Super Bowl 58: #3 Kansas City Chiefs vs #1 San Francisco 49ers (-1)
Kansas City Chiefs: 11-6, AFC West Champion
WC: 26-7 v Miami
Divisional: 27-24 @ Buffalo
Conference: 17-10 @ Baltimore
Super Bowl Record: 3-2
Last Appearance: Super Bowl 57 (38-35 W v Philadelphia)
How they got here:
If you followed along Kansas City's offense has done everything imaginable to ruin this for Kermit and the Swifties. So many drops, Toney lining up offsides to force them to play on the road, despite an incredible defense this really seemed like the year Kansas City was finally going to be not remotely close to the best team in the AFC. Then they get into the playoffs and put in some ****ing work. Mahomes scored 14 points in the first 2 drives, a field goal since and that was good enough to beat the ****ing Ravens at home. Pretty eye-opening no matter how you look at it.
Mahomes played on the road in the playoffs for the first time in his career (which in it of itself is an insane stat for a guy who is now playing in his 4th Super Bowl) and they put in work. They played on the road for the second time in his career. And they put in work. Patrick Mahomes remains the only active NFL player with equity to go down as the greatest to ever play.
San Francisco 49ers: 12-5, NFC West Champion
WC: Bye
Divisional: 24-21 v Green Bay
Conference: 34-31 v Detroit
Super Bowl Record: 5-2
Last Appearance: Super Bowl 54 (31-20 L v Kansas City)
Last Win: Super Bowl 29 (49-26 v San Diego)
How they got here:
Holy ****ing ****.
The Niners started the season 5-0 and in doing so looked like a generationally dominant team that was going to run away with the NFL.
Then they lost Trent and Deebo, lost 3 straight and looked like total ass doing so causing everyone to assume they were frauds.
Then they won 6 straight and in doing so looked like a generationally dominant team and Brock ****ing Purdy was the runaway betting favorite to win the MVP.
Then Christmas happened.
But all's well that ends well and they made the playoffs as the #1 seed.
Then the Green Bay game happened.
For 50 minutes Bork played like I would and the Niners looked finished. Then he pulled a hell of a comeback out of his ass and they won.
Then the Detroit game happened.
I literally just watched this game a couple hours ago and I still can't explain to you what happened and how except that somehow someway the Niners won. And that's cool!
What makes this Super Bowl so compelling
I can see why people hate both of these franchises for a thousand different reasons, but brace yourself for what will be the most watched televised sporting event (possibly most watched television event of any kind) in American history. And it probably lives up to that. Obviously the Swift element is...a thing. And we are going to have 2 weeks of lead-up for that which will be...a thing. But put that aside for a second and there are stories galore.
Whatever you think of Brock Purdy, last year he was the last pick of the draft. This year he is starting in the Super Bowl. Could he have pulled this off if any other team drafted him? Of course not. He fell ass backwards into an epic situation and the Niners fell ass backwards into a lucky draft pick. Trading 3 1s to move up in the most overrated draft in history only to have your franchise QB be some random guy from Iowa who only got the job because the two guys in front of him went down? If this weren't shoved down your throat for the better part of a year and a half it's the coolest story since Kurt Warner, bagman, who only got the job because the two guys in front of him went down. Btw, this time last year the guy broke his ****ing elbow and yet here we are.
Holy **** Patrick Mahomes. 6 years as a starter. Has made it to the AFC Championship 6 times. Has made it to the Super Bowl 4 times. Has a chance to get his 3rd ring and the ****er is only 28. He won't have Brady level longevity but we are witnessing absolute greatness like most of us have not seen in our lifetime. It sucks if you are a fan of any other team but the Chefs but still.
Rumors circulating this may be the last ride of the Walrus. Historically the man is both massive and massively underrated. His work with Philadelphia was both amazing and unlucky. His work with Kansas City has been nothing short of legendary. 4 Super Bowl appearances in 5 years with the potential for 3 wins. I would argue he is the actual greatest coach in NFL history.
Which is a good segue into the modern day iteration of Philadelphia Walrus. Ever since the Falcons implosion I would argue no coach in the NFL has more more criticism despite more success than Kyle Shanahan. The guy is an objectively brilliant offensive mind and in his 7 years as Niners coach they have gone to the NFC Championship 4 of the last 5 years and twice have made it to the Super Bowl. And they did this with QB luminaries like the Womp and the Bork. Kyle schemes like nobody in the NFL can but every time the Niners fell short it all fell on him despite the fact that they overperformed to get where they were in the first place.
This game is a rematch of Super Bowl 54 which still hurts my ****ing soul (Bosa was held on 4th and Tyreek, never believe different). These two teams don't have much history but the history they do have is massive. SB 54 kickstarted the Chiefs dynasty and the failure of Womp to close it kickstarted the Niners neverending hunt for a franchise QB that went from maybe Brady to maybe Rodgers to maybe Lance to....Purdy? Lots of trajectories changed 4 years ago and we come full circle.
Why the Chiefs will win the Super Bowl
This defense is good. Like, really good. Like, really really good. Pacheco has stepped up and the Niners run defense has been horrendous so far in the playoffs. Plus, you know, that Patrick Mahomes guy. Mahomes smoked the Ravens for the first 2 drives on the road which is as comparable as there is to a theoretical matchup with the Niners defense. The Niners have been pretty lax the entire playoffs to start the game and 1. both games are at home and 2. neither teams they faced are as good as Kansas City. There is no margin of error for lazy bullshit and if the Niners bring that energy to the Super Bowl this is going to be a ****ing rout.
Why the 49ers will win the Super Bowl
The Niners have an overwhelming amount of talent. The biggest knock against them is that they could not play from behind and the entire playoffs they had to come from behind. Were they lucky against the Lions? Absolutely. But they proved that even down 17 points they have a QB who is not going to be overwhelmed by the moment and a defense that can still step up when needed even if they failed catastrophically. As good as the Chiefs defense is they have yet to face an offense like the 49ers with as much efficiency and talent across the board as they have. Plus this defense is ludicrously talented. They may take 30 minutes to get jumpstarted but once they do they are locked in.
Gentlemen, let us Super Bowl.
To get a better QB you'd have to cut 40M+ of salary from the rest of the roster, he's not Mahomes, but it's Purdy plus 50M worth of talent vs Mahomes not just a straight h2h comparison
rookie deal QB is by far the best cheat code in the NFL, it takes the Goat peak QB to offset it and it was razor close
Ya I mean I realize this isn’t how it works but I take the 9ers side over the chefs for yesterday 10 times out of 10
50 million dollar QBs don’t work unless you have the literal GOAT. And even in that scenario the Chefs struggled hard to win this title. They won it, sure, but this was a ****ing sight to behold to get there. Purdy’s talent relative to the dollar cost and the additional talent it affords the 9ers is as valuable as mahomes at his current price
If 1 team is paying their QB 1-2M and the other is paying it 50M, seems like the former should have the better defense. And based on the last month or so, they really didn't.
The Chiefs definitely won the luck rankings/variance side of the game yesterday, but after watching the game I'd still take them to win > 50% vs 9ers (my pregame opinion)
best QB/big QB gap + better pass D is a lot to overcome in modern NFL.
This was by no means anything special, but a thousand times better than nantz and romo
Edit: ****ing nfl embedding rules
Ya I mean I realize this isn’t how it works but I take the 9ers side over the chefs for yesterday 10 times out of 10
Before yesterday I thought 49ers should be favored. After a game where it felt like all the small stuff went in SFs favor (ball placement, soft penalties,..) I'm pretty sure if they played again next Sunday it would be a pick'em.
do you believe in hot dog carts? Yes!
Players in virtually all sports are notoriously sketchy on the technical rules. No surprise here. When something different/anomalous comes up, Tiger Woods doesn't know half the rules of golf and how they apply to the situation. A new OT format shouldn't fall into that category, but it apparently does and it's just more of the same. Coaches are somewhat of a different story, but often far from thorough, and certainly not encyclopedic about it. Also as the OT rules evolved, all the attention was paid to the sudden death/guaranteed possession changing aspect, not all the other details. Only officials basically have anything approaching 99% command of the rule book. So, it's just more of the same. "We are just doing what we do, playing our position, not studying the rule book." Same as it ever was.
TV numbers are in. 123.4 million viewers, 8 million more than last year. If TS wasn't a billionaire already she should ask Goodell for a check.
Nobody said Veach sucks. Don't be the Chiefs version of that 88 guy.
TV numbers are in. 123.4 million viewers, 8 million more than last year. If TS wasn't a billionaire already she should ask Goodell for a check.
Assuming a decent chunk of those 7-year-old girls stay fans of the NFL (and a lot of female fans I know got into the NFL about that age to bond with their mom and/or dad), how much has Taylor raised the value of every owner's franchise? I bet it's not insignificant.
Obviously I'm being tongue in cheek. But I did recently have to argue that no one in KC would have wanted to fire Veach if the Chiefs lost to the Dolphins.
I don't think Veach or the last 4 years of Chiefs drafts get enough credit because the Mahomes = Jordan narrative crowds everything else out. It's incredibly hard to build a top 2 defense (youngest defense in NFL) picking 30th-ish in the draft every year.
Assuming a decent chunk of those 7-year-old girls stay fans of the NFL (and a lot of female fans I know got into the NFL about that age to bond with their mom and/or dad), how much has Taylor raised the value of every owner's franchise? I bet it's not insignificant.
I thought it was an amazing game and am proud to be from the kansas city area. That combined with recent legislation in kansas that made sports betting go from completely illegal to highly legal make me want to learn football betting.
We all heard Alicia Keys voice crack when she first started singing, but the video on NFL's site sounds more like the studio version.
Can't trust anything these days.
TV numbers are in. 123.4 million viewers, 8 million more than last year. If TS wasn't a billionaire already she should ask Goodell for a check.
This is a deceptive number. The real number is Share and Rating which Nielsen has not released.
Also, I know this will come as a shock but Nielsen is fudging the numbers
Some of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen began including out-of-home viewers in its ratings in 2020, but only from limited markets. That measurement expanded to all 50 states beginning this year.
Also, these numbers that were published were only a 7% increase. Doesn't TayTay have something like 250 million followers on Instagram alone? So with the Nielsen numbers fudging maybe about 4% of her fans watched?
Doesn't TayTay have something like 250 million followers on Instagram alone? So with the Nielsen numbers fudging maybe about 4% of her fans watched?
How does Nielsen calculate Super Bowl parties?
Nielsen households will report it.
https://panels.nielsen.com/panels-and-su...
(I used to work in the TV Ad space. Not for Nielsen)
This is a deceptive number. The real number is Share and Rating which Nielsen has not released.
Also, I know this will come as a shock but Nielsen is fudging the numbers
Also, these numbers that were published were only a 7% increase. Doesn't TayTay have something like 250 million followers on Instagram alone? So with the Nielsen numbers fudging maybe about 4% of her fans watched?
The real answer is Taylor Swift didn't do much for SB ratings because so many people who don't watch a second of football all year watch the game.
I would think every SB would basically do better than the last. Just more people existing. It also helps the games have all been close so that helps casuals stay watching since they end up enjoying it.
We all heard Alicia Keys voice crack when she first started singing, but the video on NFL's site sounds more like the studio version.
Can't trust anything these days.
I thought they recorded these performances a few days prior to the actual show and then just lip sync at the SB. I wasn't paying attention to the performance but you would think they would just rerecord if that's the case.
Here are the viewership numbers since 2011. Main broadcast only (these days there's also the Spanish broadcast + streaming).
Ratings keep falling but way slower than for everything else on linear TV.
For comparison, the 2011 World Series averaged 16.5mil viewers per game. The 2023 World Series averaged 9.1mil viewers per game. Game 7 of the 1980 Phillies vs. Royals WS averaged almost 55mil viewers which is significantly more than all five games of the 2023 World Series combined.
2023 NBA Finals averaged 11.6mil viewers per game. 2011 was 17.4mil. Most watched finals (no surprise) Jordan's last dance at 29mil viewers on average.
What the NFL is able to do TV numbers-wise is beyond impressive. Goodell might be a horrible person but the way he's grown the NFL is crazy. Not only in the US but internationally. Over two million people in Germany watched that game even though it started at 12:30AM Monday morning and almost nobody in the country plays American football.
