Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Down here, we can always rely on certain constants: the lapping of waves against the hull, the cry of the albatrosses overhead, the sound of Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken munching on fish crackers as they watch sports on TV …
… and the Kansas City Chiefs headed toward the Big Game.
Yes, dear readers, for the fifth time in six seasons, the Chiefs, led by superstar QB Patrick Mahomes, are going to the Super Bowl. This time around, they will be playing the Philadelphia Eagles, who themselves are no strangers to the NFL championship game, as this will mark their second appearance in three years and third appearance in eight years. If the adage about familiarity breeding contempt is true, there will be a whole lot of football fans hating every minute leading up to the game.
The Eagles made their way to the title contest, transpiring this year in New Orleans, via a convincing 55-23 win over the Washington Redskins Commanders for the NFC championship. There was too much Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts, who, even though playing hurt, played exceptionally well, and too many turnovers by the Commanders for a game Washington squad to overcome. Still, the Commanders greatly overachieved all season, and are a team on the rise. Sunday, however, belonged to the Eagles, no matter how you spell it.
Philadelphia’s mayor Cherelle Parker led an Eagles chant today, but misspelled Eagles 😅
“E-L-G-S-E-S”
(h/t NBC Philadelphia) pic.twitter.com/4qjMHYVwde
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) January 21, 2025
Meanwhile, the Chiefs played in the AFC championship game for the seventh consecutive year. They are 5-2 in said games and broke Buffalo’s heart again with a 32-29 victory over the Bills. Buffalo tried a two-point conversion on two occasions and converted neither, so at least it was not a last-second loss. Still, one suspects that Buffalo wonders if it will ever stop its postseason routine of playing the Washington Generals to Kansas City’s Harlem Globetrotters.
Thus, like it or not, we have our lineup for Super Bowl LIX. It will be strength versus strength whenever Philadelphia has the ball, as the Chiefs are better at stopping the run than the pass, while the Eagles excel at the run courtesy of the other-worldly Mr. Barkley. It will also be strength on strength whenever Kansas City has the ball. Philadelphia’s defense was at the top of the NFL this year against the pass, but Mahomes is still able to make plays by himself where none are seemingly available. It should be a good, close game, no matter how tired any of us may be of the teams involved. Which is quite a bit.
And there you have it. The Chiefs are going for their third championship in a row, a feat never accomplished in the Super Bowl era. On the field, it is a tantalizing matchup. Off the field, as Yogi Berra once said, it’s déjà vu all over again. Aside from the horde of Swifties guaranteed to be glued to their television from start to finish so as to not miss a single shot of TayTay in whichever luxury suite she occupies, one wonders if the game will be a television ratings boom or bust due to the Chiefs, considering their maximum exposure over the past few years, and to a lesser degree the Eagles. Diehard football fans will tune in, but more casual ones may well decide this is the year to check out the Puppy Bowl.
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and associates have easily transcended the usual limitation of sports figures being known solely to sporting fans and have morphed into pop culture icons. This should ensure high interest among the general public. Still, for many pigskin enthusiasts, I have a hunch it is more a case of looking forward to the game being over with hopes that perhaps this time next year, we can see two different teams vying for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
