Super Bowl LVII
- 13 Feb 2023
- This Super Bowl really seems to mark a new era for the NFL.
It’s been five years since the Eagles have been to the Super Bowl. It’s also been five years since my most memorable recap of the Super Bowl. I’ve been too lazy to write about the Super Bowls since that one, with exception of last year’s iteration. Now, I have a streak of two recaps. This one will be short because I’ve only watched the final 9 minutes of the game. I don’t need, or particularly want, to see the highlights leading to that point.
Jalen Hurts leading Philadelphia to tie the game at 35 had been worth the price of admission. The pass-interference call against them is tough to bear, and Kansas City’s setup for the winning field goal, though prudent, is anti-climactic. It’s something that I would do in a video game (if football were still enjoyable to play in a video game). Nonetheless, that stretch of 9 minutes is the best NFL football that I’ve seen all season.
It’s also the only NFL football that I’ve watched all season. Denver would need to be really good for me to actively follow–and actually watch–NFL football before the playoffs and Super Bowl. Even with new coach Sean Payton, who’s won a Super Bowl, the Broncos are in the same division as the champs. The Chiefs will be perennial contenders for the next several years, but I sense that Patrick Mahomes will only play in one more Super Bowl (and lose).
He could approach the dominance of Tom Brady, who seems to be retired for real this time, but I doubt that Mahomes comes anywhere close. Two Super Bowl wins over the course of a career is still impressive, and Mahomes is already bound for the Hall of Fame in my view. It’s even more impressive that, since his Super Bowl loss five years ago, Brady has gone two more Super Bowls and won them both.
In fact, I’ll probably remember this Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl as the matchup between the last franchises to win and lose against Brady in the Super Bowl, respectively. With Brady away from the field (as a player and not as an eventual broadcaster), now Aaron Rodgers is the only marquee player who’s in ESPN NFL 2K5 and still active in the league. Andy Reid is almost certainly the only active head coach from the 2004-2005 season.
His and Donovan McNabb’s Eagles team finally got past the NFC championship game that season, but they lost to Bill Belichik and Brady’s Patriots, of course. Will Reid and Mahomes’s Chiefs be like the Eagles or the Patriots of that era? Only time will tell.