Chiefs Eye Super Bowl History Tonight As Eagles Want Revenge

The confetti was still falling after the Kansas City Chiefs defended their NFL title when Patrick Mahomes turned to a team-mate.

“We’re not done, dog,” said the Chiefs quarterback. “I want three, no-one’s ever got three. I want back to back to back.”

A year later, they are on the brink of doing just that as Mahomes has led the Chiefs back to the NFL’s championship game.

If they win in New Orleans Superdome on Sunday, they will become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.

Their date with destiny is against the Philadelphia Eagles, the team they beat to begin their Super Bowl trilogy two years ago.

And some of the world’s biggest celebrities are heading to arguably the greatest Super Bowl city – as well as Donald Trump, who will become the first sitting US president to attend America’s biggest sport event.

Just getting this far is already historic. No previous back-to-back champion has made it to the Super Bowl the following season.

Many neutrals hoped the Buffalo Bills, led by this season’s Most Valuable Player Josh Allen, would make it to Super Bowl 59.

But the Chiefs beat them 32-29 in the AFC Conference Championship and as they clinched victory, the team’s play-by-play announcer Mitch Holthus said the Chiefs had “gone past Pluto”.

“To get to this point, to go further than any team has ever been, it transcends the NFL and becomes part of world sport history,” he told BBC Sport.

“But to win this game, I think it would be an achievement that would never be done again.”

This is Kansas City’s fifth Super Bowl in six years and they are going for a fourth win.

Many neutrals are bored of seeing them win; some have even claimed they receive preferential treatment from officials.

When hosting the NFL’s annual awards on Thursday, rapper Snoop Dogg even joked that Sunday’s game will be an “incredible match-up between the Eagles… and the refs”.

But Holthus dismissed that as a “false narrative” and this week NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said it was “ridiculous”, while Mahomes is happy to keep being “a villain”.

The traditional pre-game ‘rooting map’suggests that most of America wants Philadelphia to win, but speaking to neutrals in New Orleans, it seems a 50-50 split.

The Eagles will play in their third Super Bowl in eight years, claiming their first Super Bowl win in 2018 before losing 38-35 to Kansas City in 2023.

This time round, the Chiefs are slight favourites, but many of those backing ‘the Birds’ want to see Saquon Barkley cap a scintillating season in style.

Philly’s running back needs just 30 yards to break the all-time record for most rushing yards in a season, including play-offs – 2,476.

Others want to see quarterback Jalen Hurts win after being unfortunate to miss out not just on Super Bowl glory two years ago, but also the season MVP and Super Bowl MVP awards.

Super Bowl 57 was also known as the ‘Kelce Bowl’ as it was the first to feature brothers on opposing teams – Jason and Travis Kelce.

Jason retired with Philadelphia in 2024 and is now a high-profile TV host/analyst while Travis remains a key man for Kansas City and is now more famous for being Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.