemen and grew to encompass all three levels.