Super Bowl: Sorry, New York, it's Philadelphia's time to be super again
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts scores a touchdown against the Titans during an NFL game on Dec. 4, 2022, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Matt Rourke
PHOENIX
David Tyree, whose life changed in this very city during a Super Bowl 15 years ago, whose helmet catch personifies the out-of-nowhere stardom this game can hoist upon a person, mounted a very logical argument when breaking down the two teams playing in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday.
Kansas City, he said, has the experience, this being its third Super Bowl in four years. It has been in close playoff games. It has a core of battle-tested players and coaches (some of whom, it should be noted, were with the Giants when Tyree was still playing). He was unimpressed with Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts as a top-tier player. He noted, quite accurately, that Kansas City has the best quarterback in the game.
“He looks like a Treasure Troll but he plays like a lion,” Tyree said of Patrick Mahomes, the newly minted and nearly unanimous MVP of the league.
All the numbers, the X’s-and- O’s, the matchups, they brought him to a conclusion: Kansas City will win the game.
But there also was one element in his casual dissertation on Radio Row late this past week that was impossible to ignore, that was the unspoken root of his opinion.
“Plus,” he finally said, getting to the bottom of it all, “I can’t stand the Eagles.”
As a Giant, even a long-retired one, that prejudice is just too deep to overcome. And he’s not alone in it. All this week, former Super Bowl stars from the organization — Osi Umenyiora, Victor Cruz, Carl Banks — were happy to recount their past glories, but when the conversation turned to the present game, they either did what Tyree did and picked Kansas City or winced in pain at the potential of a hated rival winning another Lombardi Trophy.
Sorry, Dave. There can be only one miracle for you in this stadium on this stage in a lifetime.
The Eagles are going to win Super Bowl LVII.
Coach Nick Sirianni had the best roster in the league when the season began. The Eagles were the best team for most of the regular season, and though they went through a bit of a lull late when Hurts dealt with a shoulder injury, they rebounded to dominate and be the best team in the playoffs (albeit against an overmatched Giants team and a 49ers squad that played most of the NFC Championship Game without a functioning quarterback).
Now, with a victory over Kansas City, they will be crowned the best team, period.
It will come to the chagrin of most New Yorkers, with the possible exception of the traitorous Empire State Building.
It was bad enough when that wanna-be metropolis to our south won the Super Bowl five years ago, mimicking our shtick of beating Tom Brady and the Patriots with an iconic pass thrown to an unlikely receiver.
It was awful when the Phillies made the World Series this past fall after both of our baseball teams looked as if they had a legitimate chance to do so midway through the season.
This list of recent insolence doesn’t even take into account foisting Ben Simmons on us as the last remaining element to the Spruce Goose of basketball teams, a monstrosity of a roster impressive in size and scale but too bloated to ever get very far off the ground and actually soar.
Philly has had the better of New York for the last few years. Start spreading the whiz.
But this game isn’t against New York. We’re just bystanders with a rooting (or more aptly rooting-against) interest. The game is against Kansas City, and on paper, these teams are remarkably similar.
Both have won 16 of 19 games and were the top seeds in their conference. Both have six All-Pros, including their quarterbacks, and a player named Kelce. Both have scored exactly 546 points this season.
What will separate the Eagles is their dominance on the line of scrimmage. Their defense is five away from racking up the most sacks in NFL history and their offensive line is one of the most experienced, strongest, stubbornest and smoothest assembled by any team in quite some time. Those two elements allow them to control the games they play.
Given time, Hurts and his crew of A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert should be able to take advantage of a very young Kansas City secondary.
With the Eagles putting pressure on Mahomes, who may or may not be 100% healthy after suffering a high ankle sprain in the divisional round three weeks ago, cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry should be able to cover the many Kansas City passing options — including the tight end whom no one else seems able to contain, Travis Kelce.
The Eagles haven’t had to play a one-possession game with a fully healthy Hurts since Nov. 27, when they beat the Packers to improve to 10-1 (the quarterback clearly was limited in his willingness to run, if not his ability to do so, when they beat the Giants in Week 18). They’ve steamrolled everyone when they have had their main contributors on the field. They will have that Sunday. It could very well lead to the same results that have taken place all year.
The one caveat to all of this is Mahomes.
If he has the ball in his hands down by eight or fewer points with a minute and half or so remaining, it’s anyone’s ballgame.
That’s how magical a player he is, how adept he has become at taking pressure-packed moments and transforming them into victories.
Barring that scenario, though, it should be a very good night for Philadelphia.
And, by extension, unlike 15 years ago at the same site, a very bad one for New York.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
