If you haven’t been living under a rock since 2019, there are three things you can count on: death, taxes and the Kansas City Chiefs being in the Super Bowl. Nothing has changed this year. The Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl attempting to do something that has never been done in the history of the NFL, a three-peat.
Teams have won back to back Super Bowls before, but three in a row is unheard of. The Chiefs’ matchup in Super Bowl LIX is the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that embodies everything that the Chiefs are not.
The Eagles embody the heart of their city. They’re a gritty, hard-nosed football team that destroys their opponents with a relentless run game on the backs of quarterback Jalen Hurts and the NFL’s rushing leader, running back Saquon Barkley. Along with the intensely pounding run game, the Eagles have one of the NFL’s best defenses. The unit features stars of the past such as defensive back Darius “Big Play” Slay, stars of the present like the dominant duo of linebackers, Nolan Smith and Zach Baun, and even future stars in defensive tackle Jalen Carter and defensive backs Cooper Dejean and Quinyon Mitchell.
On the flip side, you have the quintessential evil empire, the star of the show, the dynasty — the Chiefs. Kansas City doesn’t dominate their opponents. Almost every game they play is close, but the Chiefs simply do not lose.
Patrick Mahomes has become football’s LeBron Jame except he skipped Lebron’s early team struggles and went straight into conversations with the all time greats of the sport. The Chiefs have lost just three playoff games in the Patrick Mahomes era. Mahomes has been the starting quarterback in Kansas City since the 2018-2019 season.
The only man to beat Mahomes in the playoffs multiple times is the only man that is definitively above him in the conversation for the greatest of all time, Tom Brady.
The Chiefs have shown levels of dominance that NFL fans have never seen before. However, they don’t dominate by blowing out their opponents. That is where the controversy comes in.
The Chiefs’ close victories typically involve their opponents seemingly falling apart in crunch time; Mahomes doing something nobody has ever seen before to end a game; and ­­– the reason for the controversy – biased officiating.
Kansas City is the most popular franchise in all of American sports, and at the current time, it’s not particularly close. Mahomes is a global sensation in his own right, but the relationship between legendary Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce, and the most famous female musician in the world, Taylor Swift, has truly catapulted the Chiefs’ popularity above even the NFL itself.
So in order to keep the cash cow at the top, the NFL has seemingly had its referees favor the Chiefs with more than questionable calls to ensure victory. While this all sounds like a conspiracy theory, there have been at least 10 instances of blatantly incorrect calls favoring the Chiefs this year. The most egregious of the bunch came in the AFC Championship this season against the Buffalo Bills. On back to back plays, the Bills seemingly had a first down, but both times, the referees moved back the spot of the ball just enough to keep them behind the line to gain. Those movements of the spot caused the Bills to turn the ball over on downs, giving the Chiefs the opportunity to run out the clock and punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.
Obviously, the attention the Chiefs receive is not all praise. In fact, despite obviously being the best player in the NFL, Mahomes is the most hated player in the league. Kelce faces a similar fate, as his unpunished antics and global superstar girlfriend overshadow the fact that he is one of the greatest tight ends of all time.
On the other end of the spectrum, the usually unpopular Eagles have much of the sports world rooting for them. Of course, some people want to see Mahomes and the Chiefs make history, but that accomplishment will have an asterisk next to it in the minds of many. We’ve seen dynasties before like Tom Brady’s Patriots, Joe Montana’s 49ers, Troy Aikman’s Cowboys, and Terry Bradshaw’s Steelers, but none of them have ever done what Mahomes and the Chiefs have the chance to do.
No matter the outcome of the game, the Chiefs will remain immensely popular and will absolutely hoist multiple Super Bowls in the future. Hopefully, by then, the NFL’s obsession with the Chiefs will be over, and Mahomes’ greatness will be more respected.
This game means much more than just being able to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy and call yourself a champion. This game has the fate of the NFL hanging in the balance. The Chiefs are a win away from history. The Eagles are the last line of defense between Kansas City and the single most tainted team accomplishment in sports history.