Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs are pursuing history and a few of Taylor Swift’s records.
Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles stand in their way.
The Chiefs (17-2) will try to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls when they face the Eagles (17-3) on Monday (AEDT) in the Superdome in New Orleans.
It’s a rematch from two years ago when Hurts nearly led the Eagles to a championship only to watch Mahomes snatch it away by rallying Kansas City to a 38-35 win on Harrison Butker’s 27-yard field goal with eight seconds left.
Mahomes lifted the Chiefs to an overtime win against San Francisco in another Super Bowl rematch last year. Now, they’re poised for a three-peat, a word coach Andy Reid doesn’t use much.
“I think the only time I’ve heard him say it is to the media whenever y’all ask him about it,” Mahomes said.
Reid won more games than any coach in franchise history during his 14 seasons in Philadelphia but couldn’t win the big one, going 1-4 in NFC championship games and losing a Super Bowl to New England. He went right to Kansas City after the Eagles fired him following the 2012 season and has built a dynasty thanks to Mahomes, Kelce and others.
“You don’t have time to think about all that,” Reid said of the three-peat.
“You’re focused in on the job at hand here and that’s playing against a great Eagles team.”
No matter what the Chiefs say, everyone else is talking about it. No team has done it in the Super Bowl era, though Green Bay won an NFL championship in 1965 and followed by winning the first two Super Bowls.
“This is gonna be our biggest test yet,” Kelce said.
“They got a lot of great players but the biggest thing is they play great together. You could see the accountability they have … It’s not gonna make my job any easier.”
These Eagles are different from the group that fell just short in Arizona two years ago.
They have the NFL’s most dynamic player in the backfield. Barkley rushed for 2447 yards with seven touchdowns of 60-plus yards in the regular season and playoffs.
“The goal has always been to win it, not just to get here,” Barkley said.
Losing to the Chiefs two years ago only motivated Hurts even more. He’s determined to hoist a Lombardi trophy and even had a photo of him walking off the field with Kansas City’s red and yellow confetti falling around him as the background on his phone.
“It’s had a great driving force,” Hurts said of that loss.
“It lit a flame, lit a fire in me, and to have this opportunity again is exactly what you work for.”
If the Chiefs win, Reid and Mahomes will be one step closer to Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. They’re halfway to the six Belichick and Brady won together at the Patriots and Mahomes is still four away from Brady’s seven rings.
A win for Kansas City also would give Kelce his fourth ring, the same number of Grammy Awards his pop star girlfriend has won for best album. Overall, Kelce has 18 playoff wins and Swift has 14 Grammys.
“She’s up there being the superstar that she is and never taking no for an answer and always working her tail off. I better match that energy for sure,” Kelce said.
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