The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will meet subsequent month in Tremendous Bowl LVII, a recreation that can pit Andy Reid towards his former workforce and that can characteristic two Black beginning quarterbacks for the primary time in Tremendous Bowl historical past.
This can be Patrick Mahomes’s third Tremendous Bowl look in his 5 seasons as Kansas Metropolis’s starter, whereas Jalen Hurts has led the Eagles to the Tremendous Bowl in his second full season because the beginning quarterback.
The groups will play on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz., and each quarterbacks might want to use the time earlier than the sport to recuperate from lingering accidents.
Mahomes sprained his proper ankle on Jan. 21 in Kansas Metropolis’s divisional-round win towards the Jacksonville Jaguars. Whereas he handed for 326 yards in Sunday’s 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals within the A.F.C. championship, and he nimbly scrambled for a primary down on the play that arrange the game-winning subject objective, Mahomes was clearly taking part in by means of ache and limped at occasions all through the sport.
Hurts, a right-handed quarterback, sprained his throwing shoulder in December and missed two regular-season video games. He returned for the Eagles’ regular-season finale and each their postseason video games however has mentioned his shoulder just isn’t 100% wholesome.
Every workforce entered the postseason because the No. 1 seed in its respective convention, however they superior to the Tremendous Bowl underneath very completely different circumstances.
The Eagles had been in management for many of their 31-7 win towards the San Francisco 49ers, after each the starter Brock Purdy and his backup Josh Johnson — the workforce’s third and fourth quarterbacks this season — had been injured.
Kansas Metropolis’s recreation towards the Bengals, however, got here right down to the ultimate seconds. On the ultimate drive, a 15-yard pointless roughness penalty was referred to as towards the Bengals on Mahomes’s 5-yard scramble for a primary down, which put Kansas Metropolis in place to kick a 45-yard game-winning subject objective with three seconds left.
The Tremendous Bowl matchup between Kansas Metropolis and Philadelphia ought to pit a pass-heavy juggernaut towards the ground-bound Eagles. Mahomes led the league in passing this season, accruing greater than 5,000 yards within the air throughout the common season. In opposition to the 49ers, each Hurts and the Eagles set data for speeding touchdowns this season: 15 for Hurts and 39 for the workforce.
The final time Kansas Metropolis and Philadelphia performed one another, in October 2021, Mahomes threw 5 landing passes in a 42-30 victory.
Past the quarterbacks, a serious story line over the subsequent two weeks can be Reid going through the workforce he led for 14 years. Within the early 2000s, Reid took the Eagles to 4 straight N.F.C. championship video games, and one Tremendous Bowl look, a loss to the New England Patriots, earlier than the workforce determined to not deliver him again for the 2013 season.
Reid accepted the Kansas Metropolis job days later, and received his first Tremendous Bowl within the 2019 season, towards the 49ers. He took Kansas Metropolis again to the Tremendous Bowl within the 2020 season, however the workforce misplaced to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Like Kansas Metropolis, the Eagles have additionally lately been to the Tremendous Bowl. However whereas there are a handful of veteran gamers nonetheless on the roster from the workforce that received within the 2017 season, the Eagles are returning to the massive recreation with a unique head coach, Nick Sirianni, and a unique quarterback, Hurts.
The Kelce brothers — Jason, the Philadelphia heart, and Travis, the Kansas Metropolis tight finish — will change into the primary set of brothers to play towards one another within the Tremendous Bowl.
The final two Tremendous Bowls performed within the Phoenix space had been two of essentially the most thrilling video games in latest historical past: the Giants’ win towards the beforehand undefeated Patriots in Tremendous Bowl XLII, and the Patriots’ victory towards the Seattle Seahawks off Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception in Tremendous Bowl XLIX.