Super Bowl Preview

All eyes are on Las Vegas, the sight of Super Bowl LVIII, where the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will duke it out to be crowned champions of the NFL.

Here’s What to Know

It’s been an incredible season for both teams thus far but on Sunday, one great season will come to an end, and another will be cemented into NFL history as one to remember.

For the Chiefs, this is their fourth Super Bowl appearance in the Patrick Mahomes era, one which is shaping up to be similar to the Tom Brady era in New England, where consistent success will bring along not only hatred for the team, but happiness when said team fails. The Chiefs are entering the Super Bowl coming off 5 straight wins, and an “upset” as some may say vs the 1st place Ravens, who proved to be the biggest postseason fraud since Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in 2020. Now, I would start off by saying that everyone wants the Chiefs to lose, but when you hear the NFC representatives name, you almost wish BOTH teams would lose, and we could get the day off from school on Monday instead.

The San Francisco 49ers are making their eighth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, and this being the first one since their Super Bowl LIV loss to the Chiefs. Along with this, the 49ers seem to be starting a dynasty in the NFC, reaching their 3rd consecutive NFC Championship Game last week, and their 4th in 5 years. Their team is led by Pro Bowlers such as George Kittle, Christian McCaffery, Kyle Juszczyk, Fred Warner, Talanoa Hufanga, and Trent Williams, along with notable players such as Deebo Samuel, Nick Bosa, Chase Young, and Brock Purdy. The 49ers are coming off an improbable comeback victory vs the Lions at home to take the NFC Crown, and will look to keep that momentum riding into Sunday.

The Chiefs are looking to win consecutive Super Bowls and gain their third ring under Patrick Mahomes. They will also look to become the first back to back Super Bowl Champions since the 2004-2005 New England Patriots, who captured their second and third title in franchise history, under Tom Brady. Similar storylines between the two.

For the 49ers, there’s a lot at stake here; it would be one thing to lose the Super Bowl twice to the same Chiefs team, it would be another to say that Chiefs team is considerably worse than the first time, and it would be a third thing to say that you’re losing with the avengers surrounding your franchise. This game is huge for the 49ers, especially for Brock Purdy and he wants to prove he’s legit.

Something to Prove

Like I was just saying, for the 49ers, they have to win this game. They’ve made four incredible runs in the last five years and none of them have ended with a ring. This is a franchise who hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1994! They believe they have found a new franchise quarterback, but it would only be proven by winning on Sunday. Brock Purdy needs to lead this team to victory, especially after all the comments this year saying he isn’t legit, and he is carried by his offense. If he can lead this 49ers team to victory, it shows that he is a true leader in that organization, and it is his team, not McCaffery’s or the defense. However, since his team surroundings are so great, if he doesn’t do good and the 49ers still win, how will Purdy be treated afterwards?

It seems as if the quarterback gets the glory for the win, despite not having to do the most on their team. This is for good reason though; see, it’s the praise because of the leadership role they take on the field. It is understood by everyone watching that all these guys want to win, but the quarterback is in charge of the operation going smoothly, and helping the team succeed. The team is not led by the running backs or wide receivers, it’s led by the guy getting the snap and giving it to those guys efficiently so the team could win.

Now, for the opposers, the Kansas City Chiefs. This is a team that has already one two Super Bowls in the last 4 years, and is looking to become the next dynasty of the NFL, if they haven’t already left their mark. To be honest, this team has nothing to prove. Mahomes has shown he can lead the most average of teams to Championships, and he was successful this year in doing so. I’ve said this before to family and friends, but having Patrick Mahomes is like playing “Retro Bowl” on easy mode. Over time, your team is going to get progressively worse, and you’re going to lose a lot more regular season games than usual, but as long as you can get to the playoffs, it’s almost guaranteed that you will win. This goes for Mahomes and the Chiefs. They lost a “Mahomes Era” high 6 regular season games this year, but still managed to reach the Super Bowl. This is a team where their number one receiver not named Travis Kelce, is a rookie (Rasheed Rice). Now, this is no disrespect to Rice, it just goes to show how Mahomes makes his team around him better. Obviously there have been instances where he’s cried like a baby on field, but hey, he’s in the Super Bowl and all those guys complaining about him are not.

The 49ers have a lot to prove next week while the Chiefs don’t, so we’ll just have to wait and see if it makes a difference.

Predictions

This is the part everyone who reads articles waits for, the predictions. It’s the most exciting part because you get to see who knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about football.

So, I apologize in advance for hurting feelings here, but I will leave you with my quarter by quarter predictions:

Coin Toss: Heads