Super Bowl Preview Take - Chiefs and Eagles Rematch 2025

There is a ton of Chiefs stuff to post, but I have a moment in a busy schedule to pound out some things that keep rolling around in my head. The main ones relate to the main things that have been spewed over the past week. You know what they are.

"The Chiefs get all the calls."

"Is Patrick better than Tom?"

Okay, first one there. Many are correctly pointing out that there is absolutely nothing that demonstrates that anything the officials have done truly favor the Chiefs. Real quick, that 4th-&-inches Josh Allen sneak that was really really close? Well, it was not conclusive, so the officials made the correct call. If it was obvious to all watching on television that the Bills should have gotten the call, requiring -- as I've said a gazillion times before -- those officials in the booth with monitors who can make calls on the field, then I'd get it.

The "forward progress" idiocy that hosed the Chiefs in the 2017 Wild-Card game? You know the one, when the Titans QB fumbled the ball and we recovered, could have even gone down to score the touchdown, yet Derrick Johnson leveled him so severely that it was hard to see on the field? Well, that was an obvious call that definitely should have favored the Chiefs. If instant replay were used properly on that play, really, the Chiefs should have easily won that game -- that call was that egregious.

There was not a single one of those in the Bills game, not one. And no one ever squeaks about calls that go the Bills way, or the way of any other Chiefs opponent, even when they are obvious. Did you happen to catch how many times Bills linemen jumped before the snap? Whupp, those calls favored the Bills. Did you catch the very clear facemask of Hollywood Brown as he was being tackled, not called? Ohh, I see, that call too favored the Bills, ahh I see.

Now, here's the thing about my own personal take. I still believe in the Scorecasting factor, that officials can be unconsciously prone to make calls that favor certain teams the NFLers would like to see succeed. And I know how much I've railed against that when it keeps the Chiefs from being successful.

Do NFLers still want teams with the big markets and better following to win more? Of course they do. Which is why the whole "THEY'RE FAVORING THE CHIEFS!" thing is really stupid. The Chiefs are and have always been a podunk little Midwest farm town to them with not nearly the $$$ generating power of a Cowboys or a New York team. It would take a lot for the Chiefs to make it so the NFLers would be kind of okay with them succeeding right now.

And that means Patrick Mahomes (that's the next item, hold on) and everything there is about him that even goes beyond what he does on the field. That means Travis Kelce and yes, let's admit it, Taylor Swift. That means having a team that does have a phenomenal more local fan base and a lot going for that -- the stadium, the crowd, the tailgating, the whole Kingdom vibe.

This is all besides the fact that the Chiefs are just showing everyone so very well that they are an exceptionally smart, talented, disciplined, well-coached, and even actually pretty exciting team to watch.

Ironically there was Chiefaholic. I mention this because last night on Prime Video I saw the film about our good friend the wolf-suit-clad superfan bank robber and gambling addict. 

Insane.

I mention this because, staying with that very personal note from this now-20-year Chiefs blogger, I can relate to the guy. No no I'm not going to rob banks, nor am I going to gamble. But I can relate because I too came from a broken home and know how much I've used this Chiefs thing to try to get some kind of affirmation. As you know from this site if you've been something of a regular reader (thank you), I can be disgustingly despondent about Chiefs bad-things. I have often used this platform just to vent, just to do the therapy. I don't think this is beyond most Chiefs fans and especially superfans.

When we win, as we have done so stunningly much over the past several years, it is euphoric. And sure enough, in the film the euphoria of a Chiefs superfandom can be addictive. It was so intoxicating to the Chiefsaholic that he robbed banks to feed that addiction. And yeah, it involved gambling a ton, and it wrecked his life.

When he won big betting on Mahomes as MVP and winning the Super Bowl in the 2022 season (that one against the Eagles), he sweated it out, but when it paid off he couldn't wait to get all the good-feels his Twitter followers would pour over him. This dude let the documentary filmmakers into his Super Bowl watching experience and post-game enjoyment. It was euphoric...

The same kind of euphoria when you put your faith and your identity into something that will replace what you lost or never had when younger.

I know that about me and my own disposition. Chiefs wins make me.

Thing is...

Then what?

After the Super Bowl win against the Eagles, Chiefsaholic still took off to rob more banks and do God-knows-what. He was arrested some time later a thousand miles away from where he was supposed to be. Wow.

Watching this happen to this individual and knowing it happens to so many individuals is why I've railed against the whole gambling connection the NFL has with these now huge online betting companies. I grieve when I look at the camera shot at Arrowhead that shows what is being posted all around the stadium as advertising, and I see "Bet MGM" almost every time they show that shot. This is tremendously grievous, it really is.

Already I saw a news article about an NBA basketball player being investigated for adjusting his play because of certain gambling considerations. And really, what happens when these players try to do these kinds of things is bad enough, it is a much worse evil when people like Chiefsaholic do these things at the expense of them and their families. (Yeah, I don't really want to share the guy's real name here, just none of my business. You can watch the film yourself. Best just to pray for him and against these things that destroy lives and livelihoods.)

Ultimately, yeah: eternal perspective. It is not easy, I have to keep all of this in perspective, and even think, wow, all this Chiefs success may even be detrimental in the sense that... what happens when our beloved team comes back to earth? For me 100 straight Super Bowl titles will never be enough, but then, when will it just get boring? What happens after they lose the one that would've been their 17th straight? How horrifically despondent will we be then?

Eeegh. This being a fan of any team in many ways is just too much trauma.

So on to that second thing, real quick, and again, I like that many people are stepping up and expressing their exhaustion with the whole "Patrick or Tom?" debate. The NFLers like it, certainly, because it helps stir interest in a Super Bowl the Chiefs will be featured for the fifth time in six years. I mean, what else can you say about the Chiefs that hasn't already been shared at this same time every year?

But here's the thing. The debate assumes Tom Brady is already the greatest quarterback of all time. I mean, we're all supposed to accept that as a given. Ahem, excuse me.

Not.

Was Tom Brady the most successful quarterback of all time? Yes, absolutely. But that doesn't mean he was the greatest, or even the best. I know this is sacrilegious, but there are a few people who do agree with me. Cool, at least there is that, thanks for those people. And I do know, again, that all the television or social media pundits who want to get some kind of wide attention are using the default "Tom Brady is the best ever" meme because it is easy and it gets that interest so there can be the debate.

The Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks? To me Tom Brady isn't even on it. I have good reasons, and I have already shared some of them in this blog effort. He is in the top ten, I agree. But for all the violent detractors out there who revile me for my heretical beliefs. Here is my NFL Quarterback Mount Rushmore:

Mahomes. Montana. Baugh. Unitas.

Sorry, but you absolutely cannot argue against this. You can try, but you'd be wrong. Look at those guys and tell me why Brady should replace any of them without using the wickedly tired argument "He has the rings." Please. Try. You can't.

I have Mount Rushmore II's and III's and so forth, but just to make things simple here's my top ten:

1. Mahomes   

2. Montana   

3. Baugh   

4. Unitas   

5. Tarkenton    

6. Brady   

7. Marino   

8. Graham  

9. Rodgers  

10. Manning P

Are there a lot of very good QBs who could be in there, like Favre, Staubach, Elway, even our beloved Len Dawson. There're a dozen others. I gotcha. I like a lot of them, and I do agree any of these guys could arguably be in the top ten. I don't dispute any of those very reasonable takes. But the one take I do dispute, very firmly -- and even without taking away his greatness as it is -- is that Tom Brady is the greatest ever. He wasn't. He just wasn't. 

Whether or not Patrick gets another Super Bowl win or this success or that success doesn't take away the true objective fact that Mahomes can do, had done, and will likely still do things Tom Brady never did and could never do. Again, was Brady talented, skilled, smart, competitive, dedicated to his craft? Of course!

But he just was not the greatest. When we see someone come along who does the things Mahomes has done for an extended period of time, which Patrick has already proven he has, then we'll revive the standard GOAT conversation. For now it's already over. He has already established himself as the greatest, and anyone with any decent pair of eyes and at least a few brain cells can see it.

As far as this year's version of Super Bowl action goes, maybe more later! 

If not, bring on the Eagles!

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The photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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