Nazareth Academy's Julian Love, star safety for the Seahawks, will have Chicago on his mind at Super Bowl LX

SAN JOSE, Calif. — If just one more thing had gone the Bears’ way and they’d made it to the NFC Championship Game in Seattle, Seahawks safety Julian Love’s phone would’ve melted down from friends and family members looking for tickets.

Love grew up in Logan Square, played at Nazareth Academy and still lives in the Chicago area in the offseason, and he would’ve seen right through all the requests to come out west and root for the hometown hero. He’s heard it all before.

“Everybody loves me and cheers for me, but it’s always been one of those situations where they’ll say, ‘I hope you get a pick, but I hope the Bears win,’” Love said Tuesday. "Chicago fans are very to the point. That’s my cousins, family friends, all the kids I played with growing up.

“There would’ve been a lot of uncomfortable conversations. I’m sure they’d be asking for tickets ‘to support me,’ but they might be wearing their Bears gear. I’m very aware.”

Instead, the Rams edged the Bears in overtime last month, and Love’s Seahawks toppled them to earn a spot in Super Bowl LX on Sunday against the Patriots. It’s a career highlight for Love after persevering through seemingly nonstop ups and downs in seven seasons.

He and his wife Julia, his high school sweetheart, have joked for years that he’s a “permanent underdog” because new doubters seem to pop up at every turn.

After winning Sun-Times Football Player of the Year in 2015, he was a highly rated cornerback out of Notre Dame in the 2019 draft, but slipped to the Giants in the fourth round as teams hesitated on whether he’d fit at cornerback or safety in the NFL.

He clawed his way up their depth chart to become a full-time starter by the end of his fourth season, only for the Giants to let him walk in free agency.

“It was a little heartbreaking,” he said. “I was a leader and a captain, and I was starting to play my best football, so it was tough. I love a lot of people in that building still. Thankfully I took a leap of faith in Seattle and found success pretty quick.”

Part of the draw of signing with the Seahawks in 2023 was the chance to play for coach Pete Carroll, and Love earned his first Pro Bowl selection with four interceptions, two forced fumbles and 123 tackles — only for Carroll to be pushed out at the end of the season and the Seahawks to hire Mike Macdonald.

Love adjusted and established himself in Macdonald’s defense, then missed half this season because of a hamstring injury. As usual, he never blinked.

“I have a level of self-confidence and belief in myself,” he said. “It’s that constant competitive nature and drive that, whether things are positive or negative, I’m going to make it work.”

Coaches and teammates love that mentality, and Seahawks Pro Bowl defensive tackle Leonard Williams, who played with Love on the Giants, said players call him President Love and Mayor Love “because he’s for the people” and is “looking out for everyone’s best interests all the time.”

That quality seems to have made him indispensable to the Seahawks, who signed him to an extension going into last season that runs through 2027, and helped them lead the league in scoring defense as they charged to a 14-3 record and a Super Bowl trip.

It looks like he’s a fixture for them, especially if he helps bring back the Lombardi Trophy, and it’ll be hard to persuade people he’s still an underdog at that point, but there’s no doubt Love will insist upon it.