Welcome back to another edition of Football Morning in Columbia, where KCOU’s Quentin Corpuel highlights the week’s best, worst and everything in-between from the NFL.
Front page headlines
Another one
Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs! They are champions of Super Bowl LVIII, their fourth title in franchise history and third in the last five seasons.
As the confetti rained down on Allegiant Stadium, I began thinking about a bigger picture. Being an NFL fan in the 21st century has been different from any other of the three major American sports. Yes, there have been plenty of dynasties, but the NBA is the only other league where it felt like one team was constantly hanging over everyone else for most of the century.
Los Angeles Lakers: Four NBA Finals appearances, three titles in five seasons
San Antonio Spurs: Four NBA Finals appearances, four titles in nine seasons
Miami Heat: Four NBA Finals appearances, two titles in four seasons
Golden State Warriors: Six NBA Finals appearances, five titles in eight seasons
Sure, the San Francisco Giants won three World Series titles in five seasons, but they won 92, 94 and 88 regular season games in those seasons. The Chicago Blackhawks won three Stanley Cups in six seasons, but outside of a few two-year runs, no other team in the NHL could claim that they ran the league for multiple years post-2000.
The NFL, meanwhile, has had two giant clouds hanging over it for most of the century. When the Titans beat the Patriots in the 2020 Divisional Round, they vanquished that navy/red cloud…only for a red/white one to form a few weeks later.
While that cloud looked like it might disappear on Sunday, the Chiefs found a way once again. The telepathic connection between Mahomes and Kelce was reignited. Kansas City’s defense sent complex, yet coherent pressures at Purdy, who had a mixed bag of results. Chris Jones was a one-man wrecking crew once again, with his biggest play coming in overtime, where he forced an incompletion that could’ve been a touchdown to Jauan Jennings had Purdy gotten an extra second to throw. Trent McDuffie was the hero in the secondary, as his biggest play came on a disguised blitz that forced an incompletion and a Niners field goal late in regulation.
On offense, the two guys who caught touchdowns were unlikely heroes, but in a sense, the perfect people for the moment. The first was Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who was ridiculed all season long and had a play where his backwards stumbling cost the Chiefs about 10 yards of field position (Mahomes’ reaction was reminiscent of LeBron James’ to JR Smith’s blunder in the 2018 NBA Finals). The other was Mecole Hardman, who Kansas City didn’t re-sign this past offseason and got cut by the Jets this season, who caught the game-winner in overtime.
This was by far the worst offense of the Mahomes era…and they still won the Super Bowl. I’d say there’s a pretty solid chance we’re back in this same spot multiple times over the next few seasons.
Another one (but losing)
As the confetti rained down on Hard Rock Stadium on Feb. 2, 2020, a defeated, yet determined George Kittle stood on the sideline and said “I will be back here. I will be back here. I will be back…with a vengeance.”
He would be back here. He would be back here with a vengeance. But his team still couldn’t do it.
I don’t like using the word “hate”, but I’m going to use it here. I hate it for Kittle. I hate it Kyle Shanahan. I hate it for Brock Purdy. I hate it for Christian McCaffrey. I really hate it for Dre Greenlaw, who presumably ruptured his Achilles (MRIs pending) while running excitedly onto the field (c’mon football gods, really?). I hate it for every person within the 49ers organization, because once again, they were right at the doorstep of glory.
The thing I noticed most about them was that they were playing like themselves. McCaffrey fumbled, which was not normal, but he was still being used as an everything-man. Kyle Juszczyk had two electric catches that kept alive the spirit of an endangered specie (the fullback). The receivers were blocking their tails off on the outside. Purdy connected with Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings for easy chunk gains. Defensively, they had Mahomes in a bind. Nick Bosa was a wrecking ball that Kansas City couldn’t contain. Fred Warner was flying all over the place. Travis Kelce had, for the most part, been neutralized.
It got to a point where the Chiefs looked mentally permeable. Kelce’s verbal dissatisfaction with Reid after Isiah Pacheco lost a fumble in the red zone spilled into a body-check of Reid. After Jauan Jennings connected with Christian McCaffrey for a double-pass touchdown, Chris Jones called the entire defense over on the sidelines to have a talk. At the end of the first half, Jones was jawing with a bunch of white jerseys.
It was then that Tony Romo explained why the 49ers should’ve felt especially good about where they were heading into the half. “You’ve got the champs frustrated,” he said. It reminded me a little bit of that scene in “Miracle” when Herb Brooks told his team after they’d scored twice on USSR star goalie Vladislav Tretiak in the first period “well boys, you just put the best goaltender in the world on the bench”. The 49ers had shaken the unshakable.
But it still wasn’t enough.
They gave Mahomes too many chances. The turning point I’ll reference the most was the punt gone awry in the third quarter. What Ray-Ray McCloud did was smart; the ball bounced off of special teamer Darrell Luter’s foot (which most people couldn’t see), so McCloud was right in trying to recover the ball. But then, he had to be smart a second time; he just needed to fall on the ball! Instead, he tried to pick it up with his hands, and the result was a disaster. On the next play, Mahomes found MVS in the end zone for a touchdown.
This was how the Niners overcame a 17-point deficit against the Lions in the NFC Championship; they had a few loose balls bounce their way. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.
Now, the Niners are officially a historical footnote, and they’ll remain one until they win the big one. It stinks that it’s this way, especially considering how awesome they’ve been over the past few seasons. They’ve created a terrifying collection of superstars (especially on offense) by maximizing homegrown talent and swinging deals for game-changers like McCaffrey.
But that won’t be remembered. What’ll be remembered is that Shanahan has now lost four playoff games as an offensive coordinator and a head coach (including two Super Bowls) that saw his team hold a double-digit lead. What’ll be remembered is Moody making the go-ahead field goal in overtime, then the camera cutting to Samuel, who looked nervous even though his team had just pulled ahead. There’s a good chance he sensed impending doom with Mahomes on the other sideline; if he did, his feelings were soon confirmed.
On paper, it would’ve been understandable to pick the 49ers to win this game. They had the better overall roster despite the disadvantage at quarterback. I remember prior to the 2020 NBA Finals, I picked the Heat to beat the Lakers because I believed Miami had more depth. But at the end of the day, what mattered most is that LA had a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and their supporting cast was just good enough to outlast the red and white.
A similar thing happened on Sunday. What ended up mattering most for the Chiefs was that they had number 15 throwing the ball, and San Francisco didn’t. San Fran’s model of success – flanking an average quarterback with elite players everywhere else – has now gotten them to the Super Bowl multiple times. If they keep running into 15, however, their additional Super Bowl trophies might still remain at zero.
Quick(ish) hitters
Shanahan’s decision to take the ball first in overtime
Understandable. His defense had been on the field for a long time, and if they’d traded touchdowns or field goals with Kansas City to start the period, they would’ve gotten the ball back in a sudden death scenario under the new OT rules. Like a fourth down attempt, it was a decision that would’ve looked genius if it worked and far from it if it didn’t.
Field goal kicking
A combined 7/7 from Jake Moody and Harrison Butker. For Butker, it concludes an elite kicking season: 44/46 on field goals, 46/46 on extra points, 15/15 on field goals of 40+ yards and 7/7 on field goals of 50+ yards.
Jake Moody’s Super Bowl field goal record
Like William Henry Harrison’s tenure as the ninth President of the United States: short-lived!
Ball security
Not very high in Las Vegas. Both teams fumbled twice, with the Niners losing two and the Chiefs losing one.
Commercials
I don’t have too many strong opinions on these despite their popularity. I’ll go ahead and rank my top five
Paramount+ I A Mountain of Entertainment
NFL I Born to Play
Google Pixel I Javier in Frame
Cera Ve I Michael CeraVe
BMW I Talkin’ Like Walken
Awards and Superlatives
Incredible Game: Super Bowl LVIII
From anyone who simply wanted a quality football game, this was as much as you could’ve asked for.
The championship game of any sport should, in theory, feature a league’s two best teams who play an exciting, evenly-matched game, which was exactly what Sunday was. It was a literal clash of titans; both teams had superstars on both sides of the ball, some of which possessed varying levels of immortality. They also had play callers who had mortalized the immortal in Shanahan and Steve Spagnuolo.
The game was also intriguing from a storyline perspective. One team had uplifted their quarterback with an elite supporting cast. The other team had their quarterback uplift everyone else. One team was looking to cement themselves as a dynasty; the other was trying to de-cement themselves as one who always came up short. Viewers would also have to see Mahomes win another ring (if they disliked consistent excellence, that is) or admit that Brock Purdy is actually a decent quarterback.
Yes, the first half was a slog, but the entire game mattered. The game went into overtime for just the second time in the Super Bowl era. Every snap late in the fourth quarter and overtime felt like the universe was at stake, which is the most desirable outcome from a neutral viewer’s perspective. Oh, and all of this happened under the bright lights of Las Vegas, which has turned into a true sports mecca over the past few years.
God: Patrick Mahomes
Just like this entire season, there was a stretch where it looked like the Chiefs had been figured out. Mahomes was often quick to abort the pocket early on, and his receivers couldn’t seem to create any separation. He even threw an interception – an overthrow of Kelce – that marked his first since he threw a pair against the Bengals two years ago. Similarly to three years ago, when the Buccaneers jumped all over Mahomes, it felt like he would need to conjure up another Herculean effort to achieve victory.
So naturally, that’s exactly what happened.
Now, he wasn’t throwing Buddy the Elf-style passes that seemed humanly impossible. Heck, he barely threw the ball deep, as almost all of his 34 completions were caught between 0 and 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Mahomes was perfectly content dinking and dunking; especially on the drive that set Harrison Butker up for the game-tying field goal at the end of regulation, Mahomes took advantage of the Niners secondary playing so deep by taking advantage of the open space underneath, whether that was a dump off or a scramble. This was the evolution of Mahomes reaching another level; he wasn’t the fireworking deep ball shooter he was at Texas Tech or in the early part of his career. Rather, he was methodical, stringing together numerous short gains that felt like 1,000 paper cuts.
For most quarterbacks, they wouldn’t be able to succeed at a high level with what Mahomes was given at the wide receiver position. But Mahomes isn’t most quarterbacks; that’s been known for a long time. This iteration, however, was his greatest test, and he passed with flying colors. He is officially the Great Uplifter, the Limit Extender, the one who just needs, as the great Gale Sayers would say, 18 inches of daylight. Even when the most difficult path to the promised land by DVOA presented itself, Mahomes made it through.
Mahomes is now 15-3 in the playoffs (lol) and 9-2 when falling behind by at least a touchdown (LOL). The only quarterbacks that have more playoff wins than Mahomes are Tom Brady and Joe Montana. He’s accomplished in six seasons what most other quarterbacks (even the legendary ones) didn’t accomplish over an entire career. Even last season, when he won his second Super Bowl, the only other quarterback that had a comparable under-28 resume was Brady.
He’s also completely dominated the AFC. So many great quarterbacks have emerged over the past few seasons out of this conference, and the only one besides Mahomes to make it to the big game was Burrow in 2022. Here’s a list of the AFC teams Mahomes has defeated in the playoffs since 2019:
Bengals
Bills (3x)
Browns
Colts
Dolphins
Jaguars
Ravens
Steelers
Texans
Titans
The only ones he hasn’t beaten are the other three AFC West teams (Broncos, Chargers, Raiders), but that’s mostly because those three have combined for three playoff appearances since 2018. The only other teams Mahomes hasn’t conquered yet are the Patriots (who he almost beat in 2019) and the Jets (who haven’t made the playoffs since 2010).
Mahomes isn’t a superstar anymore. I actually don’t quite know what he is, because I can barely see. He might be a supernova, he might be everything. Whatever he is, it’s shining too bright for any of us to actually process what he is with our eyes. His presence has become too bright and large that he will preside over the league like the sun. Actually, Mahomes might be the sun. He’ll go down, but he’ll always rise back up.
There are two mindsets you probably have at this moment. There’s one that’s annoyed with Kansas City’s constant success, one that just wants to see another team win because consistent excellence has become boring. You probably really enjoyed the Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series last season and also gravitate towards March Madness, where parity is more present than most other American sporting events.
The other mindset (and the one I’d recommend you have) is one that appreciates Mahomes and the Chiefs for being able to reach the summit of Mount NFL year after year. Winning the Super Bowl is supposed to be a near-impossible feat; the Chiefs have made it look way easier than it’s supposed to be. Mahomes has officially ascended into the pantheon of greatest American athletes ever, and he’s 28 freakin’ years old! He’s younger than Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield!
While I understand the want for a different champion, the joy of watching an all-time great perform in their prime is, to me, a far more desirable experience. The future is never guaranteed; heck, tomorrow’s not even guaranteed. I say, let’s enjoy the gift of today; that’s why they call it the present (quote inspiration credit: Master Oogway).
God (but a tight end): Travis Kelce
Before the season, I’d convinced myself that Travis Kelce was God. He’d gone seven straight seasons with 1,000 receiving yards, and he was fresh off of his best statistical season in 2022 at 33 years old.
During the season, that feeling waned. He looked…old. Of course, the year I perch myself on my high horse and take him second overall in my fantasy football draft is the one where he begins to decline.
By the end of the season, I’d been convinced once again that Kelce was God.
He got off to a slow start on Sunday, but got red hot towards the end of the game. It was truly the epitome of Kelce; he looked like he was moving a mile an hour, yet possessed this unique aura that kept propelling him forward. That especially showed on his 22-yard catch-and-run to set up Butker’s game-tying kick at the end of regulation, when he shook Warner off the line and reached a top speed of nearly 20 miles per hour according to Next Gen Stats.
Like Mahomes, Kelce found a groove when it mattered the most. With nine catches for 93 yards on Sunday, he extended his streak of playoff games with 70+ receiving yards to 13 games, the longest in NFL history. Oh, and he’d also passed Jerry Rice for the most receptions in playoff history earlier in this postseason. And did you hear that he’s dating the most famous celebrity in the world? And that he has a wildly successful podcast with his brother that he beat in the Super Bowl just a year ago? Those are someone’s wildest dreams; Kelce actually had them come true.
Speaking of Taylor and Travis…
(Possibly) The greatest 478-day stretch of all-time: Taylor Swift
Unless you’ve been living under a mountain range for the past year and change, the name Taylor Swift has peppered your brain (and possibly your soul) for what feels like forever. She, like Mahomes, is there when you wake up and when you fall asleep. Her relationship with Kelce has ballooned into one of the most prominent American pop culture stories of all-time.
But beneath the incredible amount of media attention lies another intriguing storyline: Swift has just completed one of the greatest 478-day stretches of any person in recent memory. From the release of “Midnights” on October 21, 2022 to her boyfriend winning the Super Bowl on February 11, 2024, Swift has rode a wave of success that’s likely rivaled by, at the very most, a small handful people throughout world history. Here’s the full timeline:
October 21, 2022: “Midnights” released and ultimately became Spotify’s most streamed album of 2022 with 4.86 billion streams.
November 1, 2022: Swift announced the “Eras Tour”, causing TicketMaster to implode.
March 17, 2023: The “Eras Tour” began in Glendale, Az.
July 7, 2023: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” released, broke the record for most single-day streams for any 2023 album and every country album (126.3 million).
Some time between July-September 2023: Swift and Travis Kelce begin dating after Kelce showed public interest in her on his podcast and with a friendship bracelet.
September 12, 2023: Swift takes home nine awards at the MTV Video Music Awards, setting a record for the most wins in one night. Only Beyonce has more VMA awards (26) than Swift (23).
September 24, 2023: Swift attended her first Chiefs game, which is an eventual 41-10 Kansas City win over Chicago. Kelce caught seven passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.
October 13, 2023: “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” released to theaters, a movie documenting her concert in Los Angeles from August. The film became the highest-grossing domestic and global concert movie release of all-time
October 26, 2023: Bloomberg announced that Swift became a billionaire.
October 27, 2023: “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” released, which got streamed 368 million times in its first week.
November 11, 2023: During a performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Swift changed the lyrics to (Song) to say “karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me”. After her performance, Swift ran off the stage and into the arms of Kelce, and the two shared a kiss.
December 8, 2023: AP announced that the Eras Tour is the first tour to ever gross $1 billion.
January 21, 2024: Kelce caught five passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-24 win over the Bills in the Divisional Round.
January 28, 2024: Kelce caught 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown in a 17-14 win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship. After the game, the two shared a kiss on the field.
February 4, 2024: Swift won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards for “Midnights” – her fourth time winning the award, the most ever for one band or artist. During her acceptance speech, she announced the upcoming release of a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department”, which is set to debut on April 19.
February 8, 2024: Apex Marketing Group announced that Swift generated $331.5 million in equivalent brand value for the Chiefs and the NFL as of Jan. 22.
February 11, 2024: After traveling from Tokyo to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend play in the Super Bowl, Kelce catches nine passes for 93 yards, and the Chiefs win the big game in overtime. When Mecole Hardman caught the game-winning touchdown, an elated Swift was engulfed in a dogpile that featured Ice Spice and Blake Lively. After the game, Kelce and Swift shared a loving embrace, this time on top of the football world. In Swift’s first season as a publicly devout football fan, she achieves the highest level of glory many haven’t achieved over an entirelifetime.
So, in essence, Swift’s superstardom ascended to new heights (hehe) to the most famous person in the world. She did it on the back of music she had full control over, got the All-American boy who won the Super Bowl AND got millions of people interested in football who weren’t interested before. I don’t know how it gets better than this.
Overdue for an Opportunity: Jauan Jennings at quarterback
The first touchdown of the game was scored by Christian McCaffrey. That wasn’t much of a surprise, as McCaffrey was one of the betting favorites to score the first touchdown.
However, how he scored the first touchdown was unexpected. It came off of a double-pass from Jauan Jennings.
Moments after McCaffrey crossed the goal-line, football heads were eager to share how Jennings was the fifth-ranked quarterback in the high school class of 2015, ahead of Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. And they were rightfully excited! This is a very cool piece of information! Especially because Jennings pulled off essentially the exact same play at Tennessee, where he connected with fellow future pro Josh Dobbs for a touchdown against Florida. He also joined Nick Foles as the only other player in Super Bowl history to throw and catch a touchdown in the big game.
My second thought was this: why didn’t San Francisco put Jennings in at QB during last year’s NFC Championship where they ran out of quarterbacks? They had a former four-star signal-caller!
Nevertheless, it was an exceptional night for Jennings, who also muscled his way for a touchdown later in the game. Had the Niners come away with a victory, there would’ve been a serious argument for Jennings to win MVP.
Unsung Heroes: The Punters
If you’ve followed me throughout my KCOU column-writing tenure, you might know that I’ve mentioned kickers, punters and other special teamers more often than the average sports journalist.
This season, punters punted football further and with more funk than ever before, and Sunday saw two of the best ball boomers go to work. Mitch Wishnowsky and Tommy Townsend punted five times apiece, as their team’s offenses struggled moving the ball for a large chunk of the game. They both averaged a thundering 50.8 yards per punt, which would’ve ranked third if it were over the entire season. That included a 62-yarder from Townsend and a 43-yarder from Wishnowsky that was down at the KC 2-yard line by Chris Conley, who had a spectacular performance at the gunner spot. Hooray for special teams!
A halftime show review
When Usher was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer back in September, I was excited! As a 19-year old, I do realize that I missed his prime by a few years – the most popular song on my birthday (March 21, 2004) was “Yeah!”. But I can remember songs like “Omg (feat. will.i.am)”, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love (feat. Pitbull)” and “Without You” enough to where I feel nostalgia when I hear them. Is the nostalgia from when I was, like, six? Sure! But I always enjoy being reminded of getting my butt handed to me in Wii Sports Resort basketball and listening to music on an iPod shuffle with songs I bought for $1.99 on the iTunes store.
My synopsis of the halftime show was this: whatever you thought an Usher Super Bowl halftime show would look like in 2023, you were probably pretty close. Silky smooth choreography, fewer clothes as the performance progressed, a conglomerate of random stuff. Roller skates? Nice! A Lil’ Jon-led moshpit? Awesome! Marching band members humping the air? Sure?! There was a lot going on, but it was all executed flawlessly. No dance move seemed too difficult for Usher. And the guest appearances – Alicia Keys, H.E.R., will.i.am and Ludacris – were more than welcome additions, although I would’ve loved to have seen Usher and David Guetta belt “Without You”.
Overall, he made me feel like Ron Artest and the Pacers were the current NBA title favorites, which is a good thing! He played all of the usuals except a few, like “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love (feat. Pitbull)”. That’s something I really enjoyed about Rihanna’s halftime show last year; the 12 songs she sang were all hits, although she didn’t play my personal favorite, “Disturbia”. However, I feel like it’s difficult to compare most artists to Rihanna, whose discography is uniquely deep with widely-known songs. Nevertheless, I’d give Usher’s performance four out of five bright red pianos.
Super Bowl LVIX Prediction
Kansas City 29, Detroit 26. MVP: Patrick Mahomes.