New England Patriots now hold the record no team wants in the Super Bowl era after Seahawks beatdown

The New England Patriots just grabbed a piece of history nobody wants. Their 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 60 on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara gave New England an NFL-record six Super Bowl defeats, one more than the Denver Broncos, per StatMuse and Yahoo Sports.They still share the record for most Lombardi Trophies with six, but the other side of the resume is loud now. A 14-3 regular season, an AFC title and a second-year quarterback getting to the big stage early did not matter once Seattle’s defense turned the night into a mismatch up front and shoved Drake Maye into survival mode.

Patriots now hold the record no team wants in the Super Bowl era

ESPN’s Adam Schefter noted that the Patriots have now lost six Super Bowls, the most in league history, after Sunday’s result against Seattle.

Those losses span four decades: the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX, the Green Bay Packers in XXXI, the New York Giants in XLII and XLVI, the Philadelphia Eagles in LII and now the Seahawks in LX.They have still gone 6-6 on the sport’s biggest stage, with 12 appearances that underline how often the franchise has lived in February. The Tom Brady–Bill Belichick run delivered six titles in nine trips. The Drake Maye–Mike Vrabel era opened its Super Bowl account with a blowout that exposed how far this version of New England still has to go.

On Sunday, the numbers were ugly. Maye went 27 of 43 for 295 yards with two touchdowns, but he threw two interceptions, lost a fumble and had just 60 passing yards through three quarters before garbage time, per NBC Sports Boston and CBS Boston. Seattle sacked him six times, hit him all night and turned one interception into a pick-six. Running back Kenneth Walker III put up 161 total yards and took home Super Bowl MVP while kicker Jason Myers went 5-for-5 and scored 17 points.

Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel have to wear this as their first Super Bowl lesson

For Vrabel, this was 307 days into his tenure as head coach. For Maye, it was Year 2 in the league and his fourth playoff game. Both looked every bit that young against Mike Macdonald’s No. 1-ranked defense.Vrabel tried to keep the loss on his shoulders in the locker room. “I reminded them that we are 307 days into what hopefully is a long, successful relationship and program and that it's OK to be disappointed,” he told reporters, via CBS Boston.

“We have to be disappointed and upset together. I'm appreciative of them, thankful, grateful that I get to coach them.”Maye owned his side of it too. He admitted the moment and the mistakes will sit with him. “I think that's the biggest thing about life is you're going to have times like this. It's how you bounce back,” he said. “I think I would go to war with those guys any time, any day, anywhere. It's motivation to get back here and not have this feeling, and have what they're feeling out there.”He also revealed he played after a shoulder injection, telling reporters, “My shoulder feels -- they shot it up, so not much feeling. It was good to go, and felt all right.”The context makes the record sting even more. New England entered the game with the best scoring defense in the postseason and had not lost by more than one possession all year, per NBC Sports Boston. In the words of Patriots insider Tom E. Curran, “They played young. They turned into a pumpkin in the biggest game.”Now the Patriots wake up as the team with the most Super Bowl losses and a fanbase that has seen every version of February heartbreak. If Maye and Vrabel are going to write their own chapter, this is the scar they have to build on.