Kansas City’s hopes of returning home with the Lombardi trophy looked bleak late in the opening half when Mahomes appeared to re-injure the right ankle that had been a major worry coming into the game.
Grimacing in pain after a tackle, Mahomes hobbled off the field and slammed his helmet to the turf as the Chiefs headed into halftime trailing 24-14.
But when the teams returned after the break a resilient Mahomes produced a heroic effort, tossing two fourth-quarter touchdowns and engineering a final drive to set up Harrison Butker’s 27-yard game-winning field goal with eight seconds to play.
Super Bowl 2023: Chiefs player welcomes Super Bowl twins
The Kansas City Chiefs welcomed two new fans to the world on Super Bowl Sunday with a third apparently on the way.
Chiefs offensive lineman Nick Allegretti’s wife, Christina, gave birth in the early hours to twin girls back home in Chicago, a team official confirmed to The Associated Press. Allegretti was able to watch everything unfold on FaceTime from the lobby of the team hotel while the rest of the Chiefs slept ahead of their game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Allegretti, who has started three games this season, will be available for the Chiefs in the big game.
About the same time his wife was giving birth, Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman tweeted that his girlfriend, Chariah Gordeon, had gone into labor. Hardman went on injured reserve this week and was not available to play in the game.
Nick Allegretti #73 of the Kansas City Chiefs (Getty Images)
AP
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 21:44
Super Bowl 2023: Best bets
Under 50.5: This started at 49.5 and could get up to 51.5. It’s a no bet if you don’t enjoy cheering for no points (who does?), yet the Eagles have the run game to keep Mahomes off the field, plus elite coverage from James Bradberry and Darius Slay and a relentless Haason Reddick-led pass rush. All this and we’re assuming Mahomes is healthy and does not reinjure himself.
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 21:31
Super Bowl 2023: Chiefs fans prepare to watch game in Kansas City
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
Jack Rathborn12 February 2023 21:27
Super Bowl 2023: Best bets
Eagles moneyline 5/6: If I have to pick one side, it has to be Philadelphia, they just have the better roster. Yes, you might look back at Patrick Mahomes in a similar light to Tom Brady and wonder why you bet against the best quarterback of a generation. Yet the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have already shown Mahomes and the Chiefs to be beatable on the biggest stage in the game. Sure, get a little more value with -1.5, but this is such a close game, a one-point win cannot be ruled out.
Vince Lombardi trophy (Getty)
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 21:17
Super Bowl 2023: Latest updates
Football fans descended by the thousands on Glendale, Arizona, for the NFL’s title game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. It was glorious weather for revelers, with partly cloudy skies and high temperatures in the 70s.
The Chiefs and Eagles are at the stadium, too, arriving more than three hours before the scheduled game time 4:30 p.m. local time. The NFL said it expects the retractable roof will be open at State Farm Stadium thanks to the nice weather, which was also the case for the previous two Super Bowls played at the stadium.
(Getty Images)
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 21:05
Super Bowl 2023: Reid faces his former team
Andy Reid already proved he can win the big game in Kansas City after coming up short several times throughout his 14 seasons in Philadelphia.
Leading the Chiefs to a victory over the Eagles in the Super Bowl on Sunday would further cement his Hall of Fame credentials and add to his legacy.
“Listen, I had 14 great years there,” Reid said about Philadelphia, where he won more games than any coach in franchise history. “I loved every minute of it. It’s a great organization. I still am close with the people there. It was great to see the kids that we had drafted that are now these veteran players — All-Pro players — on that team. I had the chance to give them a hug, and now we go our separate ways and get ready to play.”
Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs (16-3) are aiming to win their second Super Bowl championship in four seasons. They beat the San Francisco 49ers three years ago and lost to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the 2020 season.
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 20:44
Super Bowl 2023: Hurts convinced by Eagles team spirit
Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts believes the Eagles’ charge to Super Bowl LVII has been fuelled by their collective strength.
Hurts has been one of the stand-out figures in the Eagles’ run to Sunday’s NFL showpiece at the Arizona Cardinals’ State Farm Stadium, where they will take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Receiver AJ Brown, running back Miles Sanders and linebacker Haason Reddick have also been among the key players but Hurts feels it has been a team effort.
The 24-year-old told reporters: “I think the number one thing is to invest in your team-mates and coaches.
“It’s important to go out there and build relationships with the people around you, the people that you’re going to be playing with so everyone can play that much harder for one another.
“I feel like if you have a relationship with someone, you know them on a personal level, they’re going to play harder for you on the field.
“I think that’s why we’ve come so far, because we’ve been truly connected all year. We’ve been on the same page.
“We’ve competed hard for one another. You can see that passion on the field, you can see that passion in the stands and the city of Philly. It all goes together.”
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 20:14
Super Bowl 2023: Mahomes and Hurts make history
At Super Bowl 57, Hurts will be only the eighth Black quarterback to start the title game. Mahomes became the seventh when he started for the Chiefs in their victory over the San Francisco 49ers three years ago.
Before them came Cam Newton with the Carolina Panthers, Russell Wilson, who won with the Seattle Seahawks, and the 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling protest against racial injustice begun in 2016 transformed American professional sports.
Kaepernick was lambasted by many fans and filed a collusion grievance against NFL owners a year later, when he went unsigned as a free agent, eventually settling with the league in 2019. But he never threw another NFL pass.
Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020, Mahomes was among more than a dozen Black NFL players to appear in a video demanding an end to systemic racism and police brutality, declaring “Black Lives Matter.”
Hurts, who was drafted in 2020, has sported the ’Black Lives Matter’ slogan on his helmets during games.
After the beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month, the NFL released a statement saying the league remains ‘deeply committed to combating the injustices and inequities’ that plague our society.
“To have two Black quarterbacks competing on this big stage, in a sport where, not too long ago, Black men were deemed as not intelligent enough to play that position, is a testament to the progress that we have made,” NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith told reporters this week.
“This is certainly a proud moment for the game of football that has been long overdue.”
Jalen Hurts (left) and Patrick Mahomes lead their teams in Sunday’s Super Bowl (David J Philip/AP) (AP)
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 19:44
Super Bowl 2023: Mahomes and Hurts make history
Kansas City Chiefs’ newly minted league MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Philadelphia Eagles’ budding superstar Jalen Hurts will make history on Sunday, marking the first time two Black quarterbacks have started in the Super Bowl.
The occasion prompted uneasy celebration in Phoenix this week, as a sign of progress but also a stark reminder of hurdles that Black players have faced for decades.
Asked by a reporter this week what took so long, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was blunt: “There are probably a variety of reasons - probably none of them good.”
“The reality is, there’s such great talent at that position, Black and white,” Goodell said at his annual state-of-the-league media briefing. “I think we have 11 Black starting quarterbacks today. They are some of the best leaders I’ve ever seen.”
It wasn’t until 1988 - at Super Bowl 22 - that Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to start the NFL title game, winning the Super Bowl for the then Washington Redskins.
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked him out of Grambling State a decade earlier, Williams was the first Black quarterback to go in the first round who was not eventually converted to another position.
He told the New York Times that year that Black quarterbacks had not “been given the opportunity and the patience” their white counterparts had.
“White quarterbacks like Bert Jones and Terry Bradshaw needed time. But their teams let ‘em learn. You learn from experience. It’s hard to learn and produce at the same time,” he said.
Twenty-three years later, Michael Vick made history as the first Black quarterback taken first overall in the NFL Draft, bringing a different style to the position with extraordinary mobility.
“When I first came into the league there was a lot of speculation about how long I was going to last as quarterback and if my style would hold up and I should change my style and become a pocket passer,” said Vick, who now works as an on-air analyst for Fox Sports.
“I never felt it was thing where people said it was harder to win with Black quarterbacks, it was more about durability. There are a lot of stereotypes but we found ways to overcome that, we found ways to cross that barrier.”
Jamie Braidwood12 February 2023 19:15
Super Bowl 2023: Kansas City Chiefs protest
Native American groups are expected to protest the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, calling for the AFC champions to drop their name and logo as they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57. The Chiefs wear the arrowhead logo on their helmet and use a large drum to kick of their home games, as fans routinely engage in what’s known as the “tomahawk chop” chant, all of which critics say draw on offensive and racist stereotypes.
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