NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Bowl LVIII Recap

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

In a stadium full of heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, and Marc Sessler are LIVE from Super Bowl LVIII. The heroes start the show with a discussion about the Chiefs repeating as Super Bowl champions (01:00). The guys then talk about the 49ers once again falling short (19:02). Then wrap up the show with the final thoughts about the final game of the season (36:30). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. McKinnon is in at running back. First down and goal to go. Playing action fake. Right side draw. touchdown. Kansas City. McCall Hardman.

McCall Hardman with the catch on the right side. A three-yard touchdown pass in overtime. Kansas City wins the game. 25. 22. And the Chiefs Kingdom has guarded its own history class because for the first time, in 6,944 days, there is a back-to-back Super Bowl champion. And it is the Kansas City Chiefs champions of Super Bowl 58 on the heels of Super Bowl 57. The Chiefs knew it in overtime.

Mitch Holtus with the call. Chiefs Radio Network. They done it again. The Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Gohombs, two, Miko Hardman, three-yard touchdown pass with three seconds left in overtime. Chiefs rally past the Niners.

25 to 22 in Super Bowl 58. They are the first repeat champion in 19 years. and they have a chance to be the first team ever next season to three-peath. Dan Hans us here with Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler. We are Heroes Bowl. The backdrop, we are in the end zone coming right behind the end zone where Patrick O'Holmes hit Hardman to win the Super Bowl and another Super Bowl MVP boys.

And what a treat, overtime. For so much of this game, we're talking to you other being like, It's kind of a boring Super Bowl. Like, let's pick it up here. And once that fourth quarter started, really the end of the third, once the Chiefs got that touchdown, it was an all-time classic. And I just think of how this season played out for the Chiefs and how his teammates and their struggles in a sense made him have to be a game manager.

And this was the conversation with Purdy all season, like Game Changer Game Manager. And what I saw tonight out of Mahomes was what I've seen out of the best, quarterbacks in the history of the game, which is that he did everything that needed to be done in the moment that needed it to be done. And it wasn't flashy plays. It was the right decisions on the last drive of regulation. It was obviously the right decisions of when to run in overtime and him just being calm, being patient when he needed to, being aggressive when he needed to, and just always doing the right thing because that's what great quarterbacks do. It was almost like a microcosm of their season because the Chiefs, the first half, stuck in mud, three punts, a big fumble that caused a mistake a big problem, and they get out of there with a field goal, and you're lucky at that point to be down 10 to 3 at the half.

And then, over their final four possessions, the Chiefs scored 19 points. And it's sort of the way they closed their season in the playoffs, and I feel like it was just a year ago that we were in Arizona, and I was thinking to myself and saying on our Super Bowl recap show that there's this inevitable nature to Patrick Mahomes and to the Chiefs in general,

And it's like, it happened again. And I can't help but flip the script and think of like, my gosh, it happened again to Kyle Shanahan. It's the second time that the Niners had a 10-point lead on Mahomes. It's the fourth Super Bowl that Mahomes faced a 10-point deficit. He's won three of them. He did it again tonight. So there is this inevitable sense that the Chiefs will always find a way. And I know where you're coming from, Greg, when you call him the game manager, but I find it disrespectful.

Because he's a game general. Nay, he's a game commander. He is someone that can do. everything. If you need him to be smart with the football, nobody's better. If you need him to take risks and be a downfield gunslinger, he's done that in his career. When I say it, I just mean decision maker. I know. And you're trying to, and I respect where you're coming. You're trying to change a stigma a little bit of game manager.

But what Mahomes did again and seeing him, they ran, by the way, the same, Andy Reed, that son of a gun. They run the same play that they ran to get the big touchdown. to Tony in last year's Super Bowl but substituting Tony a healthy scratch in this game with me Cole Hardman, a guy that they said bye bye to who goes to the Jets, bombs out, they move him and he

lands with KC and then makes one of the biggest catches in Super Bowl history. It's an amazing story and to see it right in front of us, it's a reminder again how lucky we are and also to see him running Mahomes through the back of the end zone and then up the

far sideline And just the first thing that came to my mind is this is the guy. I think when you look at what he's done now in seven years, and it said this during the week, Radio Row, that this was such a huge moment for Mahomes and Reed, for them now to both get another title. It's unreal, and he's absolutely in the conversation, greatest of all time.

I think he's 28 years old by kickoff next year. Yeah, and he had that incredible 22-yard run that called back the run he had against the Eagles a year ago. and the wide open Mikul Hardman touchdown this season, NGS noted that he had eight more touchdowns to wide open wide receivers than anyone in the game. It's like they are scheming them up perfectly. It won them the Super Bowl a year ago. It happened again today. And I'm with you.

I just look at this team and it's like the way at the half, Travis Kelsey had one catch for one yard. And we were talking about the fact that he marched up to Andy Reed with vitriol and anger and shoved his coach. It's like that seemed like it could have become the story of the game if they continue to melt. Instead, that feels like 14 years ago at this point. Right. The second half starts with them throwing a pitch to Pacheco and they take a 12-yard loss and a fumble.

And then Mahomes throws one of the worst passes of his career for an interception. And the Chief's defense was such a big part of this. We'll get to them. But the two turnovers that the Chiefs had, the Chief's defense then steps up with a three-and-out immediately and doesn't make it count. But while we're kind of just talking Mahomes and the game management,

like, it does feel inevitable that this all happened, and yet there were so many little parts of the game. And when I'm thinking of that last drive, he gets the ball back in regulation, needing three points, 153 to go, and they got the ball to the 49ers, 43, in no time at all, in less than a minute. And that was where he was being patient.

He was taking nine yards, three yards, 12 yards, eight yards. So he wasn't going for these chunk plays. He's taking what's there, but they did it very quickly. They got out of bounds. They didn't use their timeouts there. Then you get into overtime. A couple different spots there.

The third and sixth, the Rishi Rice, that was a really nice catch where Mahomes is under pressure. That was not like a given. If they don't get that, you're at fourth and six with the season on the line. You have a fourth and one. You need one yard. And the game stops and we're like, what's Andy Reid going to do in this spot? He goes back to that read option. I think it was Chase Young that they took advantage.

Cutty inside, the third and one he knows exactly when to scramble, like just every decision, even the Kelsey catch at the end of regulation that set up the chip shot. At that point, if they did not pick up that first down, that's a 50-yard field goal for Buckler just to keep the game alive with some time there. And each time, it's like those were the passes that are exactly on the money. That's why he is, he's the best player I've ever seen. Next Gen stats had an incredible stat on that Kelsey reception, that catch and run, that he reached something about, I think, 19.8 miles per hour is the fastest he had run on a

catch since 2018. And that is adrenaline. That's the Super Bowl. That's just that, you know, it's just a different world. And the fact that Mahomes, you know, when you talk about who's, and we don't want to overlook Tom Brady and I'm sure they're Patriots fans

yelling as they're listening, like, shut up about Mahon's being the best ever because Brady won seven and Brady had massive moments like this too, and that's true. So I really don't want to have that conversation. But I just want to point out that for Mahomes, the way he is so calm and collected in these spots, as Brady was, as Joe Montana was, that always sticks when they're watching these games. There's not a moment of panic.

Here is Patrick Mahomes on CBS after the game talking about where the Niners now are in history. And by the way, Patrick Rihomes, 7 and 0 in the playoffs over the last two years with two titles, and 15 and 3 in his remarkable career. seven seasons in. So is it a dynasty now? Yeah, it's the start of one. We're not done. I know we're going to celebrate tonight,

celebrate the Pride Wednesday, Kansas City, but we're not done. We've got a young team. We'll keep this thing going. I'd also say that Mahomes has won these Super Bowls where it's not the same star-studded lineup in each of these victories. It's different types of teams.

And I think you're right to call him a game manager in a positive sense in that he had to be a different type of quarterback with different players around him this season. It's like their defense, I think, saved them in the first half, absolutely. I get them out of trouble. But it's like, look at who he's surrounded. If you were to pair of these two teams and you were to put an offensive lineup of like the All-Star team,

it's like it's heavily favoring the Niners. And it's not favoring the Chiefs. And it doesn't really matter because Patrick Mahomes doesn't really care who's on the team. Right. And there's that one great throw he had to Hardman, which we had a great view. We watched this game in two different spots. We were in the auxiliary press box, which is basically up in the third deck for the first two and a half. half quarters of the game. Smash together. Right. And that throw from that angle, actually,

it was absolutely perfect to see that. He had no business throwing that ball because Hardman's bracketed on both sides, but it's such an impossible throw and Hardman makes a different play. But other than that, you don't think of like incredible athleticism in the way that we did in 2018 in his first season as a starter, 2019, when he won the Super Bowl for the first time. And that's why you think Mahomes is thinking, yeah, we're just getting started. Because this skill set where he's winning up here, along with that incredible arm he has, is going to age well. Are you doing it? What?

Hey, he's reaching the point in his career when the mental side of things is catching up with the physical. That is it. And of course, Tom Brady's accomplished the most ever. But no one in the history of the NFL's had a first seven seasons of their career, like Patrick Wilms. It's not even close. It's not an argument. It's the best start to a season any players ever have by far. We'll see.

We don't know. You never know. This could be the last time he's ever on the stage. That weird of things have happened. But that's why I thought. Adam Bob lands on the United States. I'm just saying, as Dan Marino in 1984, what he would have thought. Right.

There's many examples. But that's like the difference between Dan Marino's career, who was thought to be the best ever in a certain light, and what Patrick Mahomes has done is like completely unprecedented. I mean, it's remarkable. And he finished 34 of 46, 333 yards, average 7.2 yards per attempt, two touchdowns. That one ugly pick.

Pass rating 99.3. And, you know, I got to give credit to his receivers because they didn't build the best skill group around him this year. We know that. Even throughout the playoffs and even through certainly half of this game, it was apparent that they're still missing Tyree Kill or someone that can really make things easier for Patrick Mahomes, which makes his achievements even greater. But I look down at you have Kelsey, even though he's one for one at the half. He finishes 9 for 93 on 10 targets. But then he pretty much spreads it out. Three catches for Hardman.

Three for Justin Watson. Six for 39 for Rishi Rice. Pichenko has 6 for 33. Noah Gray, 2 for 22. MVS 3 catches. Jared McKinnon 2. I don't remember a drop in that. Exactly.

They get that script. Watson had one where the ball was a little behind him. I remember that play. But it was a clean performance by under card type players. These guys, there's a certain ceiling with many of these guys. maybe even with Kelsey at this point in his career. But they maxed out what they were able to do. And I think you have to give them credit as well because it's not just Mahomes.

Like the Rishi Rice catcher in overtime is a perfect example. Was it overtime or the end of the fourth quarter? That was overtime. You know, that ball could have went through his hands. It was up there. You know, like that is. A little heater. And the pressures at the highest levels.

And these guys made the catches and got it done. So a great performance by the offense after a slow start. And the defense did what the defense did. all year long. And a couple of plays before that Nicole Hardman game winner, there was the Kelsey catch right up the gut of the field

where it looked like he had one or two yards and he just barreled and created a pile and went right down to the goal line almost. It's like Kelsey is part of this too. It's like his fastest runtime comes and this game after we were saying he lost a step all year long. It's like everything that we were complaining about

and feeling nagged about with the Chiefs just vanished in the last month. Right. And that's what the great teams do. They have that extra year. He had a couple of crucial things. third dog conversion, so did rice. I was annoyed, though, that Kelsey play in the red zone where they almost, you know,

won the Super Bowl there. I had the phone up. We're just, we got a great spot. This is a game day morning spot that they taped at during the show. And I had my phone up for that play. And I was like, oh, this has got me amazing. Kelsey's going to win the Super Bowl. That didn't happen.

Then forgot to have it up for the McColl Hardman Super Bowl winning play. I had it. I'll send it to you, buddy. I got you. Just to correct you, it's the round the NFL set, where, game day morning filmed earlier today. Well done. That's a great point. In fact, there's the back of my chair there's a piece of tape that says Rich on it. If we could get Dan put over

the rich tape, I would appreciate that, Eric, over there. In the corner. So you mentioned Spagnolo, them doing it like they did it all season. And I think of a couple plays in this game for Spagnolo to do what he did all season. Two Monster Third Downs. It's a two-minute warning in regulation. It's almost easy to forget now.

It feels a long time ago. The score is 16-16. It's third and four. The 49ers have the ball. If the 49ers get four yards on that play, they win the Super Bowl very likely. I mean, the Chiefs could have used all their timeouts

and they could have gotten no yards. You could, maybe it doesn't happen. But basically, it's third and four. You get just four yards. You don't need the touchdown on the play and you win the Super Bowl. Spagg sends pressure there. It's Trent McDuffie. He gets in clean. It felt like Trent McDuffie was blitzing this whole game.

They blitz more than 50% of the time. He gets out there right away. Purdy really has no chance on that play. Great job. Then in overtime, Purdy makes a couple great plays on that drive. Nice throws. Had like a hesitation where he got Karloff to saw him, got him down to the 15. I thought Purdy was fine in this game. He played well. Third and four. Again, season on the line. Can you stop them from getting a touchdown? Chris Jones gets in totally clean. They sent the house. All game.

And who is that on? Is it on the 49ers coaches? Is it on Purdy? Is it on the offensive line? Like, or is it just giving Spagnola the credit for winning in big spots? I'm not smart enough to really know, but I do know Spagnola won in those spots. Purdy had a wide open receiver on that play that he had no chance to get it to because the pressure was on him right away.

And that wins the Super Bowl. There were a couple huge plays like that and they had 11 hurries and a bunch of those came from defensive backs and we've been seeing that from Spags all year long and I don't know if it went on like we had Colleen Wolf down on the field the first person she interviewed with Spags and it's like by the way this is like I'm not calling it like you know a Ryan moment with Ditka but it's like he is what he is the reason they got here just as much as the office and it's still scratches my scratch my head why no one even sniffed around him as a head coach when you talk about and we can talk on it's at the end of the show so I think it's a good way to all right Right. Well, Bill Belchuk doesn't have a job either. When we talk about some legacy stuff and what the Chiefs can do going forward, we'll get to that because Spags is coming back, as is Reed, as is Mahomes, as is Kelsey. Some stats about this Chief's defense. And then we'll take a break and we'll do a little talk from the Niners side of things. Brock Purdy completed 12-19 attempts against the Blitz for 131 and a touchdown. We got sacked once.

The Chief's defense blitz, as you said, Greg, on 51.2 percent. of dropbacks, their fourth highest rate in a game under Spag. So they turned up the heat in a big way in this game. And one more stat from NextGen. The Chief's defense generated a season high. Nine unblocked pressures in Super Bowl 58, all of which came on blitzes. So obviously the game plan was to get after Purdy. And I thought it was notable late in the game a couple times when Spags held back the dogs.

That led to some things that were fortuitary. Judas for San Francisco. Third and 12 in overtime. You're right. He didn't send it, and that helped lead the 49ers. Those numbers, they sound decent from Purdy. He avoided mistakes. I think he played well enough to win.

I saw a take afterwards. It was like, Chanahan needs a better quarterback to get over the hump. I'm like, this is not the game for it. No. They had this game. Not that their offense played great, but to me, that was more about the coaching. Maybe when Purdy is in his eighth year, he'll be able to fix protections in a way that he can't out.

It's hard to say. But that's a 4.5 yards per attempt on those throws plus the sack. That is an extremely low number for a guy who set the NFL record for yards per attempt this season. All right. Let's take a break. And when we return, yes, we'll continue to churn through and dig through Super Bowl 58. I look back on the field behind us and there's still, I don't know, I'm going to say about 500 people littered on the field. Confetti everywhere.

But it's starting to die down. With Taylor Swift out there? Wait, is that Chris Berman literally live on television on a set like 50 yards away from us? Maybe even less than that. That's how close we are to be in Chris Berman, for you to really be in the next Chris Berman. That's the goal in every way. I want to be Chris Berman. All right, let's take a break, and we'll be right back.

Second and 10-9ers, up 3-0. Ferdie going to throw a double pass. Back to Joanne Jennings. A throwback across the field to McCaffrey. He's got it. 20, 10, 5. Touchdown! San Francisco!

CMC enter the dragon baby, six points on a trick play. By the way, it's time for the Sunday drive, presented by the first ever Toyota Grand Highlander. Oh man, better times for the 49ers on Super Bowl Sunday. Christian McCaffrey, the 21-yard pass from Joanne Jennings, who was shaping up as a potential Super Bowl MVP for a bit. in this game. It didn't work out. Obviously, that was the call from Greg Papa and Tim Ryan of KNBR. That play put the Niners up 10-0 in this game. And as Mark pointed out,

that is a double-digit lead that the Niners and Kyle Shanahan in his career, it's haunting. And it's another haunting loss for the 49ers, another gut punch loss for the 49ers who did a lot of things right in this game but once again when it was time to close the game out when it was time uh to kind of stunt like put your foot on the throat of the chiefs they kept on letting them off the hook they let them hang around and eventually it got them beat they did and it's it's got to be um gut wrenching for nineers fans to process this because it's a team that went three for 12 on third down and it really showed I thought that they just didn't make enough of their opportunities to go

into halftime up just 10 to 3 it should have been more. And like we were up there when we were higher up in the stadium thinking there were multiple times where you could have slashed the neck of the Chiefs and they just could not do it. And it's their defense though, after this, after a couple weeks of like the defense being the focal

point and the problem, played a great game early on. They really did. And it's the offense I thought that came out and you mentioned, is it coaching? What was it? Because it's not just on Brock Purdy but they come out of the second half time with three fizzle out punts and it's like that's that's where in that intermittent time the chief started warming up and i i want to point to one moment to late in the game where it's it was actually in

in overtime i want to ask your opinion because it's that third and four play where purdy is pressured on his pass and it's incomplete it's a chris jones pressure that i think absolutely sets up a shanahan moment for the ages let's listen to that call McCaffrey comes in motion they fake the jet to him Purdy throws it hot and throw over throws his receiver incomplete Big time rush Chris Jones Jennings was the intended receiver but Purdy had to just get rid of the football and now what does San Francisco do

this is interesting at 4th and 4 and so you know Chris Jones team high six pressures on the game a game changer right there I mean that's today's NFL it's then fourth and four on the KC9 and they kick the field goal, which is a very Shanahan lever pull right there. And part of me was like, wait a minute, you could leave the Chiefs on their nine-yard line

if you go for it and you don't get it. But do you not just go for it and sink a knife into the Chief's heart right here? And instead they go for the field goal, and there's plenty of time left for the Chiefs to come back at that point. Right. That's OT, and it really brings up this idea that I think in the analytical community, would be the rulebook, which would be you would defer in overtime. And that's so that you kind of

know what the other team does because the playoff overtime rules are different than regulation. Each team is guaranteed possession, even if you give up a touchdown. And so in that spot, you'd almost love to know if you needed a touchdown or not. Now, he could have been bold and just gone for it. I'm with you. Because what are the odds we're going to, you know, stop the Chiefs anyways? We need touchdowns. And one of the reasons they were in this game is because Kyle Sannahan did a very un-Kyle-Sanahan move. And he did go for it on fourth and three, down three points. That blew my mind.

And I know we're living in a Dan Campbell world now. This is supposed to always be, oh, well, the bot says you go for it. But it takes a serious amount of onions. I got to give the, I thought it was the wrong move. But they have a fourth in three at the Kansas City 15 with 1246 to play. They're losing by three points in the Super Bowl. And they go for it. and they draw up their most, the play that they treasure most,

and it's the safest play in their mind, the play that will absolutely get it done. And it was Brock Purdy to George Kittle, who was quiet this game and exited in an overtime with a shoulder issue. For four yards, they pick it up. That sets up the Joanne Jennings touchdown. Let's listen to that touchdown by Jennings. Purdy in the shotgun McCaffrey left.

Jennings outside of Ute right. Euse check and Kittle are tight left. Purdy back. Purdy throws and is caught by Juan Jennings. breaks a tackle touchdown San Francisco. The savior, Jawan Jennings, Wooden Dart versus tight man coverage. And Juan is able to shake loose to that first tackle, reignite, and then punch it into the end zone. And that was one, Mark, one of the multiple chances, both early in the game where it was like you could have really just

jumped out to a dominating type lead or late in the game where it's kind of in your hands now. And in that case, you're now winning because you took the chance and you're rewarded with the touchdown. You're winning in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. It's closeout time. And yet time and time again in the San Francisco 49th's history in the last 15 years, they just can't find a way. Well, and, you know, we were in the end zone for this. And I recorded that Jennings touchdown thinking, now, that's an interesting moment to have on tape. But then I press pause and stop recording.

And the PAT is blocked. Yes. That makes it 1613 when it would have been, you know, then you're forcing the chiefs to go score a touchdown at that point. And I don't want to get on Moody because Moody also for a brief time, for about an hour and a half, had the all-time record for longest field goal before Harrison Bucker bested him. But missing the PAT getting blocked there, immediately you're thinking,

how does that happen? And it wasn't like a breakdown in the blocking. It was a low kick. A PAT has to go higher. So that's Moody, who, if you listen to this show, under the radar, X-Factors, was the kicking game and how that would potentially play up. That, instead of being a four-point game,

being a three-point game, really set the table in a lot of ways for everything that happened after. And San Francisco mistakes and Niners fans know it. It was really, as someone, again, it's always bittersweet going to these Super Bowls because I always think about what it would be like if my team was ever here and how stressful.

I had this knot in my stomach being 10 feet away from a largely 49ers contingent. And you could say, people would say, oh, the 49ers fans, they've had so much to celebrate. And they have had a lot of success, but we're going on over a quarter century since they won a Super Bowl.

You're like a 35-year-old. That's what I mean. You didn't experience anything to do that. Everyone in the section in front of me, for the most part, looked like guys and women that were in their 30s, 20s, 40s. And so to not be able to get it done once again. And when you think about it, again, block PAT,

a muff punt that sets up the first Kansas City touchdown. On a game where before that happened, it wasn't clear that the Chiefs were ever going to score a touchdown because they looked a lot like the Christmas Chiefs, like the December Chiefs on offense until they got set up on a short field and that kind of kicked them into high gear. And then, Greg, zero points off to Kansas City turnovers.

So there were so many opportunities and they just let these opportunities go to waste. And when you do that against Mahomes, It may sound like a cliche, but you just know you're asking for it. You can break down this game in so many different ways to fit whatever narrative that you want to have. Like the 49ers defense in the end couldn't get it done. They couldn't get a stop to win the Super Bowl. But the first nine possessions of the game for the Chiefs resulted in six points.

Nine possessions is sometimes the whole game. Like if your defense plays well enough to give up six points and nine possessions, and you're the 49ers, and granted it's the Chiefs usually, but that is often a 23 to 6 win, and the game's already over. And so you fault the offense, certainly, for not taking advantage more during that stretch of the game. But I don't want to hear anyone actually kind of come after the offense and purdy for not coming up big enough in the biggest moment,

because the reality is they got the ball in the fourth quarter trailing, and they went and scored a touchdown with a fourth down conversion. version. Then they got the ball back again in a tie game in the fourth quarter in the Super Bowl with 546 to go. And you're thinking, oh, this is legacy drive. This is Brock Purdy. Can you do it? He had a couple very nice plays on that drive. You obviously would have to pick up that third down I talked about earlier. And the drive stalls. But you did get a field goal to take the lead in the Super Bowl in the fourth quarter when you absolutely need to. You get the ball in overtime. It's the same thing again. I thought that was going to be the CMC drive. CMC ends this game with 160 yards and a touchdown on 30 touches. And that shows his value. And yet in terms of running the ball, they didn't really get into a great rhythm the whole game until that drive. And it's sometimes these little plays. He had a second and four in the reds, you know, inside the 10. And I think it was Travel Wharton and Mike Pinell. Like their deep backup stop him there. And they, at that point, they decide to throw it on the next play. It's like if he kept rolling there, if they block a little

better there they get a third and one or they keep running I thought in overtime he was just going to run the ball down the field which is CMC we've seen in them have those drives and they and they just come up a play short so it's hard to kill any one particular part of the team I don't think the offense played well enough though San Francisco ultimately we in the final

four quarters I mean when you look at when you look at this game you kept on waiting where was that big chunk play where was the where was the huge IUC play the huge Debo play Kittle where was Kittal most of this game CMC was workman like And I had a lot of respect for him because by the end of that game, you could tell he was hurting because he getting 30 touches in the Super Bowl at the end of a long season.

These two teams look so tired in person, like both of them. I kept on waiting for McCaffrey, even on that last drive, and they could have won the Super Bowl potentially. Although Casey's going to get a chance to get the ball because the overtime rules are different, which is stupid to me. Why can't have uniform? McCaffrey could never make that one extra guy missed to go 50 yards. And that explosive nature to their offense was missing. I think Purdy plays a role in that, too. He didn't hit on a couple of throws as well,

and they were just missing that little extra special something that had a Kyle Shanahan play caller with that amount of talent, we're just missing that special play. I think they ran into a defensive scheme that figured out how to put pressure on Purdy, how to make things difficult, take those big plays away. And, you know, on that overtime drive where they go up at the field goal, when we've kind of broken down the end of that, remember how it started, and it was like it was very quickly,

suddenly they were at third and 15. And Purdy throws a wobbly incomplete pass, but then defensive holding re-opens the door. I mean, it's like, and it wasn't a bad call necessarily. It's not that. It's just that, like, that one mistake by the Chiefs, otherwise, this game could have been over about 15 to 20 minutes earlier. To your point, Dan, on not getting the big plays. IUC, six targets, only 49 yards long of 20. Debo, 11 targets.

And, man, I wouldn't have guessed this watching it live. I wasn't box score tracking that closely, 33 yards on three catches long of 12. Was not healthy in the second half of the game at a hamstring issue. The most open guys in the game were a couple big plays by Conley and McLeod actually. So those are their two star-wide receivers. And then Kittle ends up with four yards on three targets. It is hard to win that way. And they had some next-gen stats here during the game.

And it was really interesting how. Shout out Bill Smith and next-gen stats. Absolutely. Getting it done. the average contested catches in terms of like the percentage of throws that were into tight windows. The Chiefs actually had far more throws that were into wide open receivers than the 49ers who had very few throws that were open, which is not what you think. And again, that's a credit to the Chiefs defense.

And like there was this one, you know, mysterious injury in the middle of the game where you, or early on where you lose Drake Greenlaw. Like as he's coming out onto the field, he tears his Achilles. And Drake Greenlaw is, like, the 49ers allowed the fewest yards per attempt on targets over the middle third of the field since drafting Warner in 2018. And so, like, that's our green law as well. So it's like to lose Greenlaw there was, I think, a secret disaster for the Niners. Some of those rice catches, I think about Noah Gray catches had a couple. That's right where Greenlaw is.

And watching that. And we're way up in the auxiliary box and have no access to television. So it's a bit of a weird experience. on some levels when you're watching the game. We had no internet for half the game. No internet for half the game. And then when you check your phone and you see Drake Greenlaw's just bouncing on the balls of his feet on the sideline. It went in to take the field.

I think it was maybe the second possession of the game. It was early, yeah. And he goes to plant and the Achilles just goes, which is just unbelievable. And so you feel snake bit a little bit if you're the Niners at this point. Here's Kyle Shanahan, who like we said, just like we talked about with Lamar. And I know it's annoying to the Lamar me. and everybody else, but you don't get to stop talking about the thing

until you get that thing off your back and it's the monkey of, are you a champion? Are you not? Here's Kyle, once again, falls just short on the loss. I mean, we all hurt. I mean, everyone knows how it feels and don't have a lot of words for it, but obviously we're hurting.

Our team's hurting, but that's how it goes when you put yourself out there. I'm real proud of our guys for no regrets with our team. our guys played so hard today. Not everything was perfect by no means, but I'm going to lose with a group of guys. It's do with those guys anytime. And we'll take some time.

We'll get over this and come back next year, ready to go. You can hear in his voice, like the true emotion and the raw nature of getting this far again. And it's like even when they've bowed out in the NFC title game, they've been brutal losses where they've been close and you look back and think to yourself, you know, last year was injuries, obviously. But, you know, in other years,

it's just like, oh, a couple plays here or there, and this game is littered with that sense of what could have been had just a few moments gone differently for the Niners. And it's like, Dan, we've now been to, and you as well, Greg, but, like, predates you on by one year that, like, we saw them lose in bitter fashion to the Ravens

way back when, different team, obviously. I was there with you. You were there with me. You got a space. It was, it was, that's that. A few weeks ago, you actually had West there with a very distinct memory with West there. West not there. But I was there with you.

Don't turn it. I knew it. I was thinking all these vivid memories from that one. Don't turn 50. We had great time. You know, the one week, like a couple years ago against the Chiefs, it's like, you're up by 10 late in the game. And then, you know, they lose. And then Corona happens.

And you're back here and you can change everything if you're Shanahan. You know, it's his third, the flip it with Mahomes, it's the third time he's been up by 10, whether it's a coordinator or a coach. And there you go. Here's Morristown. Here's Shanahan and why they decided to take the ball first, considering the new playoff overtime rules. It's just something we talked about with, you know, none of us have a ton of experience of it, but we went through all the analytics

and talked to those guys, and we decided to be better. We wanted the ball third. Both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had the chance to go win, and we got that field goal, so we knew we had to hold them to at least to a field goal. And if we did, then we thought it was in our hands after that. It doesn't really answer the question. I honestly think that it's going to be one of those things, and I forget who was the team.

I want to say it was the Patriots, and then everyone just started deferring a game of games. I do think people will start to do that in playoff overtime. Not that you're going to have a huge sample size. It just makes too much sense. I'm not going to kill Kyle Shanahan. I don't think it's the difference in this game. You could have made an argument that it helps the defense get a little bit of arrest.

certainly that Chiefs defense looked tired on that drive. But I do think it was an advantage for Kansas City. Like, look, they had a fourth and one in their own end. Does Andy Reid definitely go for that? Probably if it's the first possession. But no, he knows he needs to get a score in that drive and it helped them out. All right.

Let's take a break. And when we get back, we'll dig into more about this game, what we saw and what it means for these teams going forward. everything else, do some housekeeping. And that was the Sunday Drive, presented by Toyota. Let's go places. Learn more at Toyota.com slash Grand Highlander. Stay right there.

More talk coming up next. I tell a quick, funny story. Please. I threw a touchdown to this dude at the end of the game. And he looked at me, I said, and he had no idea. I said, dude, we just won the Super Bowl. And he said, he blacked out. He had no idea.

I was like, bro, because he didn't even celebrate at the beginning. I'm like, what are we doing? Well, I think you were talking about, okay, yeah, it's time to celebrate now. There it is, NFL Network, Chris Rose with the interview, Mahomes. Why does this always happen? I feel like this happens like every other year, major sports moments in different sports and guys achieve greatness and don't even know, like, the game is over. Why are the rules so unclear with people?

I'm also surprised that there wouldn't have been a conversation in the huddle, like, we can win this right now if we get this thing done. Like, it was just that conversation obviously done, but we were watching Miko Hardman make the catch, And it is absolutely true that in live action, like his body language was like, great that I scored a touchdown, but there's probably more to go in this game.

It's like, no, the game is over. And then like suddenly everyone's running towards him. You could see the reaction. It was just like. Probably a pretty like amazing feeling when like, bro, it's over. We just won the Super Bowl. And you just won.

Oh, notable. You just caught the game winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. How is it all? Are you processing all that in the course of five seconds after all that? No matter what happens for the rest of your life, Meekyll Hardman, you could be happy that you got traded back to the Chiefs or whatever happened for a disastrous. For the rest of your life, you will be game-winning.

And by the way, spare me all the mentions. It's so fun being a Jet fan, by the way. All the mentions, like, I can't believe you let that guy go. He is comfortably on the teat of the greatest quarterback who's ever lived. So good for him. Bullied a me, Cole. I'm happy for him. But the idea that we let a great one get away, it's great that me, Cole.

back with the Chiefs because that means he's back with Patrick O'Holmes, who's allowing to have great moments. What clown is wasting their time tweeting that at you? Have you ever been on Twitter? No, I have. It's a terrible place. It's a wretched world. I think Mikol being the type of guy who didn't know it's the end of the Super Bowl

when he just won the Super Bowl is like one of the reasons he might not be there. If you love that joke, how about like the 400 bozos that sent me the joke last Thursday? Oh, wait, so a guy almost dying on the field isn't as hard as coming back from playing quarterback for the Jets. nice one another Joe Flacko burn against the Jets that is funny that is funny sit on you shouldn't have won all right let's see let's see

let's do some odds and and some thoughts some takeaways I'll start with I gotta give some love to Chris Jones I don't write the free agency 101 but maybe I'll have some conversations with the editor maybe a little power play on Rosenthal oh you just got to swipe it a little swipe it well we did have our own at one point

you and I had our own list in one point over that we're not we're not taping any shows next week. The 101 is due the Wednesday following that. So I just want you to know that. I'm on it. I'm on it. A little palace intrigue.

I'm coming for the 101. But Chris Jones will be the number one player on that list. Chris Jones, when it's all said and done, whether it's Kansas City that signs them. I don't know how they, listen, I never try to figure out how a salary cap works,

but if you have a $500 million quarterback, I don't care how the contract spread out, Chris Jones, I think, is going to be the highest paid defensive player in the history of the sport when he gets his deal. right and if not he'll be very close about about and he showed you in this game why he'll be worth every penny uh because he was a constant menace we talked about the play where he might have saved uh the season with his pressure of brock purdy time and time again he was ruining uh you were watching one of the cool things about being at the game you could kind of get the all 22 in real time and there were multiple plays where it felt like purdy if he just had that extra beat was going to hit some of those big plays i talked about miss it were missing we're missing

and they were missing in large part because Chris Jones is an absolute menace to society and just getting after in the backfield. So I don't know what his final numbers were. It wasn't like one of those. He had four sacks or anything, but that's why it goes a little deeper than that. He was constantly in the backfield and making plays. When you look at the Chiefs playoff wins over the last four years,

in almost all of them, Chris Jones made some massive play on third down to end a drive to win the game. To me, he's like a rich man's. to Hightower, who always stepped up in the absolute biggest. He was a good player that went to a great player in the playoffs. Chris Jones is a great player that goes to like a first ballot Hall of Famer in the playoffs.

And that's what he'll probably end up being now because of everything he's done. In the regular season, but especially in these plays. Yeah, and it's like that's one reason I, as we head into the off season, in the narrative's changed and what we focus on changes. Last September 11th, he ended his holdout. It's like I don't know why I spent five minutes

talking about his holdout. There's no way he was not going to play for I kind of remember us being, we were pretty smart about how we handled the Chris Jones holdout. We didn't waste a lot of conversation. We were, but it's just still, you know, it's still a conversation. Here's a, here's a stat point backing up how dominant he was, even if didn't register in certain categories. Per next gen stats again, Jones generated a team high six pressures on 35 pass rushes, three of which occurred in under 2.5 seconds. So just purdy snaps the ball. He's not even to the back of his drop and he's already being swarmed and, you know,

almost maimed by this fearsome player who's one of the best in the league. In all-timer, like Andy Reid. I thought it was really interesting that Kelsey immediately started talking three Pete after the game. It crossed my mind. Could Kelsey retire? Sometimes the season, he's moving slowly, he's getting up slowly. Forget that. And Reed obviously made it clear that he's not going to.

And I know numbers. That's the Clark Hunt after the game. Right. He was, what do he say? That was my, that was one of my sandwich props. Oh, no, it wasn't. No, it was my hot prediction for NFL.com that Reed or Kelsey would retire. It's like, bury that prediction.

Clark Hunt, quote, fully expects Andy Reid to return. And Reed's not going to pass Belichick or, you know, Lombardy in terms of Super Bowl titles. I don't know. But if he wants the coach for a long time, he can make a run at the wins. And considering the influence he's had on offenses in this league, I mean, he is getting pretty high up there in the greatest all-time coaches. Yeah, I was going to mention him, too, because. it kind of reminds me there's two, there's different versions

of Andy Reid, the same way we talk about like Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in different errors of their career. And it kind of reminds me of like when you were a kid and you learned that like Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections before and failed business twice before he finally won. And it's like Andy Reid went 20

seasons before winning a Super Bowl. And so it's like we can, I'll flip it around and I'll look at Kyle Shanahan and say it's like, how do you come back from this? And it's like, Kyle Shanahan keeps getting there. tough to come back and like there's going to be a lot of questions about like what they do and what happens with Brock Purdy and all that stuff. I think he absolutely to me is the dug-in starter. I want to hear a lot of nonsense around that. But Andy Reid, like you go back to some dark times with the Eagles and was essentially like escorted out by the Eagles in the end,

goes to Kansas City and like look where we are now. Well, there's all these so many people everywhere you look. Every time you turn when you're at Super Bowl weekend, it's somebody that you watch on TV or have been watching your whole life. South Palo Antonio of ESPN was we shared an elevator up with uh with him up to the auxiliary box um here in the stadium this morning and i told him that i had a memory and sal's been covering the NFL forever free espion he covered the eagles he was kind of their reporter during their mcnab glory years and i remember like a cold january uh them throwing to sal uh when they were they had lost multiple nfc title games they were trying to get over the hump and he was trying to explain you know how important it was for philadelphia

and Andy Reid to finally get to a Super Bowl, which they did and lost the Pats. But that was Reed's legacy for a long time, that he got close but couldn't get over the top. And now all he does is get over the top. So you say, like, he's not going to catch Belichick. Belichick has what, six? Yeah. Okay. I'm just saying he's halfway there and he's got a Patrick Mahomes, he's 27 years old.

Fair. Stranger things have happened. That's all I'm going to say. And if you don't have Patrick Mahomes, maybe you do retire. I mean, now it's like, why stop doing this at all? You never know. This is a random odds in it. But been just being live, the British TikTok guy was right.

We got to do something about these kickoffs. The whole stadium is so live. It suddenly goes from all this noise to like this great hush. Right before the opening kickoff, it's so tense. And it's just like, oh, here's a play that doesn't even count. And then there's like 45 seconds of just fucking around. It's like such a waste of time. The overtime is going crazy, and we're all excited.

Like before overtime, the 49ers fans are going wild, and then they line up for the kickoff. And, oh, wait, here's a play that actually doesn't count unless it's take a 45-second break. It's bad. It's legit bad for the sport. They got to eliminate the kickoff or they got to change back the rules to make it happen again.

I like Greg. I like Greg has found a new campaign. I like this. If you eliminate the kickoff, you might as well not called football anymore. You got to have kickoffs. And you got to talk about something kind of parallel to this. they ruin the onside kick

and I know I know and this is where people like Tisk Tisk you don't support player safety It's like calm down first of all These guys coming at you too Get off your soapbox Okay white knight Get off your shiny horse

I don't want to hear it Is one thing to promote player safety And try to figure out ways to make the game safer But if it comes at the expense of the product And the obvious way it does Like the kickoff and how it's drawing energy out of the game And it makes the game worse maybe there's another way to go about it.

And I mean, I'm fine eliminated. Just start at the 25-yard line. At least we'd have a play. Then why don't we just make an arena football? It's making 150 yards to the field. There's something like visually arresting about it. I mean, and yet, like the stadium came to a hush. And I thought that, I mean, the stadium experienced, like, this is an incredible stadium

and it's really well-organized. But one comment, I thought, like, by halftime, and I get the fans didn't have a lot to cheer about. And it got really loud at the end. But it just seemed almost not Super Bowl-like to me the first time. I think the game flow was herky jerky early on. Not a lot of scoring. There's extra commercials.

But I felt the same way. And you had a DJ here, DJ Kat, Eric, our resident club head. It was a cascade. No DJ. You like Cascade? Where does he rank on your DJ Power Rangers? Maybe top 10 for me personally. Did you go out this week and hear any?

No, no, I had an invite to the Gronk Beach Party. Didn't make it to that. Too busy to go to the Grand Party, guys, busy week. I was, you know, head in the... Robert's killed it this week, but I was talking to Eric. We did a walk around the upper deck here before the game started, and Eric was telling me about his club days, which we can't get into too much detail. Yeah, Cascade, very good DJ, top 10 for me, but not my style of music.

We didn't get Tiesto. No, no. And that's a shame. So had a quote, family emergency. Yes, which I always assume is something other than that. A little less, like, intrusive than the Rams DJ. Oh, that's, that's... Yeah, so if I could take a note of you from this.

Screaming in your ear every five seconds. I felt like there have been in recent Super Bowl's buildings that were going a little harder, but I think the game flow had a lot to do with that because in the second half in overtime, the place was going off. Speaking of families in crisis or family emergencies, how about the families connected to those guys that ran on the field? How do you get onto the field in the Super Bowl in 2020? I'll tell you why, though.

I think you can because it's not like there was insane security. dirty down here. He came out on the sort of back corner end a little bit, right? Hold that thought. I did notice that they weren't checking to go down to the seats. I have more thoughts. Here's Kevin Harlan, who has the iconic. The guy is drunk.

Yeah. So he had an opportunity. I have not heard this. No one's heard this yet. Harlan calling in real time. Two fans, not one, but two running on the field in the second quarter of Super Bowl 58. The ball was caught and the game was to the 39. I love Harlan.

And they have stopped play with security all over, the interlopers. Interlopers! Interlopers is such an underrated. He is a poet. He is a poet. Underrated. So here's the thing. How much is it cost to go to a game at the Super Bowl?

A couple thousand bucks, three thousand, ten thousand. So somebody dropped the money to get into the building with the sole intention, unless it was something that was, you know, not premeditated to get arrested? That's a wild, you don't talk about all-time bad decisions. Right. Or maybe the guy was drunk. The guy is drunk.

But you're right. Unless, unless there was some other plot, I want to hear more about this. It was two guys. Two guys. So it was a conspiracy. Maybe, you know, it's one of these things like the Watergate breaking where somehow someone opened a back door and in came these two guys without tickets.

They weren't people that spent 20 grand. So that was a little extra entertainment. The other one I'll throw out there is the halftime show. I like to a touch on the halftime show on this wrap-up. It's fine. I thought Usher was fine. I gave it like a solid B. He did, I think, one of the moves you see with a halftime show sometimes is if you don't have, you know, a certain extra gear to make it truly special and very few artists do, like Prince, for instance, playing Purple Rain in the rain.

If you don't have that, not to say I don't love, yeah. And you get ludicrous out there doing yeah. and Liljohn. That was the heart of it. But I think they sometimes you'll see these halftime axle, just like throw something against the wall. It's like, all right, throw 500 people out there at the same time. Put everybody

on roller skates and then get the band back there and then have 700 more people come from all directions. And it's kind of they're trying to like spam you with. So I would say while it was an impressive coordination, I would give it, yeah, a B. I turn to Greg

because I'm not a big Usher person. Like I was Like, Greg, honest question, like, was that good? I'm not sure. I just don't know what that was. And I was like, yes, I think if, I think it was good. Like, he danced his ass off, you know, worked a lot harder, certainly than. His bod is looking great.

He did look good. He worked hard. Like, my timeline couldn't have loved it more. I think if you were, it actually might be, his peak, I feel like, even though we were in our young 20s, I feel like, if you're like 35 to 40, like your peak, your peak, people are loving it. It's fine.

It's fine. It's fine. it's fine that's what i saw people calling it i said i said it was fine i saw people calling it the best halftime show ever and that's what kind of what threw me i'm like that's not what i watch those are simple folk that just see oh there's no but they're just like usher they're just usher fans and i think how do you know how do you know who said that i think if you like usher this was an incredible how are you so certain about everything great because what is it because like everyone on twitter that i'm following that loved it was just talking about like

so does the world end with everyone that you follow on twitter is that what we're basing it on yeah pretty much. This is our Super Bowl for going here with our Super Bowl Reef. Oh, it's part of the Super Bowl. It's the spectacle of it all. No, but I thought it was fine.

What would you give it? Go ahead. Give me a grade. Eight out of ten. Okay. All right, give us another odds and end. One quick thing is that

the Kelsey bumping Reed, because I believe he was mad that he wasn't on the field. I'm glad it worked out. That way, like, if Andy Reed was not a man of his carriage, if he was, let's say, like, Mike McDaniel's size, he gone.

He's hitting the graph. No, he's not con. And he's hit in the ground and it's a bigger deal and it looks worse. It's a massive. It's a story that maybe wins a sandwich drop, which we'll get to in a little bit. I'm glad it wasn't a big deal. It's football. It's emotional.

He shouldn't have done it, but it's also like everyone's fine with it. But I saw E.J. Brown tweet out. If that was me, I would have been kicked out of the league, which, you know, he's got a little bit of a tongue in cheek, but I think he has a point. If A.J. Brown did that. If Stefan Diggs did that. If Terrell Owens did that, people's reaction would have been different. So just like, remember.

that and keep that same energy when people that are really passionate and love the game lose it a little bit. Like, have the same grace for them that you have for Travis. I totally agree. I think there was license because it was Kelsey. And then after the game, you know, Reed and Kelsey are up on the stage together. And Kelsey is, you know, leading the entire crowd in Viva, Las Vegas. And it's all, it's all very Kelsey-ish. And it works, except, like, that moment feels lost in time. And I'm sure Reed and Kelsey will be fine and call it, you know, competitive nature and stuff. But it's like, you can't, You can't do that to your own coach.

I don't know. I'm not trying to be overly, you know, officious about it, but. Here's kind of a funny thing, lost in all the week-long run-up to the game where it just gets exhaustive and all these guys are forced to talk over and over and over again. Someone asked, I think it was Mahomes at Media Night, opening night,

like, are you Coach Reid's favorite? And they asked Kelsey the same thing. And they asked some of the other guys, like, who's coach-reed's favorite? And a lot of the guys are saying Kelsey, and then they asked Mahomes, and he disputed is like, no, I'm, coach reads favorite like and he he pointed out it was almost like the the uh usually it's

the younger brother but in this case it's the older brother that just gets away with murder like he doesn't put in and mohomes to make his point was saying like he he always shows up just in time like i'm in the i'm in the uh building for hours before he gets there yeah he's always acting up and he talks too much and all this stuff like Travis kelsey is it's kind of spoken out loud around this he's kind of a pain in the ass uh but because he is who he is That also leads to him getting grace. So, yes, it's a good thing Andy didn't take a spill or that would have been a huge story. And I don't know how the TV, like, be handled the Taylor Swift thing.

I'm sure there was a lot of it. But I did enjoy the moment when she just, like, they go up to her. And there was a lot here in the stadium. Like, she's just chugging a beer like a pro. And I mean, she's with the right boyfriend for that because he can do that as well with quite a bit of skill. You know who's Jason Kelsey is in our hotel. Right. He walked out.

Probably there right now. Oh, my God. No, he's going to the chiefs party. True. You know when, once upon a time in Hollywood, when you see the Margot Robbie character, Sharon Tate. Sharon Tate and Roman Polansky,

returning to L.A.X, and it's the slow motion, like, kind of tracking shot of them, and they're the most fabulous, like, couple possible, and it's fame personified. That's what it looked like being right behind Jason Kelsey leaving the hotel on the way to get in our car to come to the stadium. The guy is a rock star. Like, who has enjoyed a better run in terms of celebrity than Travis's brother, really both Kelsey brothers.

And we saw their producer and our former producer, TD, in the lobby. And that was a nice thing, too. So I guess we're connected. We are. It's going to be a tough time for them when we create one of the larger upsets in media and win the Iheart radio sports podcast of the year knocking out the Kelsey brothers. That's Super Bowl three. If we could do that. So, he was our producer back when, uh, he was our producer back when, uh,

We played that clip with Chris eating the softball pants back in the day. He went and got all that meal. It all connects. All right. Let's take one more break. And when we come back, some final thoughts. And we'll go over our locks and our sandwich props. Chiefs Kingdom!

You know, here it is. We've been fighting for all right all day. How about a little? Viva! Oh, Vegas. Viva Lone Vegas Viva

Lone Vegas There it is Cabs Kelsey on the field with CBS Jim and by the way Nance Come on bud It's this media thing

Taboo thing to ask him about Taylor like face to face or even mention her When he's singing You can make a little joke there like oh maybe Taylor will have you on the next album and then have him Jim a rare drop of the ball

and then he forces as a follow-up question at the end okay now sing the Beastie Boy song for the 7,000th time we don't need it Jim it's a missed opportunity by a pro and I'm curious where CBS because again we didn't get the teleguess I'm curious how much restraint they showed with Taylor Swift or whether they were like all about it but we had some boots on the ground we have a new rising insider on the video office. ranks. You want to get into that way? Yeah, the weekend got going with my son, Luke, is, you know, I didn't even know this existed, but he has got into something called plane spotting where you, you know, we live near L-A-X,

and, like, he, there's a number of places you can go and just, you post up, and the planes are coming, like, right over you and landing. And so you get incredible footage that there are these, like, hobbyists in other parts of the world that don't have that access. And, like, he built this Instagram account and TikTok and YouTube and all the stuff, And it's kind of blowing up, and it blew up hardcore because he's got all this data and, like, software and apps to know exactly what kind of planes are coming in. And you can see from, like, miles away. And, like, he captured Taylor Swift's plane landing at LAX before they got up and went to Las Vegas. And he went on TikTok and got like, I don't even know what the number is now, but it was like 1.6 million at some point.

And it's at LAX plane spotting. It's easy to find on any of those accounts. What, 11-year-old boy? He is 13. That is amazing. Yeah. And he's obsessed with it. that he does it like five, six times a week.

But like he caught the Cardinals playing one time and they retweeted him. But no response from Taylor Swift yet. But it did do well with the public. That is incredible. While you're talking sons, this was Walker's first Super Bowl. Good one. I got to bring him to and hang out with him ahead of the game. And it's awesome.

I mean, we are extremely lucky, but to see his excitement and just for him to be in the building when I'm that excited. And to be with him, it feels amazing. And then we walk in and like Cynthia's on the jumbo-tron doing next-gen stats. And then Colleen is taking over and was a very big presence of the in-stadium presentation. And it just feels like, wow, it just feels like it's crazy that it's the Super Bowl. And yet it feels small for us. We're very fortunate. Even just, it's one of the great things about being with the NFL is those tickets they give us, first of all.

It's like the best perk of all time that you can. share it and then for it to feel like a home game that it's like our people and yet it's like presenting the Super Bowl it's incredible yeah I was lucky enough to take two of my my friends from way back of the day from elementary school days what do you think they're doing right now I don't know it's a long day it was a long day yeah so they're back at the hotel probably and I'll find out we're going to be heading back ourselves in just a few minutes but I've been able to now to take all my best buddies from New York my my both my parents my in-laws brothers sisters It's been, it's to share this experience, the Super Bowl, not just the game, but the whole weekend and being in the city.

It's not, it's not for the meek of heart in terms of financially. It's crazy expensive to everything around the Super Bowl, and especially here in Vegas. But if you ever, if you're a football fan, if you ever get the chance to experience the Super Bowl once, it's unlike anything else. It's so fun to share. Although maybe you don't do the Vegas one if you try not to spend as much money as possible. What do we think about Vegas as the Super Bowl host? It'll be back. It'll be in the rotation.

Well, that I didn't doubt, but what did we think about it? They handled it all, like, well. It's all intense for our selfish purposes. It's like, you know, it's tough to get a coffee or a breakfast for, like, less than $40 or, like, a 30-minute wait. So that's a bit of a tricky spot. But to be, it all ran well and, like, it just makes sense. I thought it was run really well.

And it's like, at least, like, the very, from a reporting angle, like, I don't even know what it's like to be a fan at these things in this way. but like you get to, you go from A to B to C to cover various things. It was good. It was relatively easy to do that. I just think in general, like staying in Vegas for like six days is not a great plan as a human. Not for long-term health or living a long life. All right.

I thought it was good as well. It was Saturday the gridlock was out of control. So, yeah, there are elements of it that are just kind of a pain in the ass. But I thought the city was really well-equipped. And it was kind of the thing that I realized when I was thinking about it last night, was the energy of everybody wanting to have the best time possible and being in a really good mood is kind of the energy if anyone has ever gone on a guy or a girl trip to Vegas

with your friends and you're in that same headspace. So you're taking that type of headspace and then bringing the Super Bowl, which is kind of the similar thing and adding it up. It's kind of like endorphin-wise. It's steroids. It was like as Super Bowl-y, Vegas-y as it gets. It was a little intense.

Yeah, I was walking. The lobby, like after 2 a.m. last night, and the place looked like it was 5 p.m. Like, this is of an absurd. Right. It's an airport, basically. Airport mentality. Beautiful, horrible, insane place. Everything rolled together.

It's the American experience. All right. Let's talk about our locks. Greg, you have finished a incredible season. And I just want to say, uh, congratulations. I mean, I believe where did we, where did we finish? You locked up the chiefs. I did lock up the chiefs.

did I, and I think you finish the season, 18 and 4? Does that sound right? 19 and 4, I believe. That's by far the best record of all time. It simply has to shatter anything else. 18 weeks, and then what, four rounds of playoffs? Five playoff weeks. I got one playoff wrong for sure, start off.

Unbelievable. That's going to be tough. You want to talk about you did repeat as champion. Good for you. You're going for three Pete as well. You're the Chiefs. Yes. Congratulations to you.

I closed famously incredibly strong after a slow start and I think people will remember that I think I finished after being two games under more than halfway through the season to end up where I did really a lot of people are talking about it one of the great comebacks ever to finish in second place I believe Mark you made a different type of history you want to get into it yeah I mean I was informed at one point

that this was like a month a half ago I had notch nine wins and it was like just to let you know I mean, of course you're probably going to continue to win a couple more games here that nine would be the lowest win total Locks in a season. And if you think about it, we've been doing locks for what, 10 years or something?

And there's always been you know, there were four or three people involved so that's many, many, many participants if you think about it. And I never won again. I finished with nine wins. I don't even know how many losses. Oh for the playoffs. That's kind of hard to do.

I think from that angle... It's crazy too because I think, did you have the lions and they like have that big lead and then you have the 49ers they have big lead so it just keeps yeah I'm almost I would say from another angle

another point of view it's impressive also it's impressive go ahead you were talking people are talking about this too then and I'll give yes people are talking

I will say that there was that quiet storm intensity in the first half of the game I could really feel you Mark needing the 49ers to win and Brock Purdy to fulfill his destiny

is an all-time story but you've been a pro and a trooper and you haven't taken that into the podcast. I mean, we have Jay and our production team who is, his entire family is from the Bay Area and he had to pretty much be on his feet working, turning away from the game during a lot of it.

And he's a hardcore Niners fan. This is his whole family and, you know, they melt down in a sad fashion and like, he just goes right about his business. That's the pro over there. Yeah. Great shout out. Shout out to Jay and everyone behind the scenes led of course by Eric and Matt Schneider and the whole team

that's made this thing go this weekend. this weekend and this week in Vegas market that your class act that's all i can say finally i agree let's hit our what were our sandwich props a lot of onion hangers i i could tell you mine uh i said kelsey goes over 200 yards wins MVP i believe and when he was one for one at halftime i was thinking myself as i was walking to go to the bathroom at halftime i was like it's almost harder like in terms what are the odds are the odds better that he goes 200 yards or that he could actually finish a game with one yard. But anyway, he ends up having a nice second half,

but he doesn't approach 200 yards. So I am out multiple sangages there. Well, it's all kind of even out. I have a feeling. I was not close with my Pacheco. We didn't mention him. He ended up with 92 yards from scrimmage in 24 carries, 24 touches, including six catches,

two fumbles. A couple times were live. You could really tell he took the wrong angle, didn't have good instincts. Almost seemed a little tight. Didn't you also, like a couple weeks ago, inform America and points beyond that that was the most solid Vegas option out there? What, Pacheco?

Yeah, just in general, like, you know. Yeah, so that did not work out well. Only one fumble. Didn't bring out the rainmaker so the brand doesn't take a hit. Smart. Yeah, so that's, that's a, but still Pacheco also cost you, sandwiches in yours, Mark? Well, another absurd defeat.

I said that some sort of event would occur because it had been too quiet in Vegas. That something would happen, NFL related, that would become a kind of story that we track for the next three or four months. And no right away, like, this is going to saddle us for the, like, I didn't take you up on it because I felt it in the air too. Something would happen this weekend. Man, if Andy, like, God forbid, he trips on his feet after Travis bumps him and he breaks his hip. That would have been huge.

That's it. Yep. That would have been massive. Or if, like, Taylor Swift was jumping up and down celebrating an overtime and Ice Spice, like, falls out of the luxury suite. We're cooking. We got a win. That would have been it. But we didn't get the win.

And Ice Spice, though. Greg is safe. Greg likes rap. Any other final thoughts on the game and where we? I really, it is incredible to, and as annoying and maybe repetitive as this chief's dynasty, coming on the heels of the Patriots relentlessly getting to the stage. It literally is like one ended and the other just started. It's a little bit like, it wouldn't be the worst thing to have a few years where things get mixed up.

And then, like, if the chiefs really do have the goods, the way the Patriots did, then they can maybe come back in in a few years after the league gets a, you know, let's mix it up a little bit. But at the same time, there's, there's, I remember it. I was young, but it was when I was first becoming a football fan. It was the Niners, and I know the Patriots, they went for a three Pete as well. But the Niners, I remember when they won back to back in the late 80s and they had a chance against the Giants, the NFC title game at the stick.

And they lost a, I believe, a two-point game and a. Matt Barfield goal late that ended their three Pete hopes. It is almost impossible. And I think they won the next year after that. It is almost impossible to, they didn't actually. Yeah, Washington. Yeah. It's almost impossible to win three in a row.

We were talking Greg off Mike, which I don't know why we would ever do that. We should always talk on, Mike. That it can't happen, right? They can only go down from here at a certain point. And yet, there's a path to this team getting better if they make a couple of of moves. Sure, but the weight, the weight of it, and we'll have all of season to talk about, I think the weight of trying to get that third, there's a reason why no one's ever done it,

trying to get a fourth in, how many years would it be? Four and five. Four and five, four and six. Whatever it is, like, that's something the Patriots were, I think the weight of it, it is, it is really, you could see it with this team. This team had a weight to it, trying to defend it all year that was difficult. So it's going to be hard, but they're different than any other team. Since 2019, and this is my final thing I'll leave with, is that in the playoffs, teams trailing by 10 are, other than the Chiefs, are 6 and 48 trailing by 10 in a playoff game.

And the Chiefs are 5 and 1 in those games. I mean, they can do it in any sort of way, but they can do it in a very particular way that you get up on them and it's just never safe and they're so complete. and this was a different type of team. And that's, to me, that's what dynasties, what greatness are made of, is that you realize, man, these football teams, they change so much from year to year. They really change over a three-year span.

You have to win in totally different ways, but the things that doesn't change is Mahomes and Reed. And as long as that's happening, like they can find some other formula to get back here. And I, yeah, and I think actually, like this win kind of lifts a lot of. wait. I know that it would be there's going to be a grind to go try to win a third, but

it's not that they're playing with house money because I think winning matters to them, winning Super Bowls, is going to be just an intensive journey. And Andy Reid, I remember before the season, you know, we talked on the show about Andy Reid saying everything is reset. They had that rough and tumble training camp where they were getting into fights with each other. And it was like, we are resetting the board.

And I think that the coach, quarterback combination and really other players on that team as well do as good a job of that as any team in sports. And so they've got $24 million in Capram. They sit right in the middle of the league. I know there's going to be some challenges on that front, but in general, they could go find weapons around Mahomes.

You actually went and did this with a low-octane offense. What happens if you go add like a true starting X-wide receiver that brings back some of the playmaking ability around them? But start with Chris Jones on the other side of the ball, because take him out of the picture. Spaggs is not going to have near the same success. So there's challenges ahead, but we should know not to doubt the chiefs

who are back-to-back champions. and they are the bad guys now when they ran out of the tunnel here the play it sounded like the old patriots glory days the way teams would the the fans would fill up and get on brady at these super bowls but they loved it in fact they were underdogs in each of their last three playoff games won them all and uh patrick mahomes was asked about being an underdog and he said on the field just know that the kansas city chiefs are never underdogs know that learned it Go against the Chiefs at your own peril. And again, thank you to everyone around this podcast, which just completed its 11th season, which is unbelievable. It's hard to believe. We've been doing this since 2013. This was our 11th Super Bowl on site. And that's an amazing thing.

And we obviously can't do it alone. So again, thank you to Eric, who had an amazing rookie year and a great week. Jay and all the team at Radio Row that helped us out. Matt Schneider was. pulling a lot of the levers, Thomas Warren, the whole podcast team and everyone back in Inglewood who helped make this happen. We don't do it alone. So thank you to everybody and thank you to the listeners. I mean, where would we be without you guys? Nowhere.

Hanging around. Thanks for giving us a great life. Thanks to everyone who come and said hi this week. I felt like we were getting bigger pop than ever. Let's go. That lifts the energy. Absolutely. All right. We're taking a week off. We'll be back in a bit. And until then, you know what you got to do. He the call.