Super Bowl 2026: Ex-Giants defensive back Julian Love details journey from NY to the Big Game

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Julian Love is a Pro Bowl safety and will be a key defensive starter for the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Sunday. A player of that stature might cringe at the nickname he was given early on his career when Giants coaches and teammates began calling him “Duct Tape” for his multitude of functional if imperfect uses.

But Love still likes that title, even if no one calls him that any longer.

“I’m proud of it,” he told Newsday. “I think I made a lot from a lot going on. The Duct Tape Era, Joe Judge, in my mind I was just trying to find a way to survive. I had to find a way to play nickel, corner, safety, special teams, whatever it was. I look back on that understanding where I was and what I had to do to get to this moment.”

After four scrappy seasons in New York with an ascending trajectory, though, the Giants did not sign him to return upon the completion of his rookie contract. There had been talks of an extension and negotiations during free agency but eventually the Giants pulled their offer and let him walk to Seattle. Or maybe they thought he was crawling there because he wound up signing for less than the Giants had initially been offering.

However he got there, one thing is indisputable: He has been soaring since.

In 2023, his first year in Seattle, he made the Pro Bowl. This year he is a game away from a championship.

A lot more than the cross-country relocation went into it, though.

“I don’t know if I have changed as a player so much as changed as a person,” he said. “A few kids later, we (wife Julia) are out here doing our thing. I’m the oldest in our room so I have stepped into more of a leadership role. I think about my time in New York and it’s like ‘Man, you were young. You were trying to climb and establish yourself in this league.’ That last year in New York I felt like I was doing a good job. To be a full-time starter at age 24 and starting to play some of my best ball, I feel like I was just starting to catch who I was in this league. I was able to capitalize on that in Seattle and be a leader, a guy out there playing confidently and making plays.”

He credits Seattle coach Mike Macdonald for a lot of that after cycling through about a coach a year, either as a coordinator or head coach, in his first five seasons.

“He is probably the strongest football mind I have been around,” Love said. “As a DB, as a guy who asks a lot of questions and is doing a lot of communicating, that’s important. There is such a trust there that whatever he says you fully believe and that is not as common as you would think in this league.”

Love still isn’t talked about among the tippy-top players in the league at his position and he is OK with that. He called himself “an if-you-know-you-know type of player,” meaning that it takes some close observation to recognize what he brings to the team. And he talks to his younger teammates who are currently trying to find their footing in various defensive or special teams roles about his journey.

“I try to relate it to them,” he said. “’Yeah, I was in your shoes. Three years from now who knows where you will be, but I was there, and I understand the fight that is needed.’”

He simply stuck with it. In the end, that’s probably what Duct Tape does best.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.