A Too-Early Look at the Super Bowl Matchup

The last time Kansas City and Philadelphia played each other, in October 2021, Mahomes threw five touchdown passes in a 42-30 victory.

Beyond the quarterbacks, a major story line over the next two weeks will be Reid facing the team he led for 14 years. In the early 2000s, Reid took the Eagles to four straight N.F.C. championship games, and one Super Bowl appearance, a loss to the New England Patriots, before the team decided not to bring him back for the 2013 season.

Reid accepted the Kansas City job days later, and won his first Super Bowl in the 2019 season, against the 49ers. He took Kansas City back to the Super Bowl in the 2020 season, but the team lost to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Like Kansas City, the Eagles have also recently been to the Super Bowl. But while there are a handful of veteran players still on the roster from the team that won in the 2017 season, the Eagles are returning to the big game with a different head coach, Nick Sirianni, and a different quarterback, Hurts.

The Kelce brothers — Jason, the Philadelphia center, and Travis, the Kansas City tight end — will become the first set of brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl.

The last two Super Bowls played in the Phoenix area were two of the most thrilling games in recent history: the Giants’ win against the previously undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and the Patriots’ victory against the Seattle Seahawks off Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception in Super Bowl XLIX.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/sports/football/kansas-city-philadelphia-eagles-super-bowl.html