On Sunday, February 12th, the Kansas City Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. This game has many different storylines, from Chiefs coach Andy Reid facing his former team, two Black quarterbacks starting against each other for the first time in Super Bowl history, and two brothers facing each other in the Super Bowl. 

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Eagles center Jason Kelce will become the first set of brothers to face each other in a Super Bowl. Travis has had a strong postseason with 21 catches for 164 yards and three touchdowns in two games. He is the number one target for Patrick Mahomes and the high-powered Chiefs offense. 

Jason Kelce is the heart of the Eagles’ stout offensive line, and has helped the Eagles gain 416 rushing yards through two playoff games. Sans the Kelces, both of these teams might not be in this position. 

Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes are the first pair of Black quarterbacks to face off on Super Bowl Sunday. Hurts is from Houston and is of African-American descent. He began his collegiate football career at Alabama before transferring to Oklahoma following the 2018 season. Hurts was picked 53rd overall in the 2020 NFL draft by the Eagles, who had Carson Wentz as their starting quarterback at the time. Mahomes grew up in Tyler, Texas, and is multiracial, as his mother is Caucasian while his father is African-American. Mahomes played at the collegiate level at Texas Tech for three years before being picked tenth overall by the Chiefs in the 2017 NFL draft. Mahomes deferred from participating in Major League Baseball after being drafted in the 37th round by the Detroit Tigers in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid is searching for his second Super Bowl in the past five years. This time, he will attempt it against the team that he led to a 130-93-1 record over 14 seasons. Reid’s time with the Eagles was a massive success record-wise, but he was never able to win the Super Bowl despite making it in 2005 before losing to Tom Brady and the Patriots. Reid left the Eagles in 2012 and will now face them with a chance to add another Super Bowl to his resume with the Chiefs. 

“There wasn’t a cheesesteak there that I didn’t like,” Reid said of his time in Philadelphia, via ESPN. 

 Nick Sirianni is coaching his first Super Bowl in just his second year as the Eagles’ head coach. Sirianni was fired as Quality Control Coach in Kansas City by Reid when he came over in 2013. Sirianni gained major recognition as a coach for being the offensive coordinator in Indianapolis from 2018-2020. 

“I really admired that he pulled me into the office and asked to meet with me and told me face-to-face that he had a guy, but had heard good things about me, and I appreciated that, his honesty, his ability to get to me as soon as he possibly could so I could move on and find another job,” Sirianni said regarding Reid’s firing of him in 2013 via CBS sports.

 For the game itself, the Eagles open up as one-and-a-half-point favorites. One key element for the Chiefs will contain the Eagles’ pass rush, which led the NFL during the regular season with 70 sacks. The Eagles will need Jalen Hurts to continue to utilize his legs in the red area, as he had a quarterback leading 11 rushing touchdowns in the red zone this year. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the Chiefs and Eagles are the only teams to have been in the league every year who have faced off below ten times. The big game is the tenth matchup between the two teams, and it may just be the start of a new big rivalry.