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57 things we learned from Super Bowl 57: How Chiefs became champions again
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- 57 things we learned from Super Bowl 57: How Chiefs became champions again
GLENDALE, Ariz. – As with any NFL champion, the Kansas City Chiefs had much to overcome on their way to securing the Lombardi Trophy .
Sunday at State Farm Stadium, K.C. had to dig out of a double-digit deficit after halftime. The Chiefs had to persevere even as their best player, quarterback Patrick Mahomes , had to endure after reinjuring the high ankle sprain he suffered earlier in the postseason late in the second quarter. Kansas City also had to survive the heroics of Mahomes' counterpart, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts , who put on one of the greatest individual displays ever seen on Super Sunday.
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With all that and more in mind, here are the 57 things we learned from Super Bowl 57:
1. The first Super Bowl contested between Black quarterbacks also marked the 35th anniversary of Washington's Doug Williams – the MVP of Super Bowl 22 was in attendance Sunday – breaking the QB color barrier on Super Sunday with a four-TD passing performance while ousting John Elway's Denver Broncos .
2.Now, Mahomes has become the first Black QB to win multiple Super Bowls.
3.Mahomes, 27, and Hurts, 24, represented the youngest starting quarterback duo in Super Bowl history with a combined age of 51 years, 337 days.
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3a.The previous record for youngest Super Bowl guns came in 1985, when Joe Montana outdueled Dan Marino in Super Bowl 19.
4.Mahomes surpassed Tom Brady as the youngest QB to start three Super Bowls.
4a.He and Brady are the only quarterbacks to start three Super Bowls in their first six NFL seasons.
5.This Super Bowl was the first featuring QB1s who both played in the Big 12, Mahomes at Texas Tech and Hurts at Oklahoma after he transferred from Alabama.
6.This was the sixth Super Bowl since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger featuring the first- and second-team All-Pro QBs. Before Sunday, the second-teamers had been undefeated, but Mahomes changed that, too.
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6a.It was also the fourth matchup of the league MVP and the runner-up (Hurts) since the merger. Mahomes was the first MVP to prevail.
7.Mahomes is the first quarterback since Brady in Super Bowl 36 to be selected Super Bowl MVP despite throwing for fewer than 200 yards.
8.Mahomes also joined Brady among six players to have won Super Bowl MVP honors multiple times.
9.Mahomes broke a nine-game Super Bowl losing streak for league MVPs. Prior to Super Bowl 57, the last one to win a title was the St. Louis Rams' Kurt Warner in Super Bowl 34.
9a.Mahomes now accompanies Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith, Bart Starr, Steve Young and Warner as the seventh player to win the league and Super Bowl MVP in the same season.
10. This was the first Super Bowl in five years to pit the AFC's No. 1 playoff seed against the NFC's top seed, but the sixth occurrence since 2000 and 14th overall.
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11.The Eagles have now reached the Super Bowl four times, each with a different coach – Nick Sirianni joining Andy Reid, Dick Vermeil and Doug Pederson.
12. Chris Stapleton's outstanding rendition of the "The Star-Spangled Banner" before kickoff brought Sirianni and Eagles C Jason Kelce to tears . Pretty cool.
13.The Eagles have never worn white jerseys in the Super Bowl.
13a.Sunday was the first time the Chiefs had worn white on Super Sunday since the inaugural AFL-NFL World Championship Game, known retroactively as Super Bowl 1, which Kansas City lost.
14.The Chiefs – they were originally the Dallas Texans – reached Super Sunday twice under their founder, Lamar Hunt, who was also primarily responsible for starting the American Football League in 1960 and coined the term "Super Bowl."
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15.The Chiefs have now gone to three Super Bowls with Hunt's son, Clark, serving as co-owner, chairman and CEO of the club and won two of them.
16.Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, who was released from Russian custody in December, attended the game and wore an Eagles throwback No. 12 jersey – a tribute to former quarterback Randall Cunningham. Her wife, Cherelle, sported a No. 92 Philly jersey in honor of late Hall of Famer Reggie White.
17. Eagles DT Ndamukong Suh appeared in his third Super Bowl in the past five seasons, but playing for his third different team ( Los Angeles Rams , Tampa Bay Buccaneers ). A role player for the first time in his 13-year career, the five-time Pro Bowler laid one quarterback hit on Mahomes during Sunday's action. Suh told USA TODAY Sports before the game, "I may come off the bench, but I'm no bum."
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18.The NFL spent two years, at a cost of $800,000, preparing the Super Bowl 57 field for State Farm Stadium.
18a.But that sod proved a bit shoddy , players slipping throughout the game and complaining about the footing with many forced to change their cleats.
19.Hurts had to switch out of a sweet pair of Air Jordan 11 Concords in favor of some green-and-black Jordan 1s that didn't have quite the same drip.
19a.(Coincidence the Eagles couldn't hold their 24-14 lead? I think not.)
20.Mahomes became the first player to lead the NFL in passing yards during a season and beat the league's top-ranked passing defense. (Former MVPs Peyton Manning and Rich Gannon fell short of completing this task.)
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20a.Though it's not like the Eagles got torched through the air, giving up just 182 yards – right in line with their 2022-leading season average of 179.8.
21.Mahomes was also the seventh player to lead the league in passing yards to start on Super Sunday ... and is now the first to win it.
21a.In another first, Mahomes is the only player to throw for at least 5,000 yards in the regular season and win the Super Bowl.
22.The Chiefs came back from a second-half, double-digit hole both Sunday and in their Super Bowl 54 defeat of the San Francisco 49ers .
23.Sunday was the first time in the 2022 playoffs that Kansas City trailed.
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24.The Eagles join the infamous 2016 Atlanta Falcons as the only Super Bowl squads to surrender a double-digit lead at the half. (The 2019 49ers pulled ahead of K.C. by 10 in the third quarter.) Prior to Sunday, teams up by at least 10 at intermission had been 26-1 in the Super Bowl.
25.But credit the Chiefs for being nearly perfect in the third and fourth quarters. They scored on all four drives – a total of 24 points – with Mahomes crafting a 133.9 passer rating.
26.What was far more remarkable about Kansas City's pass attack was that the Chiefs blockers didn't allow a single sack to a Philadelphia pass rush that had racked up 78 through 19 games and nearly broke the all-time record for an entire season (when including playoffs).
27.Shoutout to K.C.'s Creed Humphrey ... let's just anoint the NFL "unicorn" the first southpaw center to win a Super Bowl.
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28.Maybe the NFL should hold the Super Bowl in the Arizona Cardinals ' stadium every year. Sunday's classic takes its place alongside the New York Giants ' upset of the previously undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42, and the Pats' stunning defeat of Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks seven years later.
29.Mahomes is now 11-3 in the postseason, and his 107.4 passer rating is the best in NFL history among quarterbacks with at least 10 playoff starts.
30.No quarterback has more playoff victories through six NFL seasons ... and, don't forget, Mahomes was essentially redshirted during his 2017 rookie campaign.
31.Talk about brotherly bragging rights. Chiefs All-Pro TE Travis Kelce is now 3-0 in the NFL against older brother Jason after winning the first Super Bowl to feature siblings on opposing teams.
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32.Good thing for the Kelces' ubiquitous mother, Donna, that this week was only going to end one way ...
33.And K.C. HC Reid can do that record one better, improving to 4-0 all-time against the Eagles, for whom he is the winningest coach in franchise history but was fired following the 2012 season.
34.What a night for Chiefs DE Carlos Dunlap . The veteran pass rusher has played 13 NFL seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals , and won his first ring Sunday in his inaugural Super Bowl appearance. He put a pair of QB hits on Hurts in the process.
35. The Eagles started the 2022 campaign 8-0 and were the last NFL team to lose this season ... before succumbing in the NFL's last game of the season. The 2006 Indianapolis Colts were the last club to leverage the best start of a given season into a title.
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36.Philadelphia finishes with 42 rushing touchdowns, the most ever in an NFL season (playoffs included).
37.Hurts' 18 rushing TDs are the most ever by a quarterback in one season, playoffs included.
38.Hurts' three TDs on the ground Sunday established a new Super Bowl record for quarterbacks and tied the all-time mark of Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, Super Bowl 32's MVP for Denver.
39.Hurts also became the first quarterback with a rushing TD in three games within one postseason.
40.Hurts' 20 points Sunday (3 TDs scored and a 2-point conversion) tied Patriots RB James White's record from Super Bowl 51. Throw in his 304 passing yards (and an additional TD), and solid argument that Hurts was the best player on the field.
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41.Hurts' 70 rushing yards broke Steve McNair's record (64 in Super Bowl 34) for a quarterback in the Super Bowl.
42.Conversely, the Eagles running backs combined for 45 yards rushing and 2.6 per carry.
43.Chiefs LB Nick Bolton's 36-yard fumble return made him the first University of Missouri product to score a Super Bowl TD.
44.Teams scoring a touchdown off a fumble recovery are now 5-0 on Super Sunday.
45.Kansas City, which won the coin toss, broke an eight-game Super Bowl losing streak for teams winning the pre-game flip.
46.Super Bowl 57 was the first in 25 years to have both teams open the game with touchdown drives.
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47.Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco, who owns the No. 10 jersey previously worn by K.C. WR Tyreek Hill, scored a 1-yard TD that sparked the comeback. Hill has never scored a Super Bowl TD.
Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (10) celebrates with running back Jerick McKinnon (1) after scoring a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles during the second half in Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium.
48.Pacheco and WR Skyy Moore found the end zone for Kansas City, the Chiefs joining the immortal 1985 Chicago Bears as the only Super Bowl teams with multiple rookies scoring TDs.
49. Sirianni was his typically aggressive self, the Eagles going 2-for-2 on fourth downs – those pair of conversions leading to 10 points.
50.Kansas City WR Kadarius Toney's 65-yard punt return was another new Super Bowl mark and he came up just 5 yards short of the first Super Sunday TD off a punt runback.
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51.The Buffalo Bills didn't deliver on their preseason Super Bowl hype, but it sure was good to see S Damar Hamlin in the building.
52.The Chiefs become the 10th NFL franchise in possession of at least three Lombardi Trophies.
53.This Super Bowl was the first featuring a military flyover with all female pilots.
54.One of the lasting moments from Sunday? What felt like a heavily pro-Eagles crowd lustily booing Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott prior to kickoff when he was introduced after being recognized as the league's newest Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award recipient.
55.And Rihanna, sure – great halftime show . But brilliant job by the league utilizing the greatest halftime performers ever – U2 – as the soundtrack while celebrating the work of its Payton winners and aspirants.
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56.With Super Bowl 57 in the books, not too early to look ahead to Super Bowl 58 – the first ever scheduled to be staged in Las Vegas at the Raiders' Allegiant Stadium. Super Sunday on the Strip should be something else.
57.But prior to that, Kansas City will be center stage again as host of the 88th NFL draft in April. Union Station will be the centerpiece of this year's "Player Selection Meeting." See you then.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Bowl's 57 lessons: How Chiefs became champions once again
