Jake Bobo had to make an alteration to his wardrobe in the lead-up to Super Bowl LX.
It was practically mandated that he do so by his Seahawks teammates.
“I’ve been banned from wearing my Sox hat in the building this week,” Bobo told the Herald. “I’ll wear that around at least once or twice a week and I got some (expletive) for it this week.”
Bobo, a North Andover native who starred at Belmont Hill before playing at Duke and UCLA, watched the Patriots rip off three Super Bowl victories in a five-year span in the second half of the franchise’s two-decade-long dynastic run.
The 27-year-old wide receiver, who is in his third NFL season with the Seahawks, now finds himself in the way of the team he rooted for as a kid from getting its hands on the Lombardi Trophy again.
But those grandiose memories in the minds of Patriots fans don’t come flooding back to Bobo this week. He won’t allow himself to get distracted from the monumental task at hand, but does recognize the uniqueness of sharing the Super Bowl stage with the Patriots.
“It just becomes another ball game, but it’s cool,” Bobo said. “I don’t care who you’re playing, to get to this game – but to be able to do it against the Pats and have a bunch of my family in the stands, that is literally what you dream about as a kid.”
Seventeen members of the Bobo family will make their way to Santa Clara, Calif., for one of greatest spectacles in sports. Most, if not all, will make sure any Patriots gear they might own never makes it into their suitcases.
Plans for this Super Bowl are much different than previous ones for Bobo’s mom, Casey. Usually her biggest concern surrounding the big game is what appetizer she’s going to make for a Super Bowl party.
Her son playing in the Super Bowl – and being part of “the party” as Patriots quarterback Drake Maye said last week – doesn’t get her nerves flowing into overdrive. She’s just thrilled to get the chance to watch her son do what he loves.
“I thought UCLA-USC was the pinnacle and then we did the Patriots (against Seahawks) game (last season) and now this,” Casey said. “It keeps feeding on itself a little bit. He is a professional football player but he’s still that 12-year-old kid that’s playing in the backyard.”
While Bobo will have a strong contingent of fans supporting him from inside Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, perhaps the person that had the most profound impact on him, and continues to do so, won’t be there.
Bobo’s father, Mike, died nearly two years ago at age 55 after a battle with cancer. His presence will still be felt, though, in the discussions the Bobo family has as they get ready for the game and in the pre-game conversation Bobo has with his father that has become a ritual.
Bobo learned football from his father – he played for the legendary Buddy Teevens at Dartmouth – but, more importantly, learned life lessons that are a guiding force to this day.
Bobo insists his father wouldn’t care about the outcome of Super Bowl LX. He put more importance on how his son carried himself off the field. A shining example of that comes from a story his mom relayed about Bobo leaving the on-field celebration following the NFC title game to give his championship hat to a young fan in the stands with cerebral palsy.
In that sense, Bobo is already a winner. And everything that comes after now follows the words Mike told his son when he first joined the Seahawks, and what has become a go-to family phrase.
“It’s sort of the family mantra: ‘It’s gravy,’” Casey said. “Like, how could it get better than this? It’s just gravy whatever happens now.”
That mantra characterizes Bobo’s football journey as he defied the odds to get to the Super Bowl stage. After four seasons with Duke and a strong final college season with UCLA, in which he caught 57 passes for 817 yards and seven touchdowns, Bobo signed as an undrafted free agent with the Seahawks in 2023.
Despite his lack of straight-line speed – he ran a 4.99 40-yard dash prior to the NFL draft – Bobo kept making plays in his first training camp. He earned a spot on Seattle’s active roster and suited up in all 17 games as a rookie, making 19 receptions for 196 yards with two touchdowns while also playing on special teams.
Bobo got steady playing time on special teams last season and contributed offensively here and there. But this season, Bobo dealt with a decreased role that had him play only 19% of Seattle’s offensive snaps in the regular season and saw a reduction on special teams, too. He was a healthy scratch five times.
Part of the reason for not seeing the field at least on offense is due to the talent in the Seahawks’ wide receiver room. Not many are better than All-Pro Jaxon Smith-Njigba or have the resume of Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp. An in-season trade for Rashid Shaheed pushed Bobo further down the depth chart.
“It has been a lot of ups and downs to be honest with you,” Bobo said. “When you have the guys that we have in our receiver room, with the scheme that we run, if you’re not Jaxon Smith-Njigba and for good reason, you’re not going to have a lot of opportunities. That’s just how it is. With the way we’re playing offensively, nor should I because we’re clicking right now and we’ve been clicking back half of this season.
“So for me, it’s honestly just been where can I contribute and be a contributor to what this team is trying to do. It was pretty obvious early on that this squad was going to be the real deal. So it was either get on the train or get off the tracks.”
Bobo finished the regular season with just two catches. He’s already reached that number of receptions in the postseason, none bigger than when shook free of Rams cornerback Cobie Durant and used his 6-foot-4, 207-pound frame to haul in a 17-yard reception in the end zone early in the third quarter of the NFC Championship Game.
“You just want to contribute,” Bobo said. “I don’t care if you’re Jax or you’re the 53rd guy on the roster or you’re the 70th guy on the back end of the practice squad – and I’ve been in both of those positions – you just want to contribute as a football player. So for me to be able to do that on that stage, I was pumped.”
Bobo will be on an even bigger stage with a chance to contribute come Sunday.
It’s been quite the journey to this point, one that was tough for him to imagine back in his Belmont Hill days. But Bobo will save the reminiscing for a later date and keep his focus, for now, on what lies ahead.
“Once I take a breath, I’ll start to look back,” Bobo said. “But right now, it’s kind of tough to do so.”