When the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots on Sunday in the Super Bowl in the San Francisco Bay area, people in the La Grange Park area will have a local rooting interest.

Julian Love, who graduated from Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park in 2016, will be taking the field as a starting safety for the Seahawks, a key part of a defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL during the 2025 season and a team that finished the season at the top of the NFC on its way to the Super Bowl berth.

“The Nazareth Academy Roadrunner community will be wearing Seahawk green next weekend as we cheer on Julian Love,” school officials said in a news release. “No stranger to making Naz history, Julian is the first Nazareth Academy alum to play in the NFL Super Bowl.”

He is one of three Roadrunners who played in the NFL this year, joining Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy and San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle CJ West.

According to the release, Love, who grew up in Westchester, and his wife Julia, also a Nazareth alum who graduated in 2015, live in La Grange Park when they are not in Seattle.

The school called Love “a standout student-athlete for Nazareth Academy.” A two-time State Champion in football, he earned All Conference honors in the ESCC in 2014 and 2015. In 2015 he was a member of the Chicago Tribune All State Team. In addition to football, Julian was a 3-year member of the track and field team, where he earned several conference medals, and was a participant in the basketball, baseball and theater programs. He also was a Campus Ministry Eucharistic Minister and high achieving student in the classroom.

Julian Love, a 2016 graduate of Nazareth Academy and safety for the Seattle Seahawks, waves to the crowd during the 2024. La Grange Pet Parade. (Hank Beckman/Pioneer Press)

Love’s connection to Nazareth Academy continues amid his NFL career, the school said, through the Julian Love Scholarship, which provides annual financial assistance to a student of color through Nazareth’s Named Scholarship Program. He also runs a free youth sports camp every summer on the Nazareth campus.

In 2023, Nazareth Academy honored Love by retiring his No. 20 Roadrunner football jersey and inducting him into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Love is showcasing his Hall of Fame credentials as a member of the Seahawks. After moving to the team after spending his first four years in the NFL with the New York Giants, he has earned a string of accolades, including being named the team’s 2025 Steve Largent Award Winner, honored for his spirit, dedication, and integrity as well as the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year candidate.

He became the first Seahawks player since 2000 to record 10 tackles, a sack, and a blocked field goal in a single game vs. San Francisco.

Seattle Seahawks safety Julian Love reacts to tackling Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson during an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

He also was a 2023 Pro Bowl Selection, his first career Pro Bowl honor and the Week 15 NFC Defensive Player of the Week, recognized for his performance, which included two interceptions in a single game. In 2024 he made the NFL Top 100, ranked among the league’s best players.

During his college career at the University of Notre Dame, Love helped the team to an undefeated regular season and a College Football Playoff berth his junior season. He was a freshman All-American, and in his final season was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe award for Best Defensive Back in the country, and was named a Consensus All American. In just 3 seasons Julian broke the All Time Pass Break Up record at Notre Dame previously held since 1971.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/03/julian-love-nazareth-super-bowl/