Stogie — and Super Bowl — in hand, Sam Darnold walked into the Seahawks locker room.

And right into a huge hand clasp and smile from big DeMarcus Lawrence.

The Pro Bowl quarterback holding a cigar and Pro Bowl defensive end with skiing goggles atop his head didn’t say much. They thanked and congratulated each other. Twenty NFL seasons combined. Zero Super Bowl wins.

Until now.

Darnold kept walking to his locker. Klint Kubiak was waiting there for his quarterback.

Kubiak was Darnold’s offensive coordinator and play caller two seasons ago in San Francisco. They reunited this season in Seattle.

Now Kubiak is leaving, Monday to become the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. This win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 60, 29-13 and it wasn’t that close, was Kubiak’s final game with Darnold and the Seahawks.

“Thanks for a job well done,” Darnold told Kubiak.

A few minutes later, Darnold said: “I didn’t know what else to say.”

Jaxon Smith-Njigba did. The 23-year-old wide receiver Darnold made the NFL’s offensive player of the year this season with 1,793 yards receiving shouted over the mass of people encasing Darnold in a semicircle in front of his locker.

“Put some respect on it!” Smith-Njigba said.

“We’re not here without this guy!

“Hey, look at him. Beautiful.”

Yes, the 28-year-old quarterback Seahawks legend Marshawn Lynch affectionately (we think) calls “Ginger Cuz” looked beautiful Sunday night at Levi’s Stadium.

Sam Darnold does his job

Oh, his passing numbers weren’t pretty: 19 for 38, 202 yards, a single touchdown pass. That was tight end AJ Barner early in the fourth quarter. The first TD of this beatdown by the Seahawks defense made it 19-0 Seattle.

What Darnold did was all he had to do to win the Super Bowl, given coach Mike Macdonald’s dominant defense. The NFL’s leader with 20 turnovers during the regular season did not turn the ball over against New England. Again.

That’s five straight games to end the season Darnold took care of the ball.

That’s five straight wins for the Seahawks, including overthre 49ers, Rams and now Patriots in succession to storm through the NFL’s postseason to Seattle’s second Super Bowl win in the franchise’s 50-year history.

After he posed for pictures with the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the front of the locker room, Devon Witherspoon held up an instant newspaper. Darnold was on its cover, with a huge photograph of the quarterback under the headline blaring “CHAMPIONS!”

“My dog, m***** f****** Super Bowl winner!” the three-time Pro Bowl cornerback said of Darnold.

The guy the rest of the league — particularly the Jets, Panthers and Vikings that gave up on him — thought couldn’t win the big one just won the biggest one.

Darnold wins lately. A lot. He’s 31-6 the last two seasons. He joined immortal Tom Brady as the only NFL quarterbacks to win at least 14 in consecutive seasons. Darnold is the first to do that with two different teams.

Because, you know, teams don’t usually discard 14-win quarterbacks like Minnesota did Darnold following the 2024 season.

Sam Darnold’s path to Seattle

General manager John Schneider, coach Mike Macdonald and the Seahawks pivoted to Darnold last spring, almost instantaneously after previous QB Geno Smith wanted more money after a playoff-less 2024 Seahawks season. They traded Smith, to the Raiders. They signed Darnold for three years and up to $100.5 million.

After winning the Super Bowl Sunday night, that deal is a Seattle bargain. There is already talk Darnold may get new money in a new, renegotiated deal higher toward the league’s elite QBs this coming offseason.

Macdonald said he gained a new appreciation for Darnold this past Super Bowl week in San Jose. The coach and QB were the most popular subjects, often together, in the upon days of media interviews and press conferences the Seahawks had from Sunday through Saturday before Super Bowl 60.

“I was just spending more time with Sam on all these interviews. It’s like Sam doesn’t care about the obstacle,” Macdonald said Sunday night.

“Like, everyone’s made a narrative of this guy. They have tried to put a story and a label on who he is as a person, who he is as a quarterback.”

Such as: Vindicated. That and the synonym of “redemption” for Darnold from his stints losing for the Jets and Panthers to begin his career were the themes assigned to Darnold the last seven days. They were more common than warm sun in the Bay Area this Super Bowl week.

“He does not care,” Macdonald said.

“He is the same guy every day since he showed up. He’s so steadfast. He’s a great teammate. His teammates love him.

“All he has done since he’s walked in the door has just been a tremendous player on our football team and a tremendous leader who is the same guy every day. And that’s who he is.

“And that’s how we need to talk about him moving forward.”

There was a moment after Uchenna Nwosu crossed the goal line to score a decisive touchdown late in the Super Bowl when Devon Witherspoon had a strong case for the game’s Most Valuable Player award.

The box score momentarily read that Witherspoon had just notched his second sack and forced a fumble that fell into Nwosu’s arms. Nwosu ran 45 yards and scored, making it a 29-7 game, effectively ending the New England Patriots’ slim hopes at a miracle comeback.

But the box score was corrected by NFL officials moments later, giving Nwosu the interception and taking away a sack and forced fumble from Witherspoon’s stat line. Had it held, his MVP case might have been stronger than running back Kenneth Walker, who had 161 yards from scrimmage, but wasn’t part of any touchdown plays, as Witherspoon was.

After all, the story of Sunday’s 29-13 championship triumph from the Seahawks was the defense’s domination of second-year quarterback Drake Maye. And Witherspoon’s stat line would have jumped out over Derick Hall and Byron Murphy, who each had two sacks. Maye was sacked six times, finished with a fumble and two interceptions while the Seahawks won the turnover battle 3-0.

Not that anyone with the Seahawks mind that Walker won MVP. Lifting of the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in the organization’s history, the hugs, celebratory cigars and the other once-in-a-lifetime moments at Levi’s Stadium mean far more than quibbles over box score stats and MVP cases.

But there’s little doubt Witherspoon has cemented himself as one of the best defensive backs in the NFL — and has a chance to go down as an all-time Seahawks player if he continues his current trajectory.

“He’s a walking Hall of Famer, right now,” Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “He’s a dog. He’s my favorite player in the NFL. He can do everything.”

Witherspoon had four tackles, a sack, and three quarterbacks hits, including the one on Maye that led to Nwosu’s touchdown. His sack in the first quarter ended New England’s second drive in a string that included 10 straight possessions that ended in either a punt or kneel down to end the first half.

His performance in the Super Bowl will get added to a resume that already includes three Pro Bowls in his first three seasons, and potentially a contract atop the market. The No. 5-overall pick in the 2023 draft is eligible for an extension for the first time this offseason.

“The soul of our defense, ‘Spoon is the heart of it,” safety Julian Love said. “If you know football and you watch our tape, 21 jumps off the screen every single play, every single game, every single rep. It’s just raw talent. It’s playing football the right way. He’s just a ballplayer. And he’s been that way since the first time he stepped in the building.”

The Patriots didn’t score a touchdown until early in the fourth quarter, trimming a 19-0 to 19-7. Witherspoon, and his teammates, throttled New England to the tune of 78 yards on offense through the first three quarters. They exploded for 253 in the fourth when the game was largely out of hand to finish with a respectable 331. The final number did not represent how much Seattle’s “Dark Side” controlled the game.

When relayed being called a Hall of Famer by Jones, Witherspoon said, “It means everything. Talk about a great teammate, Ernest, he’s everything to us, man. A ‘Mike’ linebacker who sets the standard for us. ... Right now, I’m just focused on the now, living in the present.”

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald dialed up more blitzes early in the game than the Seahawks typically had throughout the season. He called nine pressures, by unofficial count, in the first half. That 36% rate is nearly double their 19.3% rate from the regular season, according to Pro Football Reference.

Of course, Witherspoon’s blitzes resulted in his first-quarter sack that came on an early third down that helped set the tone of the game. And his hit on Maye that led to Nwosu’s touchdown will be remembered as a highpoint in the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory.

“I haven’t been blitzing a lot this year,” Witherspoon said. “But it was best for our team, and I’m going to do whatever I need to do for our team to win.”