First Things First - 7 Questions Before The Super Bowl Rematch 🤔

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

A casually dressed Kevin Wildes asks seven questions that he tries to answer ahead of the Super Bowl rematch between the Eagles and Chiefs on FOX. He also adds a bonus question, of course! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seven questions that I'm looking for answers for. Before the Eagles go into Arrowhead, America's Game of the Week, on Fox. We will be in Kansas City on Friday. The first one's very egocentric, but I've got an interesting story about it. And the rest are about football, like in-depth football questions that I've really been, you know, grinding the all 22. But this one is more introspective. First question, who am I rooting for in this? And I know you might be thinking, well, Wilds, you're going to root for.

the Eagles you've been the Jalen Hertz guy I'm beloved in Kansas City I like Patrick Mahomes and here's the other thing you might not know about me I'm very when in Rome very much so like if we went out to lunch in Brooklyn during the lunch I would just be like should I get a small tattoo of a sparrow on my forearm I feel like I should get like a stick in poke tattoo of a skull? Like, I think that is cool. Wherever I am, I just kind of get into it. I think it probably serves me well, but we're going to have the show in Kansas City on

Friday, and I'm going to be the heel and go for the Eagles. I'm just, I don't think I have the wherewithal to do that. I know myself, and I have some evidence of this. I'm obviously a Red Sox fan. but I live near Yankee Stadium. It takes like two and a half hours to go to Fenway. It takes 35 minutes to go to Yankee Stadium. So I end up going to Yankee Stadium often.

We just went to Yankees Red Sox. And a few years ago, my buddy who's also a Red Sox fan said, hey, I got Red Sox tickets, let's go. Middle of the aisle, which normally I would not do. Because I just don't like the middle. And when you're in the middle seat, the challenge is, You have to be on your best behavior because you get it. You go to the bathroom.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Oh, hey, do you want a beer? Excuse me. Excuse me. Guys, people are standing up. People are sitting down. You're really asking a lot from the people next to you.

And they're not really asking anything from you. So the relationship with your seatmates is out of balance. That's what I don't like. I don't mind having people around. I don't like to have an imbalance in the relationship with my fellow aisle mates. So, of course, well, let's get this. Let's get a hot dog. You know, let's get some cracker jack. And I'm trying to be friends with the people.

I also don't have any red socks gear on. My buddy doesn't have any red socks gear on. The game is tight. And we're just kind of watching. We're not going crazy. No one's figured out that we are spies in Yankee Stadium. Someone on the Yankees hits a home run. We all stand up to see where it goes because it's kind of a blast.

there's something over here so I'm standing there. The ball goes out of the ballpark. Now, I've been a Red Sox fan since I was a little boy, and I was supposed to hate the Yankees. I don't hate the Yankees. They're fun to root for it. And if you like the Red Sox, you kind of have to watch the Yankees. I don't hate me.

The guy next to me turns, and I have a relationship with this guy now and offers me a high five. Now, what am I supposed to do at this point? Stuff my hands in my pocket. Reveal that I'm actually a Red Sox. fan when in Rome. I give the guy a high five. What do you want me to do? Was I rooting for the Yankees at that moment? No.

But am I like the most steadfast guy who can't be a little bit malleable when there's joy? Do I get kind of caught up in the joy? A little bit. That being said, I'll reveal my pick on Friday. But I leaned on one of my Eagles buddies who I met him in college. But I talked to him before the Super Bowl. I was trying to figure out our picks. and all the stats said go with the Eagles. But again, I was beloved in Kansas City, the three Pete, all of it.

And we went out and he's drinking, Niccolo of Ultras, which I had never had before. Not bad. I was like, what do you think about the game? Him and his two friends, like, we think it's going to be a blowout. It's a blowout. No one has that take. He's like, yeah, I don't think they can stop our pass rush.

I think we're going to blow him out. Blum out. So my buddy Dan's pick, interesting note that no one cares about. My other buddy in the Yankee story is also named Dan McNichols pick is Eagles 27, Chiefs 14. AJ Brown, two touchdowns. Which brings me to question number two. AJ Brown. Devontes Smith, 2022, maybe.

So he almost got shut out. He had one catch, AJ Brown, for eight yards against the Cowboys. Sirian, he's like, what a mentally tough game. He had one of the biggest catches. Like, I guess at the same time, he's got to have more than one. one catch for eight yards. So is he going to be fed the ball early and often? Probably. Zach Berman of the athletic points this out. That in 2022, Devonty Smith opening game in Detroit, four targets, no catches, obviously no yards. The next two games was like, oh, you know what

you should do, feed the Heisman trophy winner. Did you win the Heisman? Roll Tide, regardless. seven targets, seven catches, 80 yards. Next day, 12 targets. It wasn't next day. Next week, they don't play back to backs, not baseball. 12 targets, eight catches, 169 yards. They're just going to feed, feed, feed, AJ Brown, not only to keep him happy, but also it's the smart game playing.

Like, oh, what do you do? But I don't know, will Jalen Hertz be able to get the ball to his two wide receivers? Like, unfortunately, you know who's not going to be able to get the ball to their two wide receivers? Patrick Mahomes because she races out. Xavier Worthy will probably be at. So question number three. Is Mahomes the rushing attack now? Here's a weird one.

This is a Josh special. Mahomes' last 25 games times leading Kansas City and rush yards. There's only been three games. One was the Super Bowl against the 49ers. And this was Nick's take too, that he would kind of save the ability to rush until he felt like he needed it.

So he wasn't taking extra punishment. Second time he led the team in rushing against the Eagles in the Super Bowl, just 25 yards, where Kreme Hunt had nine yards. That's not good at all. And then last Friday against the Chargers, he had 57 yards, and Pacheco only had 25. So is Mahomes just going to rush again? Is he going to go three back-to-back-to-back games where he leads the chiefs in rushing? And people are like, well, that's good.

He's adding something, a new dynamic to his game. I think he only does it in like have-to-have-it moments. So if there's several have-to-have-it moments in this game, it's a bad sign. Number four, are we going to have another Siriani moment? I hope not. Nick Siriani has a great winning percentage. Here's the video of him yelling at Chiefs fans. Unbecoming.

If you're going to be a great coach and you want me to offend you in your record, which is right up there with John Madden. Let's not engage with the fans like, you know, I don't even know. Can we just have the, can we show the patience of maybe a Little League umpire? Like that's all we're going for. Just kind of stoic. You walk back to your car after the game. You take off your huge chest protector, put it in your trunk.

That's it. Let people kind of yell at you. You kind of keep it moving. You're an NFL coach and a Super Bowl champion. Like, let's not yell at the fans. Number five, it's the Chief's defense vulnerable. Justin Herbert was lighting up the secondary. And let me know if you hear anybody who is better than A.J. Brown or Devante Smith.

Quentin Johnson, five for 79. Ladd-McConkey, six for 74. Keenan Allen's still getting it done. Seven for 68. Tyler Conklin, two catches for 50 yards. Will Disley, a catcher. for 18 yards. Buckle up.

If that's how the charges who don't even really like to throw the ball, maybe they are going to throw the ball this year. Jalen Hertz is going to have a day. Question number six. Who will have the bigger bounce-back game on the defensive line? Chris Jones or Jalen Carter?

Chris Jones freestyled and Drew Trankel has gotten to an argument. He's looking for a bounce-back game. Jalen Carter spat on Dak Prescott. and for a while there was briefly national embarrassment. It's tough to get embarrassed in front of the whole country. It's not great. Chris Jones was trying to make a play, took an inside route, didn't hold the edge.

Sure. But spitting on someone, not good. So we need, again, and I'm not rooting for the Eagles. by we, I mean fans of sport. It would be interesting if all the talk of the Eagles defense

was because Jalen Carter was missing. Like, wow, Dak was really dicing them up. All right, I think it's probably a little bit different with Jalen Carter and the effect that he can have on the game. In the Super Bowl against Mahomes, six sacks, 11 QB hit. hits, third down was at 27% third down conversion rate. Against the Cowboys with no Jalen Carter, zero sacks, one QB hit, third down conversion rate, 64%.

Maybe that's all Jane Carter. Maybe it's not. It will be interesting to see who has a bigger bounce back game. Sequan, on a marathon, not a sprint. This is, again, from my buddy Dan, who at this point should probably invoice me. Against the Cowboys, 18 carries for 60 yards. 20 games last year. There was only five times he had 18 carries or less.

So is Sequin still going to be on a pitch count, or is this a, you know what, give me the ball? I didn't have a great Super Bowl. He did, but, you know, Spaggs tried to shut him down and make Jalen beat him, which he did. Is Sequin looking for a little revenge after a moderately un-Saquin game in the opener? Finally, the bonus question. what are we going to do if who wrote when here you know if i didn't pick the eagles what are we going to do if jalen hertz wins his third consecutive game against patrick mahomes he's won 15 games that he's started and finished the eagles are now 17 and won in their last 18 games uh and he's also on the graphic

in the graphic. Do you want the graphic? Do you want me just to show this in front? Here's the graphic though, Gianna. You can use this. Here's Jalen Hertz right here. Now, the way that the math works on the graphic with Jalen Hertz, if he loses, he falls off the graphic.

I would like to keep him on the graphic. Prediction coming Friday, live from Kansas City. I'm very malleable. I'm just saying I'm not necessarily picking the Eagles. The end. Thank you.