There are no higher stakes in football than when the Vince Lombardi Trophy is on the line.
And yet, Super Bowl LIX feels… different, the stakes higher than usual.
It’s historic, for one thing. The Kansas City Chiefs, already one of the greatest dynasties we’ve ever seen in this sport, are taking aim at a three-peat. It’s something no franchise has ever even attempted — not the Brady-Belichick Patriots, not the 1990s Cowboys, or the 49ers who challenged them, not the Steel Curtain of the 1970s… you get the idea.
It feels somewhat poetic that this three-peat attempt should come against the same team Kansas City defeated to start this Super Bowl win streak two years ago. The Philadelphia Eagles seek revenge on their way back to the top, in search of their first Super Bowl win since the Philly Special knocked off the dynastic Patriots in February of 2018.
As the Chiefs and Eagles battle it out in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, legacies will take shape. There is, of course, Patrick Mahomes, whose status in the great GOAT debate has started to stretch beyond the bounds of the NFL and earn him comparisons to some of the most dominant figures in all of sport. A win for Mahomes adds another ring to his count, a little more shine on his Hall of Fame bust, and a smaller gap between his win tally and that of Tom Brady.
But his is not the only legacy in the spotlight on Sunday.
While the Chiefs are in position to make history, the legacies of those in red more front-of-mind, there are individuals on the other side of this matchup whose own careers can be drastically altered, their trajectory and place in history advanced, with a victory on Sunday.
There’s a trophy on the line, first and foremost, but Super Bowl LIX brings legacies to the forefront, too. They are at various stages of construction, but all are worth noting and celebrating.
Patrick Mahomes
Mahomes is already in elite company when it comes to quarterbacks with the most rings. He’s currently tied with Earl Morrall and Troy Aikman in third place with three. A fourth would see him join Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana in second. He’s got more winning to do if he’s to catch up with the GOAT himself, Tom Brady (seven), but at this rate… is anyone going to doubt him?
Mahomes made history earlier this post-season by tying, and then passing, Montana for most career playoff wins by a quarterback. His 17 such victories have him trailing only Brady (35), but what is perhaps even more impressive is the remarkable pace at which Mahomes has racked up those wins. He’s only lost three times in the post-season, with only two quarterbacks able to best him — Brady did it twice (once with the Patriots in the AFC Championship, and then with Tampa Bay in Super Bowl LV). Joe Burrow is the other.
Age isn’t just a number when it comes to Mahomes. It’s a history-maker, too. The 29-year-old will make history on Sunday when he becomes the youngest quarterback to start five Super Bowls. A win would make him the first QB to win four Super Bowls before turning 30. (For context, Brady won his third Super Bowl at age 27 but didn’t win his fourth until 37.)
His production in the game’s biggest moments is almost unparalleled. Mahomes currently ranks fifth in career playoff touchdown passes, with 43, and is expected to jump a few spots on Sunday. A two-touchdown game would see Mahomes leapfrog Brett Favre (44) and jump into a three-way tie with Montana and Aaron Rodgers (45 each) behind Brady (88).
He’s been named Super Bowl MVP each time he’s hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, and another strong performance in a three-peat victory would likely see him claim a fourth — just one shy of Brady’s five awards.
Saquon Barkley
What a difference a year can make. After spending the first six seasons of his career toiling in New York, Saquon Barkley has been set loose on the league. It’s almost as though he’s making up for lost time, having the kind of campaign that gets you a first-class ticket into the Hall of Fame. A Super Bowl ring to top it off would surely secure his spot as one of the best to ever play the game.
Maybe that last part is up for debate — the NFL has a rich history of dynamic running backs from which to assemble your Mount Rushmore — but there’s no questioning the numbers he’s put up this year. They tell a story of one of the best single-season running sprees anyone has ever had.
We’ll never know if Barkley could’ve written his name atop the list of the league’s highest single-season rushing totals — he sat just 100 yards shy of Eric Dickerson’s record (2,105) when Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni decided to rest his star running back for what was an otherwise meaningless Week 18 game.
But we’re about to find out whether Barkley can make another kind of history — a kind few even get the opportunity to attain — when he steps onto the field for Super Bowl LIX. Barkley, 27, needs just 30 yards to surpass Denver Broncos great Terrell Davis for the highest rushing total in a single season and post-season combined.
Following up on his sensational first year in Philadelphia, which saw him set several franchise records and earn himself a place among league MVP finalists, Barkley’s been nearly unstoppable in the playoffs. He’s collected 442 rushing yards and five touchdowns through three games this post-season. A 58-yard effort on Sunday would see Barkley become just the third player in NFL playoff history to hit the 500-yard mark in a single post-season, joining Washington’s John Riggins (610 in 1982) and Davis (581 in 1997).
Davis was the last running back to be crowned Super Bowl MVP. Barkley could be the one to change that.
Andy Reid
Reid’s recent success is tightly woven with that of Mahomes’ — Reid and Mahomes simply aren’t three-time Super Bowl champs without one another. The offensive mastermind is credited with recognizing Mahomes’ talents in the 2017 draft class and developing the first-rounder for a year before setting him loose on the league in 2018.
Together, they form one of the greatest coach-quarterback partnerships the game has ever seen. Separately, Reid — like his quarterback — is building his own legacy worth recognizing and celebrating. And there’s no matchup that better exemplifies his accomplishments than Super Bowl LIX — he is, after all, the winningest head coach in the history of both franchises hitting the field on Sunday. No other head coach has ever reached more than 100 wins with two different organizations. Reid’s 273 combined wins places him fourth league-wide in regular-season victories — only Belichick (302), George Halas (318), and Don Shula (328) have more.
While a lot of his success has long been attributed to the longevity of his career — 26 years and counting — it’s his consistency that’s so striking. In those 26 seasons as a head coach, he put up just three losing seasons (all in Philadelphia; he’s never had a losing season with the Chiefs). And it’s his playoff proficiency — particularly in Kansas City — that launches him deep into the conversation of the greatest coach of all time.
The 66-year-old bench boss made history just by getting to the 2024 playoffs — he set a new NFL record with his 20th post-season berth, one more than Shula and Belichick — and he’ll make more history just by showing up on Sunday. Super Bowl LIX marks the 45th career playoff game of his illustrious head coaching career, officially putting him atop the list of all-time post-season appearances by a head coach, ahead of Belichick (44). Reid’s 28 playoff victories are the second most among all coaches in NFL history, just three shy of Belichick’s 31. A fourth Super Bowl ring on Sunday would not only make Reid the only head coach in football history to win three straight Super Bowls, it would also tie him with the legendary Chuck Noll, whose Steelers dominated much of the 1970s, for the second-most titles in the Super Bowl era. Right now, only Noll and Belichick (six) have hoisted more Lombardi Trophies than Reid.
Jalen Hurts
His career so far hasn’t launched him into the kind of conversations in which his Chiefs counterpart dwells, but a victory for the Eagles on Sunday would see Hurts’ stock skyrocket more than most.
After posting MVP numbers in 2022 to lead Philadelphia to his first Super Bowl, Hurts’ passing game took a step back this year. The arrival of star running back Saquon Barkley put the run game front-and-centre in Philly — and while Hurts excels on his feet, his 248 completions and 2,903 passing yards this season were his lowest totals as a starter, prompting questions about the team’s trust in his arm.
Hurts answered many of those questions two weeks ago when the Eagles dominated the Commanders in the NFC Championship. In addition to his trio of rushing scores, he also aired it out for 246 yards and a passing TD.
With the Eagles’ NFC Championship win over the Commanders, Hurts joined an exclusive club as the eighth quarterback in league history to appear in multiple Super Bowls within their first five seasons as a starter. (Mahomes, Troy Aikman, John Elway, Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, and Russell Wilson are the others.)
Hurts’ sensational performance in Super Bowl LVII earned him a spot in the history books as the only quarterback to rush for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl. (He joined Broncos running back Terrell Davis as just the second player of any position to accomplish the feat.)
He sits just two touchdowns shy of the great Emmitt Smith on the all-time list of Super Bowl rushing TDs (Smith has five in three games), and considering his three-TD game against the Commanders in the NFC Championship two weeks ago, he’s in fine form to make another splash.
A win is about redemption and forever being the 2024 champs. But for Hurts, it’s also about proving 2022 wasn’t an outlier, and rerouting his career trajectory. And the honour of knocking off the back-to-back champs? That’s a legacy builder.
Travis Kelce
The Mahomes-Kelce connection has thrilled football fans and foiled opposing defences throughout the Chiefs’ remarkable run.
He’s the franchise leader in receptions, yards, and — as of Christmas 2024 — touchdowns, too, as his 77th career TD catch saw him pass another all-time great tight end, Tony Gonzalez. All that history, and we’ve haven’t even gotten to the playoffs yet — and as we know, that’s when Kelce is at his best.
Kelce’s post-season legacy extends far beyond Kansas City. He’s one of just three players to have caught more than 100 passes in the playoffs, and he leads all players in the category with 174 — 23 more than the great Jerry Rice. With an 81.3 per cent catch rate in the playoffs, he’s about as clutch as they come.
Kelce has 20 career playoff touchdown receptions to his name, trailing only Rice (22). He also ranks second behind Rice in career playoff receiving yards — Kelce has accrued 2,039 in 24 post-season games, while Rice finished his career with 2,245 in 29 games.
It’s a safe bet that Kelce closes both gaps on Sunday — he’s recorded at least one touchdown in 14 of 20 playoff matchups when playing with Mahomes, including four multi-TD games.
Nick Sirianni
Considering all the elite talent on this Eagles roster, it shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise to see Philly back on the NFL’s biggest stage. And yet, when you reflect on just how catastrophic the conclusion to last season was, complete with a collapse down the stretch and a lifeless playoff appearance, the 2024 campaign could’ve gone in a very different direction.
There are a lot of people who share the credit for the turnaround. General manager Howie Roseman did a masterful job hiring, drafting, and signing the many new faces in Philly, but there’s no denying that all that turnover prompts a culture shift — and that’s where Sirianni should get a lot of credit. Was this team without drama? Not in the slightest. Are Sirianni’s antics somewhat… polarizing? Definitely. But to start the season on the hot seat and end it under the game’s brightest lights tells us that Sirianni’s cool-under-pressure demeanour might just make him the perfect coach for this intense football market.
It’ll take a while for Sirianni to climb his way to anything close to Reid’s level of success — in Philly, and on the league stage, but he can make some pretty important moves in the right direction with a win over the legendary coach on Sunday. When the Eagles emphatically booked their ticket to Super Bowl LIX, it put Sirianni in rarified air as just the third head coach to make it to the Super Bowl twice in his first four seasons at the helm. (The first was Joe Gibbs, who’s in the Hall of Fame. The second was Mike Tomlin, who’ll be there on the first ballot whenever he decides to call it a career.)
Sirianni could also make some unique history when it comes to Super Bowl rematches. There have been nine Super Bowl rematches in NFL history, four of which featured the same two head coaches going head-to-head for a second time. In those rematches, the coach who won the first meeting is 4-0 in the second. A victory for Sirianni on Sunday would put one in the win column for the underdog.
