Seattle Seahawks crush Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl 48

the seattle seahawks defeated the denver broncos 43-8 to win their first super bowl title. seattle completely disarmed the highest offense in league history. on denver's first play, their center snapped the ball over peyton manning's head, resulting in a safety. denver never established a rhythm, and seattle's top ranked defense coerced four costly turnovers.

the championship game, played at met life stadium in east rutherford, new jersey, was hyped as a classic between the two best teams. denver ended 2013 with a record 606 points, averaging nearly 39 points per game. manning set single-season records with 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdowns, and was voted league mvp earlier in the week.

the seahawks defense, fueled by all-pro cornerback richard sherman, led the nfl in forcing turnovers and making interceptions; they surrendered just 16 touchdowns all year. their front four punished opposing quarterbacks regularly, and their secondary is the most physical in recent memory. some pundits compared their victory to the 1985 bears and 2000 ravens.

punctuating the seahawks' dominating performance was a 69-yard interception return by linebacker malcolm smith, giving seattle a 22-0 to take into the locker room. smith was named mvp - just the third linebacker to win the award. when percy harvin opened the second half with an 89-yard kickoff return, their fans - known in seattle as the 12th man - chanted, "l.o.b. l.o.b. their hard-hitting secondary is called legions of boom.

smith was a seventh-round draft pick. both he and sherman referenced their unheralded teammates as "misfits with a chip on our shoulder." he said, "i always imagined myself making great plays, but never thought about being the mvp." sherman said, "i hope we etched our names into the record books." all-pro safety earl thomas said, "it's all about making history. this was a dominant performance from top to bottom."

seattle's average age is 26 years, 138 days, youngest in super bowl history. the victory was particularly sweet for coach pete carroll, fired by the jets in 1994. he was let go by the patriots after three seasons at the helm. after a brief stint out of coaching, he won two national titles at the university of southern california.       

carroll won just four years after coaching the seahawks, and eight years after seattle lost their only super bowl trip against pittsburgh. his team was labeled too brash, too inexperienced and too young. but after lifting the vince lombardi trophy, there was nothing left to prove - to themselves and others. super bowl 48 was the most watched event in television history, with 111.5 million viewers.