Patrick Mahomes. Saquon Barkley. Travis Kelce. Even Taylor Swift.
If the large names within the Huge Simple aren’t cause sufficient to get excited for Tremendous Bowl LIX, there isn’t a scarcity of storylines that make this yr’s championship bout between the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles particularly compelling.
Mahomes and his history-seeking Chiefs have change into the NFL’s greatest villains, with a large section of followers praying that somebody — anybody! — can lastly finish their dynasty.
However the love-em-or-hate-em Eagles, lengthy among the many NFL’s most polarizing groups, aren’t precisely a simple bandwagon to leap on, and their infighting this season prompted hypothesis about how a lot they even like one another.
Two years in the past, the primary Tremendous Bowl assembly between the Chiefs and Eagles delivered an instantaneous basic. With the Chiefs opening as 1.5-point favorites, this yr’s large sport has an opportunity to be equally epic.
Listed below are the most important storylines going into Tremendous Bowl LIX at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9.
Chasing Historical past
The Chiefs search to change into the primary group in NFL historical past to win three consecutive Tremendous Bowls.
Take into consideration that.
With a victory two Sundays from now, Mahomes, Andy Reid and firm would obtain a feat by no means completed by all-time winners reminiscent of Tom Brady, Invoice Belichick, Joe Montana or Chuck Noll.
A win would make Mahomes, at age 29, the fourth quarterback with 4 Tremendous Bowl rings, tying him with Montana and Terry Bradshaw whereas leaving him three shy of Brady, who gained seven.
“I just try to maximize every moment, because you never know what’s going to be your last one,” Mahomes mentioned Sunday after defeating the Buffalo Payments, 32-29, within the AFC Championship Recreation.
“I know I’m a long way from Tom, so I’ll try to do whatever I can to get close to that.”
Brady, who in 2021 dealt Mahomes his lone Tremendous Bowl loss, will probably be there to name Tremendous Bowl LIX for Fox.
A victory would make the Chiefs the second group to win 4 Tremendous Bowls in a six-year span, becoming a member of Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers of the Nineteen Seventies.
Rematch
Tremendous Bowl LVII between the Chiefs and Eagles in 2023 featured six lead adjustments, 73 factors, and a 10-point comeback by Kansas Metropolis, which gained, 38-35, in dramatic style.
After the Eagles tied the rating with a landing and two-point conversion — each on Jalen Hurts runs — with 5:15 left within the fourth quarter, Mahomes engineered a game-winning subject aim drive.
Lots of that sport’s key figures, together with Mahomes, Reid and Kelce for Kansas Metropolis and Hurts, A.J. Brown and Nick Sirianni for Philadelphia, are again for this yr’s rematch.
A primary Tremendous Bowl ring could be important for Hurts and Sirianni, who’ve been subjected to frequent scrutiny regardless of their constant successful.
“We’ve all had to have adversity to be in this moment where we are right now, so adversity is what makes you who you are,” Sirianni mentioned after Sunday’s 55-23 victory over the Washington Commanders within the NFC Championship Recreation.
“These guys are hungry, and we’ve got one more to go.”
Saquon on the large stage
The most important distinction between the Eagles of two years in the past and the present group is the presence of Barkley, who signed a three-year, $37.5 million contract with Philadelphia in March after the Giants declined to increase the all-world working again.
Barkley’s influence on the Eagles can’t be overstated.
His 2,005 dashing yards within the common season marked the ninth 2,000-yard marketing campaign in NFL historical past and led the Eagles to a 14-3 file. He’s the runaway favourite for NFL Offensive Participant of the Yr honors.
In some way, Barkley has been even higher within the playoffs, averaging 147.3 dashing yards per sport and totaling 5 touchdowns via three video games. He ran for a minimum of 118 yards in every.
Saquon Barkley after scoring his third landing of the NFC Championship Recreation. (Photograph by Emilee Chinn/Getty Pictures)
With 30 dashing yards within the Tremendous Bowl, Barkley would break Terrell Davis’ single-season file of two,476 dashing yards, together with the playoffs, which the previous Denver Broncos working again set in 1998.
All that’s lacking from Barkley’s illustrious résumé is a Tremendous Bowl ring — one thing he by no means got here near reaching in six years with the Giants.
Barkley, 27, faces a tricky check in opposition to a Chiefs protection that restricted opponents to 101.8 dashing yards per sport in the course of the common season. Kansas Metropolis has been extra weak in opposition to the run in these playoffs, nonetheless, permitting 148.0 yards per sport of their two wins.
Taylor Swift
The NFL doesn’t want any assist producing Tremendous Bowl scores, however commissioner Roger Goodell certainly isn’t complaining concerning the additional consideration Swift brings.
The pop-music sensation, who, after all, is courting Kelce, grew up in West Studying, Penn., as an Eagles fan, however there’s no query the place her loyalty lies now.
The Chiefs are 19-3 within the video games Swift has attended, which incorporates final yr’s victory in Tremendous Bowl LVIII.
Taylor Swift celebrates after the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Payments within the AFC Championship Recreation. (Photograph by David Eulitt/Getty Pictures)
Swift attended that Tremendous Bowl with an entourage that included actress Blake Vigorous and rapper Ice Spice. Earlier this month, WNBA celebrity Caitlin Clark sat with Swift in a collection at GEHA Subject at Arrowhead Stadium for Kansas Metropolis’s win over the Houston Texans within the divisional spherical.
Whom Swift involves this yr’s sport with will probably be only one storyline for the pop-culture fans who tune in additional for the short cutaways to the singer than they do for the soccer.
Retirement watch?
Reid and Kelce stay underneath contract past this postseason, but retirement rumors determine to swirl round each once more after the Tremendous Bowl.
Reid turns 67 in March, however he signed a five-year extension final spring. A victory would make him the third head coach with 4 Tremendous Bowl titles, tying him with Noll whereas leaving him two behind Belichick.
With Mahomes in his prime, Reid might proceed his pursuit of Belichick’s file.
Kelce, in the meantime, doesn’t have a lot to show. He’s already thought-about by most to be the best tight finish ever. His 172 playoff receptions are probably the most in NFL historical past.
Innumerable media alternatives await the 35-year-old Kelce, who already hosts a wildly fashionable podcast, “New Heights,” along with his brother, Jason Kelce. The latter retired final offseason after 13 seasons with the Eagles.
However Kelce appears to like enjoying, and whereas his statistics dipped the final two seasons, it could possibly be due partly to self-preservation. Kelce made seven receptions for 117 yards and a landing in opposition to the Texans two weeks in the past.
