Super Bowl champion Aden Durde feels ‘my identity and culture’ in powerful return to London roots

Yellow roses soaked in the summer heat and dark-brown flats were highlighted by open windows.

Aden Durde, Super Bowl winner, was back home and proudly standing in the middle of London.

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Seahawks champ has special London connection

“It’s like my family — it’s what I am,” Durde exclusively told talkSPORT on Thursday at an NFL Foundation Coach the Future event in Lambeth.

“My family and the city built my identity and my culture, and I think that helps me in what I do. This is a place where you have to be honest. I used to have to deal with hard conversations, tough situations, great situations.

“There’s ups and downs in this city and that’s what I love about it. I love coming back. It’s kind of the streets are alive and it’s hard to find that in different places.”

Durde, 46, is the defensive coordinator for a Seattle Seahawks team that destroyed the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX and gave veteran quarterback Sam Darnold one of the best career redemption stories in NFL history.

“Now I’m in the NFL myself, it’s very, very clear we’re all here to win,” said James Cook, who was born in Surrey and became the Cleveland Browns‘ senior director of player development in 2025.

“The Super Bowl is the only thing that we really care about. It’s the thing you talk about every single day. And so seeing someone (Durde) close to you go get it — not that you need fuel to that fire, but it certainly does get you thinking about it even more than you were before. So, yeah, it’s motivation, as he has been for me his whole career.”

Durde, who hails from North London and is a West Ham supporter, is living proof of how international the NFL has become in 2026.

“When they told me about it, it was something I just wanted to do,” Durde said at Black Prince Community Trust.

“Just an opportunity to work with people that enjoy the sport or want to get involved in the sport. It excited me. And especially to do with coaching, it was like a no-brainer.”

Humbling Patriots and Maye led to trophy

Without the London Warriors, NFL Europe, Scottish Claymores, Hamburg Sea Devils, International Player Pathway program and Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship, Durde wouldn’t have become a critical piece of a relentless Seahawks defense that led the NFL in average points allowed last season (17.2).

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Patriots QB Drake Maye finished second in NFL MVP voting.

But Maye was humbled by Durde’s defense in Super Bowl LX, being intercepted twice, sacked six times and posting a weak 16.3 QB rating.

“(Seattle head coach) Mike (Macdonald) wanted us to be a connected and tough team, and they really embraced that and they made it a priority,” said Durde, who previously coached with the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons.

“The coaches made it a priority. And we, as a collective, it was a vision we drove towards. And I thought that was different. I thought the way the guys interacted with each other, they loved being with each other on the field and off the field.”

Smelling the roses of England

The Seahawks’ Super Bowl parade and ring ceremony allowed Durde to briefly reflect on his career coaching peak.

“You get a small chance to kind of, not relive it, but you appreciate what you’ve been in when you’re actually at the end of the game,” he said.

Can Seahawks go back-to-back as champs?

Durde on Seattle facing the pressure of repeating as Super Bowl champs in 2026: “You can’t look at it that way. You’ve got to look at still building your process. Mike (Macdonald) talks ‘run it forward’ and we’re running  our process forwards, and we just keep honing that and keep driving towards the little, tiny things and chasing the edges we need to chase to keep perfecting. And we probably never will perfect it, but we just keep driving towards this goal.”

Sam Darnold wanting to play better in Super Bowl LX: “Every player has got to strive for that, and every coach has to strive for that. You’re trying to be the best version of yourself all the time. You don’t hit the marker — you re-go, you re-assess. And that’s the kind of process over results. It’s like the result is the result, and you kind of reassess it and you go back and you review it.”

Watching the 2026 World Cup in Seattle: “It was the Egypt-Belgium game in Seattle. It was the first one. That kind of atmosphere, that energy that’s created, it’s not about tailgating. It’s about turning up, being ready, the chants. And especially seeing the Lumen (Field) like that, it was kind of different and it was cool.”

But a summer return to London put Durde’s historic rise in perspective.

Jordan Mailata, Charlie Smyth and Efe Obada have headlined the international talent pipeline that continues to impact NFL rosters.

Durde faced one-in-a-million odds, though, just to become an NFL coach.

Standing near yellow roses and dark-brown brick flats, the Londoner reconnected with the world that helped make him.

Back where he started coaching football

“I love it. Sixteen years ago, I used to work here at Lilian Baylis,” Durde said.

“It was all different. There wasn’t a flat over there — I saw them being built. It’s kind of full circle. You just come back and really it’s all the same.  It’s, like, coaching is coaching, football is football. 

“It’s funny because when I come back, I go to the (London) Warriors and I do stuff. It’s just something I really enjoy doing.”

Perfect day in London for Durde

Durde on his ideal day in London: “Putting on my earpods and just walking around the city, and taking in the city and the stuff that I miss. And then with my family, I love going to dinner, going to see my family. I get to see my mum and my wife’s family. It’s just about being with people. Life’s hectic — and it’s a great hectic. I think there’s an appreciation when you get to stop and just remember what you are, what you came from.”

Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and a rolling River Thames were a mile away as another sun-filled heat wave soaked London.

Durde stood where he used to work — a Super Bowl champion feeling the power of the city that he loves.

“The cool thing about living here and growing up here is that, ultimately, people have their lives and they have their jobs and the income that they create,” Durde said.

“But ultimately you’re walking on the same streets. You’re living your ups and your downs together. And I’ve grown up like that and that’s why I love coming back here.”