Across a 10-year NFL career, Marshall Newhouse was a Super Bowl winner in his rookie year with the Green Bay Packers and later played for the New England Patriots.
It’s his former Pats team who head into Sunday’s showdown against Seattle Seahawks as the underdogs but the former offensive tackle believes there is a clear route to victory for his former team.
Newhouse played three years at the Packers before spells across the league with the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and the Patriots.
So looking ahead to Sunday’s showdown, he’s better placed than most to make a call. And in the buildup, Newhouse stopped by to speak to the Daily Mail in San Francisco ahead of the big game.
It’s fair to say he’s not agreeing with the talk of a Seahawks blowout.
But he also reflected on his memories of the Packers’ Super Bowl win, playing in an offensive line that was protecting Aaron Rodgers and how emerging victorious on football’s biggest stage can change someone’s life.
Marshall Newhouse has mapped out how the New England Patriots can win the Super Bowl
The former Green Bay Packers man went on to play for the Patriots in his NFL career
There’s a lot of talk about Seattle and a blowout. I just don’t see that happening. I think my old team, the New England Patriots are a really well run organization. And I think the defense has come to play.
Everything comes down to how uncomfortable they can make Sam Darnold. Two weeks ago, in the NFC Championship, it was the best game that Darnold has ever played, in my opinion.
But there’s still a small piece of people’s brains that go back to the times when he struggled against certain defensive coordinators. Can the Patriots make him make two or three mistakes that keep them in the game?
I don’t think their offense, even with Drake Maye, is not as explosive as Seattle’s offense under Klint Kubiak.
It means they’re going to have to really be more methodical in the ground game, getting short passes to Stefon Diggs, guys in the slot and then using Maye’s legs sometimes. And then they’ve got to play a clean game and get some turnovers from Seattle.
But if they fail to do that, if Seattle play a clean game and Darnold does what he did against the San Francisco 49ers, then it’ll be a Seattle win.
It’s hard to put into words how it feels when you win a Super Bowl. When you grow up, your dream as a kid is to just play professionally and then you realize when you get there just how hard it is to go on and even play in a Super Bowl.
I won one in my rookie year, so I didn’t know what I didn’t know. But then once you understand and you look back, you recognize all this preparation was a huge, huge deal. It requires everything, a little bit of luck, a good organization, good infrastructure and a lot of hard, hard work.
Newhouse said that Patriots quarterback Drake Maye’s run game could prove to be key
He also urged the Patriots defense to get after Sam Darnold and see how he responds
But getting there, it’s also a lot of fun. And it’s something I get to be a part of forever. We just had a Super Bowl reunion in Green Bay earlier this season in Week 1. It’s something that connects us forever.
I was a lineman and we spent so many hours just in meeting rooms, honing our craft and you get really close. It’s one of the few positions where you have to work together. You form a bond and then when you win a Super Bowl, it solidifies that bond because you know how guys move on, sign for different teams, grow old and have families and move back to their cities. But a Super Bowl win connects you forever.
My quarterback at Green Bay was none other that Aaron Rodgers, too. What a special teammate and special guy. He made you feel part of the whole collective and was really challenging, mentally and physically. The standard was very high when we were walking in the building.
Aaron had moments when he kept it light and we understood it is a long journey from the beginning of the season to the Super Bowl. But the expectation was really high. As a young player, he made you feel like you belonged.
And Aaron was the guy on the field doing special things so we have got to do everything we can to make him comfortable out there, everything we can to give him the best chance of success. We do that, we all benefit.
I can’t say enough about him as a teammate and a player and I think a lot of players who have been with him will attest to that.
