PHILADELPHIA — Super Bowl LVII featured a parade of entertaining storylines ranging from All-Pro siblings Jason and Travis Kelce, the battle of MVP and runner-up Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes, and the winningest coach in Eagles history Andy Reid taking on his old team.
Yet it pales in comparison to the drama of the Monday night showdown at Arrowhead Stadium between the Eagles and Chiefs, a game affectionately dubbed Super Bowl 57.5.
Certainly, the rematch features the two top teams in pro football, the Eagles rolling in at a league-best 8-1 mark, the Chiefs at 7-2. Not to mention the top two quarterbacks in the game.
Combine the celebrity status of Travis Kelce’s growing relationship with singer Taylor Swift, who likely will jet in from South America to watch the game with her parents and their Kelce counterparts in a meet and greet, and you have a night like no other.
When all is said and done, a record number of TV viewers will watch the game due mostly to the off-field pageantry of Swift’s reactions every time Travis or the Chiefs make a big play.
And that is just the beginning. The State Farm Insurance commercials with Mahomes, Kelce and Reid could leave non-Chiefs fans nauseated by the fourth quarter. There are only so many skits about personal price plans, mustache drawing, bundling and burger eating you can take before the breaking point.
That this is happening on the watch of the 65-year-old Reid, who so stoically said he wasn’t “blog efficient” many years ago in shooting down a rumor that he’d step down as head coach of the Eagles to deal with his sons’ personal issues, is a lesson in change.
How none of this theater, particularly the celebrity romance, has ended up not disrupting the players and staff would have been beyond comprehension when Reid’s 2005 Eagles team was torn apart by the superstar selfishness of Terrell Owens.
“The commercials, this happens when you have success,” Reid said on a conference call Thursday. “Guys get opportunities to do things. And the thing with Taylor, I mentioned it to our guys, I’m glad she found somebody she likes and Trav has found somebody he likes. So, I mean, I think, that’s a neat deal for them. And I don’t think either one of them create a distraction at all for the team.”
Almost everybody who knows football, along with people who think they know, will anoint the winner of this game the Super Bowl favorite, although there is a long way to go and a single injury for either team can completely change that status. But this is the next best thing. There is a score to settle, as Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata and some of his teammates have said they took the 38-35 loss personally. File the “just another game” mentality under empty coach speak this week.
The Eagles could have won that game with a different defensive approach in the second half. The unit surrendered two walk-in touchdown passes on communication breakdowns, as well as James Bradberry’s holding penalty in front of an official that set up the game-winning field goal. Special teams didn’t play a complete game either, as the Eagles surrendered a SB record 65-yard punt return to Kadarius Toney that changed the momentum in Glendale, Ariz.
That the Chiefs have trudged through the glitz and glamour a year after winning the Lombardi Trophy is nothing short of stunning.
Eagles center Jason Kelce, a celebrity in his own right throughout Philly, described life with a brother’s every public hug and kiss of Swift documented and distributed on social media as, “a whirlwind.”
“It kind of started last year with the podcast and everything,” Jason Kelce said. “It’s continually built up more and more from the Super Bowl and my brother’s love life. It’s continued to get more and more, and you just try to take it one day at a time. You try to stay grounded with it. You try to be realistic about it. You just try to keep being the same person that you are. It’s harder to go out. I went to the airport. That’s more difficult now than it used to be. Outside of that, you just try to keep doing what you’ve been doing. Obviously, something’s working.”
The Eagles are 2.5-point underdogs. But they’ve proven that last year wasn’t a flash in the pan, the fate that typically awaits Super Bowl runners-up. They are among the exceptions in that realm. They are grounded to the point that 35-year-old defensive end Brandon Graham, whom Reid drafted in 2010, can talk about the old boss who peppered him with a bevy of defensive coordinators like the icon he is.
The commercials, the drama, the competitiveness, Graham always will be a fan of Big Red.
“I’m happy for coach because I’ve seen him on the other side of it when he was trying to get his Super Bowl,” Graham said. “Very thankful for him, you know, and his family to have gotten over that hump because I know what that feels like.”
To contact Bob Grotz, email [email protected]