The Philadelphia Eagles are the best football team in the league – they’re winning. Losing the Chiefs is the better offense in the NFL
The Eagles will play the Chiefs in the Super Bowl in Arizona on Sunday. It’s as close to a tossup as they come, with the Eagles favored by just 1.5 points.
This year’s matchup is a battle of heavyweights. The two teams finished the season at 14-3. The #1 seed in the conference were both of them. Both teams won two playoff games to get to the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs have the best offense in the league, and they’ve got the presumptive Most Valuable Player in quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The Eagles are a complete football team and overcoming their league-leading defense will be difficult.
The Philadelphia Eagles had the best season in the league. They have lost only one game in which their starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts, played (and that game was something of an odd duck, with six total turnovers).
Their defense is formidable: Their pass rush is second to none, and overall, they allowed the second fewest yards of any team this year. On offense, they’re much improved from last season. The addition of A.J.Brown has changed their ability for big plays and Hurts has now made big strides in his passing game.
Kansas City was the best offense in the league. This is true, no matter which way you look at it, be it the simplest measures, or the metrics used by the nerds, it’s true.
Chris Jones is an All-Pro defensive tackle and he has perked up their defense from years past.
The Eagles have an imposing pass rush. Their pass rush, led by linebacker Haason Reddick, a dark horse Super Bowl MVP candidate, is the best in the league at getting to the other team’s quarterback. The percentage of plays on which they sacked the quarterback – 11.5% – is the highest of any team in decades. The Eagles recovered a fumbled and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy was forced to leave the game because of an injured elbow, but Reddick was able to shed his blocker to reach the quarterback.
This is a problem for the tackles, which is especially troubling for the Kansas City Chiefs since they have struggled at times this year. The Chiefs’ offense could not move the ball because of the constant pressure they would get from the Eagles.
Regardless of what happens in the game, this Super Bowl is already in the history books. The big game has never before featured two Black starting quarterbacks. That’s a legacy of decades of discrimination against Black men in football, and especially in the quarterback position.
Hurts and Mahomes, both of whom are Black, each spoke this week about the historic nature of the game and nodded to those who came before them in the long road to integrate the position. You can read more about that history here.
Hurts sprained his throwing shoulder toward the end of the regular season, causing him to miss two games, both of which the Eagles lost. He’s since struggled with the deep ball — although both of the Eagles’ playoff wins were so decisive that it didn’t much matter.
Three weeks later, he turned his ankle against the JacksonvilleJaguars, and has been affected ever since. He said that they would see how close he was to 100% on game day.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/1155529623/super-bowl-chiefs-eagles-preview
Super-Bowl-Chairs Eagles Preview: Donna Kelce and her Three Twins, Donna, and Eagles
There are many famous pairs of brothers that have played in the National Football League, but none have played in the Super Bowl.
Both players are, arguably, the best in the league at their position. Both guys are beloved by their fans. Donna Kelce wears a custom half-red, half-green jersey with their fathers’ numbers on the front and back. She brought cookies to the Super Bowl.
The parents of the brothers were invited onto the show last week to talk about their children when they were younger. Who was more honest? What type of food did they eat? Who’s the favorite? It’s all very wholesome.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/1155529623/super-bowl-chiefs-eagles-preview
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Chiefs at the Super Bowl: The KCUR and WHYY Report of Philadelphia and Puppy Bowl 2023
There is a lot of love for Philadelphia Eagles head coach Frank Reich, too, as evidenced by the fact that there’s a lot of love in Kansas City for the Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid. The Eagles had a 14 seasons under.500 coach before he joined the Chiefs.
The official kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. local time on Sunday. And to help you prepare, we’ve gathered everything you need to know about the game, the prep and the aftermath with some help from our member stations KCUR in Kansas City and WHYY in Philadelphia.
KCUR in Kansas City and WHYY in Philadelphia helped make our coverage of Super Bowl LVII possible. You can support local journalism like this by donating to Kansas City’s NPR station KCUR; Philadelphia’s member station WHYY, and the NPR Network.
Plus, along with the big game in Arizona, Sunday will also be Puppy Bowl 2023. Dozens of adorable pups face off, as Team Ruff tries to defeat Team Fluff.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/10/1155975071/super-bowl-kansas-city-philadelphia-when-where
The Rise of Rihanna in 2019: Highlights from it’s Been A Minute, Code Switch’s Gene Demby, and Beyond
This year’s halftime headliner is the one and only Rihanna. Back in 2019, she turned down the gig in solidarity with former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick. Listen to It’s Been A Minute’s Brittany Luse and Code Switch’s Gene Demby discuss if Rihanna’s previous concerns were addressed and why she might need to step up to the mic. And, in anticipation of the halftime show, check out WBEZ’s Making Rihanna series, which looks at the Barbadian national hero’s rise to stardom.
The 2020 victory party for the team indicated that it was going to be a big celebration in KC if the team won the Vince Lombardi trophy. Check out highlights from the 2020 parade here. Either way: