Super Bowl LIX (59) is coming to New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, starring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
This is not the first time they have faced off in the Super Bowl. Just two years ago the Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35. If the Chiefs beat them again, they will have won the Super Bowl three years in a row, the first team to do that since its creation in 1967.
The last time a team had made it to the Super Bowl three times in a row was in 2016-2018 with Tom Brady leading the New England Patriots to victory two of those three times. While the Green Bay Packers did win three NFL Championships in a row in 1966-1968, the Super Bowl was not created until 1967, so they missed the feat by one year.
Let’s take a look at both teams and break down how they became the two most dominant teams this season, starting with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles (14-3) are comprised of notable stars, but their main three positions are their most threatening this season. At quarterback is Jalen Hurts, running back is Saquan Barkley and wide receiver is A.J. Brown. The Eagles’ offense is not a force to be reckoned with.
This season, Hurts threw for 2,903 yards with 18 touchdowns and only five interceptions. Barkley, after being traded from the New York Giants after six seasons, missed the NFL single-season rushing record by 100 yards, finishing at 2,005, and averaging 5.8 yards per carry with 13 rushing touchdowns this season. A.J. Brown had 1,079 receiving yards averaging 16.1 yards per catch with seven touchdowns. An incredible core three to say the least.
Now, the most dangerous play that the Eagles’ offense can run is a play popularly coined as “the tush push.” “The tush push” is typically run when they are a couple of yards short of the goal line or close to a 4th down conversion, during the play the team will gather with the quarterback and push him that extra yard. This play started a couple of years ago and was at first viewed as controversial, but no other team can run it as successfully as the Eagles. Having a quarterback that can squat 600 pounds is what helped the team profit from this play, and now gaining Barkley who can squat the same as Hurts, makes them hard to stop. Teams know it is going to come and must strategize on how to stop it. The Chiefs need to become the “immovable object” to their “unstoppable force.”
The Chiefs (15-2) have become the more famous of the two teams. It is hard to spot who are the top three significant players on the Chiefs’ roster, they do a great job of utilizing everyone on the field after facing injuries throughout the season and from last season. The “Big Three” of the Chiefs as far as fame and influence would be quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, and coach Andy Reid.
Mahomes, looking for his fourth Super Bowl MVP award, threw for 3,928 yards with 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Kelce had 823 receiving yards and 3 receiving touchdowns. I added Andy Reid to the list because he is the third most famous on the team. Including the playoffs, he has brought the Chiefs 161 victories. Before he coached the Chiefs, he was the head coach for the Eagles where he brought them 140 victories making him the coach with the most wins in both franchises, so I would think this is an important matchup for him too.
A few factors are at play when facing the Chiefs. Last year, Taylor Swift was introduced to the fanbase through her newfound relationship with Kelce, causing an uproar in the media. That has died down a bit this season, but the media still loves to let us at home know she is present.
Secondly, I feel that even though they made it this far, they do not deserve this year like they did years prior. They had many games where the ending could have changed if one close-cutting factor had gone the other way. I think what gives me this spiteful lens is “Mahomes’ Magic”, or his well known luck to be able to turn bad situations around every game.
A prime example of this was their recent victory over the Bills in the AFC championship. Not only did he complete a 26-yard toss-up that could have been overturned as an incompletion that brought him 3 yards to the goal line and then score, but unfortunately, that is what we expect from him now. When he has been standing for too long, it is too common for him to scramble and throw the ball deep in the field and miraculously fall into a receiver’s hands. The final factor opponents face, and I know I am being bitter, but it is hard not to feel that the referees have greatly impacted the Chiefs this season, especially postseason.
When the Bills had possession of the ball in the last quarter, they failed to convert on fourth down…twice. Both instances could have gone either way, depending on how it was reviewed and the referees made the final decision of incomplete.
As close as the Chiefs are to greatness, it seems most NFL fans are tired of them.
I know I am.
I was among the rest of the nation hoping that Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills would have beat them in the AFC championship. As great a feat as it is to win three Super Bowls back-to-back-to-back, I do not want them to win. I love watching football because of how entertaining and heartbreaking it is to root for the team I love and be with them when they win or lose—Titan Up—but seeing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl for almost his sixth year in a row is getting monotonous; in fact, I am sure this is how fans felt during Brady’s reign.
Brady, after winning six Super Bowls for the Patriots, left and two years later won his seventh and last ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As incredible as he and Mahomes are, fans grow tired of the predictability of how the season will play out year after year, and like other sports, dynasty fatigue will set in making the game less exciting.
Still, something about this year was different than the rest, not just fatigue, and I felt unsatisfied with how the season ended. It could be because my team had the worst record, but honestly, I thought this was going to be the year the Chiefs would finally be stopped. It seemed each game they did not play as if they had just won two Super Bowls in a row. I expected them to dominate each game and they didn’t.
Philadelphia may be what brings us together as fans. Can Jalen Hurts put the pressure of the fans’ expectations on his back? I believe he can.
The way the Eagles took charge in their NFC championship game against the Washington Commanders, beating them 55-23 helps me hold on to that last bit of hope I have left. If not, this may be another Super Bowl where I enjoy the concert and the commercials more than the game itself. It may be time I take a break from the NFL and give my support to the newly founded spring football league, the UFL, because if the Chiefs don’t lose this Super Bowl, I don’t know the next time they will.