Pre-game thoughts — I hate the Super Bowl. Honestly, I might even hate football as a whole at this point, but not as much as I hate the Kansas City Chiefs. I do not want them to win the Super Bowl, or even compete in it at all, but what can you do? The lead-up to Super Bowl LIX has been a mess, given that the conference championships were disappointing, at best. The Eagles beat the Commanders to win the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship. Then the Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills to win the American Football Conference (AFC) championship.
I didn’t care too much about the NFC championship but I was really hoping for the Bills to win the AFC title. The Bills have been one of my favorite teams to watch this season. Whether that is because one of my close friends is a huge Bills fan, or because I love Josh Allen. Josh Allen truly is one of those football players who seems like a decent guy. I was quite happy to see him take home the MVP award at NFL Honors, so there was that.
Anyway, I digress. The biggest reason that I hate the Chiefs is because of their fanbase. I don’t necessarily have an issue with the team itself, barring a few of the players. It’s the fact that so many people have become bandwagon Chiefs fans for one of two dumb reasons: Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelce.
I understand following a specific athlete and cheering for whichever team they play for, but when you would do anything for that athlete and forgive whatever they may do, that’s where I draw the line.
Mahomes is an annoying, whiny loser. I would use harsher words if this wasn’t a school publication. Every clip I have seen of him makes me want to pull my hair out. I can’t speak to his personality or how he is as a human in general, but as a quarterback, I don’t like the guy. Mahomes seems exceptionally full of himself and gets upset when calls don’t go his way. He gives the impression that he thinks he is untouchable. I can’t stand his ego.
Travis Kelce’s popularity has skyrocketed over the last few years because of his relationship with Taylor Swift. Before anyone gets mad: of course, he was popular before dating Taylor Swift, I know that. But the Swiftie army has become the latest addition to the Chief’s standom… and Swifties were already annoying before they started watching football. With that being said, Travis Kelce isn’t as annoying as Mahomes and he is a damn good tight end. He just happened to adopt an annoying fanbase.
Another thing about Super Bowl LIX, President Donald Trump will be in attendance, becoming the first ever sitting president to attend the Super Bowl… sick. But what did the teams have to say about this?
Travis Kelce said that it was a “great honor.” A great honor… seriously? He also said that America is the “best country in the world” and that “having the president there” is “pretty cool.” Bro is giving the most watered-down answer he could muster because he doesn’t want to piss anyone off. Well… it had the opposite effect, and now he is facing backlash for his “diplomatic answer.”
Patrick Mahomes, shocker, said something very similar, “It’s always cool to be able to play in front of a sitting president, someone that is at the top position in our country.” Once again, very diplomatic, very boring. I understand that these guys don’t want to say anything controversial, but they don’t have to be spineless.
A perfect example would be what Eagles offensive tackle, Jordan Mailata, said, “That’s cool but Donald is not on that field. That’s cool but again that’s blocking out the noise. What am I going to do thinking about Donald Trump? How is that going to make me win the game?” He gave an apolitical answer that didn’t offend anyone or anything. All he did was say that he was going to focus on the game.
Or you could do what the Eagles quarterback, Jalen Hurts (a true king), did. When asked if Trump’s attendance would bring any “added pressure” he responded with “no ma’am” and a smile. He didn’t say anything rude or hurtful but he was still able to show the audience where he stands on the subject, with a little bit of sass. Also, it doesn’t hurt that he’s the first NFL player to have an all-women management team.
Post-game thoughts — regardless of who was in attendance or what even happened during the game, there are only four things that I cared about: The Puppy Bowl, the commercials (although they were overall very lackluster this year), Kendrick’s halftime show and what color Gatorade was poured on the winning coach.
But on a real note, here is the rundown.
I am so glad that the Eagles won, they truly deserved the win. Hurts played spectacularly, as usual, taking home the MVP title. On the other hand, Mahomes completely choked during the first half of the game. The cameras caught him literally pouting. Kelce barely contributed. He had a whopping 39 receiving yards and none of those were for a touchdown.
Cooper Dejean was one of my favorite players to watch this game. Dejean is a rookie cornerback for the Eagles and absolutely ate down. He got his first-ever interception and returned it for a pick-six, AND got his first touchdown as well. A great birthday for the 22-year-old.
Feb. 9 wasn’t just Dejean’s birthday, but also his teammate, running back Saquon Barkley’s birthday as well. Although that is already crazy enough, it gets crazier when you look at their numbers. Dejean is number 33 and Barkley is 26. When you add those two together you get 59 aka Super Bowl LIX. The Eagles win was written in the stars.
Last, but certainly not least, the halftime show. There is so much to unpack about Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show that I would need a lot more time to break it all down. I will do what I can.
He began his performance with a phrase that doesn’t appear anywhere in his discography, I think it must be in reference to America’s recent change in power: “The revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time, but the wrong guy.”
The entire performance had references to both video games and the United States of America. All of the dancers on stage were Black, wearing red, white or blue outfits. Then there was Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam popping in here-and-there with commentary that lent itself to the fact that living in the US nowadays is akin to playing a game, particularly for Black people. Jackson said that Kendrick’s performance of “squabble up” was “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto!” Then followed up with, “Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!”
Directly after this, Kendrick sang “HUMBLE” with his team of backup dancers making the image of an American Flag with a split in the center. Whether that was about the current political climate in America, or something else, I don’t know.
Then there was Serena Williams’ crip walking during “Not Like Us,” reminding us of the time when she had received huge backlash for doing that same dance move after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics.
I thought that Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance was not only incredibly well done, from a musical and a production standpoint, but it also stood for more than just a diss against Dr*ke. I would go as far as to say it is my favorite Super Bowl performance to date.
Maybe I don’t hate the Super Bowl, I think I just hate the Chiefs.
