After another season with unexpected moments and broken records, the Philadelphia Eagles secured a Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs, who were attempting to become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
The NFL Playoffs had instances mirroring the previous year: rookies rallying their teams a long distance, contenders returning for another shot and the game’s brightest stars putting on a show for their city.
The NFL’s rookie of the year and quarterback of the Washington Commanders, Jayden Daniels, turned a four-win team from the previous year to a twelve win team, ultimately leading them to the NFC Championship for the first time since 1991, knocking off the number one seed Detroit Lions in the divisional round. This year’s Super Bowl was a rematch of Super Bowl Bowl LVII, in which the Chiefs eclipsed the Eagles 38-35 by a late touchdown catch from Mecole Hardman. This was the year of Saquan Barkley, the NFL’s offensive player of the year, and running back of the Philadelphia Eagles. Barkley led the league in rushing yards with 2,005, and had a combined five touchdowns and 477 all-purpose yards in the three playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl.
These playoffs, the media has rewritten a lot of narratives. During the playoffs Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills have once again come up short against the Chiefs. NHP’s football fanatics wonder if Allen will ever get over the hump and have his career not be defined by the annual losses to Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs.
“Allen has all the tools that you’d want to have in a franchise quarterback: arm power, athleticism, mobility in the pocket. accuracy, leadership, and pure grit,” senior Charlie Vasquez said. “The Chiefs are diminishing in talent by year and Allen and the Bills will eclipse them next year.”
“I think this is a huge setback for Mahomes in the goat conversation. Tom Brady was able to step up to the moment Mahomes just did the opposite,” freshman Kaiden Kwon said.
Mahomes and the Chiefs narrowly got past the two-seed Bills in a nail biting finish in the AFC conference championship game.
“Every year the Chiefs and Bills are the best game to watch. The clash of the best two quarterbacks in the league, the best two teams. It’s David vs. Goliath,” senior Jash Mody said. “The Bills let Allen down on both sides of the ball and there’s nothing he can do to change that. It’s just that every year a certain player comes up big for the Chiefs and it ends up being Xavier Worthy’s game.”
The Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Cinderella story that was the Washington Commanders on the other side of the bracket.
Both teams had a rather slow start to the game with both punting on the first possession. This would not be the case with two costly interceptions by Mahomes led to a touchdown and giving the Eagles prime field position for A.J. Brown to get a touchdown. Cooper DeJean, the Eagles’ first round pick and cornerback out of Iowa, came up with his highlight of the season and the silencer for the Chiefs in the first half. The Chiefs were down 24-0 by half time when Kendrick Lamar came out.
“At this point in the game, I couldn’t tell you what I was thinking. I could agree and say like the rest of the country I didn’t want Mahomes to win for a third time in a row. But down 24-0 by half was not the way I would expect them to go out,” senior Usman Iqbal said. “But, this year was the year of the rookies, Daniels leading the Commanders, Nabers and BTJ with the Giants and Jaguars, respectively, and DeJean coming up with the big plays against the Chiefs.”
The halftime show was the center of the Super Bowl for many. A five time Grammy winning rapper, Kendrick Lamar, coming off of one of his most historic years in the music industry, was the star of the show. Many critics, especially those of the older generation, didn’t enjoy the performance. The show started with a GNX teaser which led to his guest performer SZA playing their hits “All the Stars” and “Luther.” The show’s pinnacle was the playing of Lamar’s biggest hit “Not Like Us” with guest appearance from Mustard. The show also had guest appearances from Serena Williams and Samuel L. Jackson.
“I didn’t really like the halftime show. I could barely hear him; he was just mumbling and the performance wasn’t as flashy as last year’s either,” eighth grader Rory Massa stated.
After the halftime show, many students believed that some “Mahomes magic” could bring the Chiefs back within range of victory. That proved to be wrong. The Eagles defense shutout Mahomes until late in the third quarter while Jalen Hurts was not taking his foot off the pedal putting up 34 points.
“It wasn’t as exciting as it should have been. The Eagles just plain out crushed the Chiefs which led to a kind of disappointing game,” sports fan and tech teacher Mr. Brady said.
