The Kansas City Chiefs have returned back home, just a day after being crowned as the new Super Bowl champions, with head coach Andy Reid seen stepping off the plane with the Lombardi trophy in his hands.
There was no Patrick Mahomes on board, though, with the star quarterback opting to head to Disneyland with his family instead of heading home with his teammates.
Per KMBC, players and staff are thought to have touched down in Missouri shortly after 4.45 p.m. on Monday, following a thrilling 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday.
But without Mahomes on Monday, Chiefs players and staff got off their United plane to hop onto buses before being escorted by police back to Arrowhead Stadium.
On their way there, Chiefs fans greeted the team from either side of the road.
The Chiefs’ quick return home is tied to city officials releasing the 2023 Super Bowl Parade route, which almost as identical as the team’s 2020 parade route.
Starting at noon on Wednesday, a double-decker bus is expected to bring Chiefs players and staff to Grand Boulevard in downtown Kansas City.
The team is then expected to stroll down 6th Street and circle around other parts of the city’s downtown before turning on Pershing Road and ending at Union Station.
Hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to be present for the parade, especially to hear the team’s rally at around 1.45 p.m. in front of Union Station.
Mahomes, who surely won’t miss his team’s bus parade in two days’ time, finished with 182 yards passing and three touchdowns by the end of Sunday night.
He was especially brilliant while playing with a hurt ankle in the second half: 13-of-14 for 93 yards and two touchdowns.
The league’s MVP also had 44 yards rushing, including his 26-yard sprint with just over two minutes left in a 35-all game as Kansas City was driving for the go-ahead score.
Mahomes’ run enabled Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker to then convert a 27-yard field goal with eight second to go, killing any hope of a late Eagles comeback.
However, Philly fans argue that a questionable late penalty on team cornerback James Bradberry with less than two minutes proved to be an anti-climatic ending to an exciting game that saw the Chiefs claw back form a 10-point halftime deficit.
The Chiefs were driving and faced third-and-eight at the Eagles 15-yard line with 1:54 remaining when Mahomes threw an incomplete pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. But officials flagged Bradberry for defensive holding, which negated the incompletion and, more importantly, gave the Chiefs a first down.
Replays showed that Bradberry made light contact with Smith-Schuster, though it didn’t appear to affect the play much. The player did admit to have grabbed his opponent’s jersey after the game.
Kansas City was able to essentially run out the clock from that point forward. Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon made a smart move on the ensuing down, purposefully sliding two yards short of the goal line instead of scoring a touchdown.
Mahomes then was able to kneel twice as the clock ran down after the Eagles used their final timeout. Butker then converted the game’s decisive field goal.
