SAN JOSE, Calif.—The Seahawks' final day of media availability ahead of Super Bowl LX started out on a serious enough note, with Mike Macdonald providing an update on rookie safety Nick Emmanwori, who injured his ankle in practice a day earlier.

But not long after Macdonald finished his press conference, it became clear that these Seahawks are anything but tense heading in the biggest game of their lives.

It started when Macdonald passed Sam Darnold as the quarterback made his way to the podium for his press conference, with Macdonald joking, "You're wearing that again?" a reference to the fact that players are required to wear their jersey to media availability this week.

One room over in the San Jose Convention Center, players met with the media and demonstrated over and over again that the stakes of this week aren't changing the way they prepare for a football game, or the way they have fun doing it.

Late in Thursday's session, linebacker Ernest Jones IV was seated at a podium when outside linebacker Derick Hall joined him and a session of shadowboxing broke out. From one podium over, safety Julian Love provided play by play.

As Hall continued to float around the room with a microphone, acting like a member of the media, veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed was visited by Seahawks Legend and former teammate Cliff Avril.

After the topic of what type of rookie Reed was came up, Avril laughed at said, "He was a terrible rookie."

Reed countered with, "I was the best rookie ever." To which Avril responded, "He was the rookie that didn't want to listen, thought he knew it all, didn't want to carry anybody's pads, so we had to get on him. But hey, he turned out to be a heck of a player, and now he's at the Super Bowl."

Moments later the two were juggling a soccer ball together off to the side of Reed's podium.

Earlier in the day, the team stuck with a Thursday tradition, with players from different position groups doing walk and talks, something the team has done since offseason workouts, an exercise that has helped bring the team closer.

"We do what we do, and on every third Thursday we do a walk and talk, and we did it today," Macdonald said. "The last question was, ten years from now, when we have a team reunion, what are you guys going to remember about this team. I think shadowboxing was probably the most popular answer. But just for those guys to share those laughs and the funny stories, the things you probably haven't heard behind the scenes, the list goes on and on. It's a special group."

All season long, Seahawks players and their head coach have used the term loose and focused to describe the team's approach, and as veteran receiver Cooper Kupp explained, while wearing a shirt that read "I (heart) Sam Darnold," why that approach is particularly significant this year.

"This is the ultimate place for being loose and focused," Kupp said. "Everyone wants to tell you that this moment's too big, that you're going to tighten up, there's no room for error, but it's not. This is another game, just like any other one, you've just got to handle a little bit of this kind of stuff, but be where your feet are and enjoy each other, have some gratitude for the journey that we get to be here because of the work that each of these guys have put in and sacrificed to be in this spot. So have some gratitude for that, and know that we're going to go to work. When it's time to be in practice and engage, everybody's going to be engaged and ready to go, but enjoy his journey."

Love, whose commentary of the Hall vs. Love shadowboxing match included, "E.J.'s over here getting belted, y'all. Send help!" has throughout this season praised the tone Macdonald has set leading the team, giving players the room to have fun and be themselves while also holding them to a very high standard.

"Loose and focused I think is the defining term of our team, and if you're around our team at all you know that we just mess around constantly with each other," Love said. "We're always roasting each other, we're always jabbing at each other, but it's out of love, it never crosses any line. It has no fatigue, it's constant every single day, but then when the whistle blows and that horn goes off, it's business, and guys expect to be perfect on the field.

"It takes leadership to be OK with being loose and focused. Not every coach is going to enjoy us on the side of a walkthrough shadowboxing or messing around, but this staff, the leaders of this team understand, OK, guys can do that, they're loose, they're not all tense, but when the horn blows, if they're dialed in on the details, if they're mentally sharp, doing in the right things, in the right positions, then everything's OK. You don't have to be 100 percent in control of everything a player does, and I think this staff, the leaders of the team, understood that early, and it has allowed us to just be us."