Last Updated on February 18, 2024 by BVN
Leland Stein III
Super Bowl LVII, played before 67,827 in State Farm Stadium, was indeed memorable for me – and I’m sure many others too – for a multitude of reasons.
Surely, this fantastically competed contest was one for the ages, with the Kansas City Chiefs coming back in the second half to down the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on a Harrison Butker 27-yard field goal with 8 seconds left in the game.
The Chiefs won their second NFL title in four years and two-time NFL regular season MVP, Patrick Mahomes, earned his second Super Bowl MVP award.
“I thought guys just embraced the moment,” Mahomes said about rallying from a 10-point halftime deficit. “In that first half, we were playing and doing some good stuff, but I felt like the guys were getting consumed by everything around us.”
Mahomes and Jalen Hurts excelled in the first Super Bowl matchup featuring two Black starting quarterbacks, but Mahomes turned it up in the second half after reaggravating a sprained right ankle just before the end of the first half.
Of the 30 Super Bowls I’ve covered . . . this one was especially noteworthy and competitive because of its close and controversial conclusion; however, the storylines leading up to, and, during the game were equally compelling.
Firstly, how sweet is it as a parent to have two sons — Jason (Eagles) and Travis (Chiefs) Kelce — play in the same Super Bowl? The brothers are the first siblings to be on opposite sides at a Super Bowl.
“There’s nothing you can really say to a loved one in a situation like that,” explained Travis, who was both happy and sad. “You joke around all the time and say you want to beat your brother on the biggest stage, but it’s a weird feeling. That team had great leadership, great coaches and it came down to the end. There’s nothing I can say to him other than I love him and he played a hell of a year, a hell of a season.”
Said Travis’ older-brother, Jason: “They’ve earned it. I’ve got a lot of respect for everybody in that organization (Chiefs). There’s a lot of people in that organization that gave me my start in this league, including the head coach Andy Reid, so obviously would have liked to win but I’m happy for Trav for sure.”
Even more importantly for me, this was the first Super Bowl where Black quarterbacks – Mahomes and Hurts — were starting on opposite teams since the inception of this landmark American sporting event in 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and also, Hurts and Mahomes combined age made them the youngest opposing quarterbacks in the Big Game’s 57-year history.
“I’ve thought about it a lot,’ Mahomes, 27, said. “The quarterbacks that came before me — Shack Harris, Doug Williams – that laid the foundation for me to be in this position. It goes across all sports. If you think about Jackie Robinson and the people who broke the color barrier in baseball, I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for them.”
Continued Mahomes: “To be lucky enough to be in this position — and play against another great guy like Jalen — it was special. I’m glad we’re here today, but how can we keep moving forward? How can we motivate kids who are younger, who want to follow their dreams to be a quarterback?”
Added Hurts: “I think it’s something that’s worthy of being noted, and it is history. I think it’s only been seven African American quarterbacks to play in the Super Bowl, so to be in that company in an event this big is pretty cool.”
For the record, Doug Williams (in 1988 at Super Bowl XXII) and Russell Wilson (in 2014 at Super Bowl XLVIII) each won the NFL’s biggest prize, but were not able to duplicate their feat.
Mahomes earned his second Super Bowl win — his first came in Miami in 2020 – to became the first black quarterback to win more than one of the NFL’s treasured Vince Lombardi Trophies.
Unfortunately for Hurts and Philly fans, had he and the Eagles come out victorious, he would have become the fourth black quarterback – joining Williams, Wilson and Mahomes — to win the Big Game.
Said Mahomes in the post-game press conference about Hurts: “The way he stepped on this stage, ran, threw the ball, whatever it took for his team to win I mean, that was a special performance. I don’t want it to get lost in the loss that they just had. Whenever we got the momentum, we went up eight points in the fourth quarter and for him to respond and move his team down the football field and run it in himself in a two-point conversion, it was a special performance.”
“You either win, or you learn,” Hurts said. “I’m big on self-reflection and reflecting on the things I could have done better, so I think I’m going to challenge everyone to look at yourself in the mirror and be able to learn from everything.
“It is a very tough feeling to come up short. But I know that the only direction is to rise. And that’ll be the M.O. going forward. That is the mentality.”
After the Kelce brothers, and, the Hurts vs. Mahomes epic battle, it’s hard to single out what were the most memorable game moments from my 30th Super Bowl, because there simply were too many to recall.
After leading the NFL in sacks during the regular season, the Eagles didn’t get to Mahomes once – not once. What about the pivotal holding call on Philadelphia defensive back James Bradbury at the end of the game?
The late-game Bradbury penalty sent Eagle fans and social media into a frenzy, lamenting the referees. I, also hated to see this intense on-field battle being decide by a controversial call, yet here it was.
“It’s never about one play,” said Philadelphia head coach, Nick Sirianni. “I’m not here to debate whether it’s the right call or the wrong call, but of course I don’t like it. I understand that they’ve got to make that call in a split-second decision, but still . . . it never comes down to one play, even though at times it perceives to.”
What about the slip and slide conditions of the State Farm field and its impact on the game? Or Mahomes crazy good scramble on an injured ankle – his longest run all year — to help setup the game winning field goal? Or KC’s scoop and score by linebacker, Nick Bolton, following a Hurts’ fumble that tied the game at 14-14?
“I think my left hand might have hit the ball when I was wrapping him up,” exclaimed an obviously elated Bolton, “or he could’ve bobbled it as well. I was really praying for a good bounce and I got one, it popped up right in my hands and I was able to grab it and go.
“I actually had a dream about scooping and scoring in the Super Bowl two nights ago. For it to happen is surreal.”
Or just maybe the Kadarius Toney punt return for the Chiefs was the game’s most important moment. After all, both teams were playing tic-for-tac, exciting football, and, clearly at that point with 10 minutes left in the contest, the game’s outcome was anyone’s to win.
But at 10:33 of the fourth quarter, Toney corralled a Philadelphia punt on his own 38, eight seconds later he had skillfully negotiated the ball 65 yards along an emerging Kansas City picket fence to the Eagles 5-yard line. Toney’s effort produced the longest punt return in Super Bowl history.
“Yeah, I’m proud of those guys,” exclaimed Chiefs head coach, Reid, about his team’s needed contributions from new players. “Heck, we have all these rookies and new players on offense and defense. Each kept getting better every week they brought great energy and they’ve done that all year. Then here comes KT (Toney) coming into this thing late from the Giants and he has a couple of the biggest plays of the game. It’s been like that.”
Toney’s big play ate up 65 crucial yards and drastically changed field position, setting Kansas City up for an easy score.
“It was the right return,” said Toney, “but his punt flew left, so I just had to go out there and make a play. I was just making a play.”
Three plays later, Mahomes connected on a short pass to a wide-open Skyy Moore for a 4-yard score that gave the Chiefs a seemingly commanding eight-point advantage at 35-27 and only five minutes left in the game.
Sadly during my long week in the desert it wasn’t very hot at all, but the long-awaited match up of the Chiefs and the Eagles started out hot as a firecracker, and, never cooled.
I have to ask, “Was this an Eagles’ collapse or a noteworthy Chiefs’ comeback?”
I say when Magic Mahomes dragged himself off the turf after re-injuring his sprained ankle, it showed grit, and, from there his brilliance just won this game.
Still, Hurts could have, maybe should have joined Dallas’ Hall of Fame linebacker, Chuck Howley, as the second player from a losing team to win the Super Bowl MVP, I wouldn’t have been surprised, because he produced a special performance in the loss.
In closing, I couldn’t be happier for Reid, who has endured some serious family issues, couldn’t win the big game in Philadelphia, but beat his former team to earn his second ring with Mahomes and the Chiefs.
“We wanted to get this so bad for him,” Travis Kelce said. “His legacy in Philly lives on forever. … There’s a lot of pride in knowing that he’s had success in two different organizations, but this was the better one.”
Leland can be reached at lelstein3@aol.com or Twitter @LelandSteinIII
(Article published 2-14-23 via NNPA newswire services)