Drew Scharenbroch spent more time in the end zone during Super Bowl 60 than the New England Patriots offense did.
Seattle’s dominating 29-13 victory over the Patriots on Feb. 8 will be remembered for the ferocity of the Seahawks defense, and Scharenbroch was on the field capturing every moment.
The 38-year-old Appleton native works as a video assistant in the Seahawks organization, and now he is a Super Bowl champion.
It’s a crazy notion that the 2005 Appleton North graduate says he thought about when he went to work for the Seahawks, but the actual experience still far exceeded his dreams.
“It was what you probably imagine, just pure elation,” Scharenbroch said. “You know, I think once I got to the NFL, I could imagine it but not like how it actually was. You kind of just have to experience it to know how it’s going to feel exactly.”
Scharenbroch started on career path at University of Wisconsin
Scharenbroch attended the University of Wisconsin after graduating from Appleton North. While there, an opportunity came up to work in the UW athletics department and he jumped at the chance.
“That sounded cooler than cleaning bathrooms in the dorms, so I was fortunate to get that opportunity,” Scharenbroch said. “That’s really where the career that I’m in now started, was with the Badgers.”
He went from being a student worker to working for six years in the UW athletic department after graduating with a double major in Communication Arts and History, including documenting the Badgers’ back-to-back trips to the men’s basketball Final Four in 2014 and 2015.
When his boss at Wisconsin got the job to run the video department with the Seahawks, Scharenbroch moved west and joined him a few months later for his first stint with the NFL franchise.
After four years, Scharenbroch left the Seahawks to run the video department with the new Seattle Sea Dragons franchise in the XFL. That didn’t work out as planned after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so Scharenbroch looked elsewhere.
He worked remotely for a short time with the Edmonton Elks – formerly the Edmonton Eskimos – of the Canadian Football League during the pandemic, then worked at UNLV for a year before returning to the Sea Dragons when they started back up after the pandemic.
An opportunity to rejoin the Seahawks came in 2024, and Scharenbroch took it without hesitation.
“I was definitely ready to come back,” he said. “[I’m] happy for everything on the journey that helped me grow professionally. It’s great to work in the NFL, and I want to work the rest of my career in the NFL.”
Video job with Seahawks puts Appleton native down on the field
Scharenbroch is part of a seven-person team with the Seahawks that takes care of all the coaches’ film, commonly referred to as the All-22.
On game day, Scharenbroch is on the field capturing video for the All-22 as well as grabbing highlights for a “hype” video the team watches the night before games.
He said the entire Super Bowl week was “amazing” and it reminded him of the Badgers’ Final Four runs, just on a much bigger scale. His parents, Mary and Don, were able to join him for the week and attend the game, and some friends visited as well.
“That was kind of the same level of surreal, like all these cool things happening, all these famous people wanting to be around the team and stuff like that, was kind of like that,” Scharenbroch said.
He wasn’t on the field to watch the Bad Bunny halftime show, but did have a hard time getting back to the locker room at the end of the first half.
“I had to wait for like 300 people dressed as grass to walk out,” he said with a laugh. “So it was kind of interesting watching all that stuff get staged in front of me.”
When the game ended, the confetti flew and the Seahawks were champions. It’s a moment Scharenbroch will never forget.
“After the game, it was surreal. I mean, it was crazy,” he said. “We’re still talking about, like, is this real or not? Has it really hit us? You’re just congratulating all these people you’ve worked with on the field and congratulating the players.”
Seahawks video assistant grew up a Packers fan
Scharenbroch probably can’t say this too loud now because he works for the Seahawks but, yes, he was a Green Bay Packers fan growing up.
He had a conversation with Seahawks general manager and De Pere native John Schneider on the morning of the Super Bowl parade. Scharenbroch told Schneider that while he didn’t know it at the time, the Packers’ victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl 31 ultimately may have led to him being in Seattle now.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but it was setting me on the path to what I’m doing now. It was such a big deal for me to see them win it,” Scharenbroch said of the Packers’ victory. “The NFL Films tape – that VHS tape they had of the season – me and my siblings wore out the sound on it. My parents still have it at their house. I think a couple years ago we put it on just to see it again, and the sound on it is like completely worn out, just because it was watched so many times.”
Scharenbroch rode on one of the military vehicles during the Seahawks’ victory parade, calling it the “most fun work day” he’s ever had.
“We got to celebrate with fans at Lumen [Field],” he said. “Walking out and hearing the crowd roar and hearing their excitement about this team was really cool, and then going up through downtown Seattle, the crowd was just so big. You stop at some intersections and they’re like 50 yards deep, all these people want to see it. They’re up in trees. They’re on top of awnings and stuff like that. It was wild.”
The parade route took the team down some of the same streets Scharenbroch used to take when he worked for the Sea Dragons, which was another full-circle moment in a season full of them for Scharenbroch.
“To go to work and toil in relative obscurity and now I’m going down this road with fans going crazy for us and celebrating with my co-workers and our players and coaches, it was pretty awesome,” Scharenbroch said.
Scharenbroch thankful for opportunity to work with NFL franchise
Scharenbroch, who was a business major his freshman year before quickly switching paths, says his experience working in the Wisconsin athletic department as a student made it clear what he wanted to do for his career.
He’s exactly where he wants to be now, even though getting a Super Bowl ring is more than he could have ever imagined.
“I didn’t really see a pathway for that to happen,” he said. “It all comes together kind of unexpectedly. When the door first swung open for me to go to the NFL, I had to jump through it because you don’t know how many opportunities you’re going to have at that.
“And that same thing when I got back in 2024, it was like, well, there’s some things I enjoyed about working in XFL and it became UFL, but, you know, I don’t know if I’m ever going to get this chance again if I don’t take it. So just super fortunate to have two cracks at it.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton native Drew Scharenbroch wins Super Bowl with Seahawks
Reporting by Mike Sherry, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
