Super Bowl 2026: Will Matthew Stafford retire if Rams win it all?

chicago — We’ve seen these movies before, or at least most of them.

With the NFL’s conference championship games set — the Rams in Seattle after New England in Denver — three of the four possible Super Bowl permutations are rematches.

Rams Patriots? There were two of those, at the end of the 2001 and 2018 seasons.

Seattle has played both sets, beating the Broncos in the 2013 season and losing to the Patriots a year later.

Of the four possibilities, the only one that didn’t happen was the Rams Broncos.

There are strong ownership ties linking these two franchises. Among his many sports properties, Rams owner Stan Kroenke also owns the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. Although he built his empire through real estate and as a developer, he is married to Anne Walton Kroenke — of the Walmart family — and is a cousin of Rob Walton, who led the group that bought the Broncos in 2022.

The Broncos last won the Super Bowl 10 years ago, weeks after the Rams were agreed to return to Los Angeles, and it happened at Levi’s Stadium, the site of this year’s game. That’s when Peyton Manning won his second ring, with his second franchise, and then called it a career.

There is a possibility that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford could follow this scheme. He’s on his second team, after spending the first part of his career with Detroit, and already has one ring. But while Manning was clearly in the twilight of his career, Stafford is still at the top of his game and will likely be the best player in the NFL this season.

However, Stafford will turn 38 the day before the Super Bowl, and it wouldn’t be a huge curveball if this was his last game, especially if the Rams win.

Rams tight end Terrance Ferguson is from Littleton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, and Broncos general manager George Patton is from La Cañada and played football at Loyola High and UCLA.

If the Seahawks win the NFC title — and oddsmakers have them as 2 1/2-point favorites — they will look to repeat against Denver or atone for that painful loss to New England.

At MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, remember, Seattle upset Manning and the Broncos, 43-8, behind a stifling defense. Pete Carroll’s team looked unbeatable.

A year later in Arizona, it was one of the most painful moments in Seattle sports history.

With 20 seconds remaining and the Seahawks within a yard of the go-ahead point, Patriots rookie Malcolm Butler He received a pass from the goal line By Russell Wilson. Seattle inexplicably decided to punt instead of handing it to Rams slugger Marshawn Lynch, who was automatic in short-yardage situations.