Pricey readers: I want to return clear with you.
My prediction for a Ravens-Eagles Tremendous Bowl, printed on this very website lower than two weeks in the past, is toast. It was a false imaginative and prescient of a far preferable matchup.
As an alternative, this timeline—as at all times—is the worst timeline. I’ve seen the sunshine: The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs are going to win Tremendous Bowl LIX. Due to course they’re.
The Chiefs appeared wobbly, if not downright fraudulent, all season. That they had the third-best level differential in their very own division! Even when that margin was dented by resting their starters in Week 18 and shedding 38-0, these 15 wins would have greater than made up for it in the event that they didn’t all come by the pores and skin of their tooth.
However as soon as I noticed the Chiefs beat the Texans 23-14 within the divisional spherical (bettering to 7-0 in video games officiated by Clay Martin), I understood why none of that mattered.
When Troy Aikman—an ex-quarterback who suffered 10 concussions in his taking part in profession—is saying that refs are defending Patrick Mahomes an excessive amount of, you recognize there’s a deep-seated downside right here.
Now, the pinnacle referee for the Tremendous Bowl can be Ron Torbert, and he’s no Martin: The Chiefs are apparently 5-5 when Torbert is their ref. However you may toss that document out when Kansas Metropolis is shedding by 4; it’s third-and-8, and Mahomes will get flippantly taken to the bottom on an incomplete move.
All these followers booing within the stadium? All these Swifties on social media, beginning to lookup the place you reside? You realize his hand will twitch a couple of times after which begin to attain for his flag, as if possessed by one thing deep in his unconscious. It doesn’t need to be a part of some grander league-rigging conspiracy to acknowledge that referees have been overly deferential to this staff.
There’s additionally the matter of Travis Kelce. He spent final offseason filming “Grotesquerie,” “Are You Smarter Than a Superstar?” and at the least 90 commercials, and lo and behold he was invisible for a lot of the common season. Perhaps he tanked your fiancé’s fantasy soccer staff. I’m not talking from private expertise or something.
Effectively, after spending 4 months warming up, Kelce had his greatest exhibiting of the season within the divisional spherical with seven catches for 117 yards and a landing. He’s again, and there’s nothing we will do about it.
You possibly can rattle off any stat you’d like in regards to the Payments, Eagles or Commanders, and it wouldn’t sway me. We’re destined for one more 12 months of noxious discourse about how Josh Allen (and Lamar Jackson) simply can’t win the massive one. One other 12 months of scalding takes about Jalen Hurts’ and Nick Sirianni’s shortcomings.
The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs are going to win their third consecutive Tremendous Bowl. It received’t really feel like a milestone in NFL historical past, and the celebrations can be confined to Kansas and Missouri. However the world will proceed to show and we’ll proceed to eat this monotonous league, dreaming as soon as once more of subsequent 12 months.
