Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - A Hot Routez Super Bowl special

Episode Date: February 11, 2023

Matthew Coller, Manny Hill and Jonathan Harrison break down the Super Bowl, from which team deserves it more to the Super Bowls that sting the most, the Super Bowls that gave us the most joy for those who won and the biggest what-if in Super Bowl history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

there's news in the nfl today and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how hot rock style earl johnny with our spin on football headlines with a mix of frozen tundras let's be a cold weather team neck rolls and grass jerseys. The good old-fashioned guts was probably the biggest difference in the game. Hello, welcome to our Super Bowl edition of Hot Routes. Matthew Collar here, as always, with Jonathan Harrison, and joining us, the voice behind the intro, Manny Hill. And I was concerned about the timing initially, Manny, because I was like, oh no, we do the episode conflicting with the Wolves game.

But since the last time I checked, it was like 49 to 17. I think you can give your whole focus to our Super Bowl special. See, I was going to say maybe the timing was off because LeBron James is going for the all-time scoring record tonight. He's 36 points away. I think they're going to be tipping off here within the next 10 minutes or so. But yeah, I can turn my focus away from the Wolves for one night, I think. Okay.

Well, it's going to take at least until toward the end of the game for him to have 36 points with that supporting cast anyway. So yes, turn your whole focus to the Super Bowl. And of course, with Hot Routes, we have five questions focused on both Chiefs and Eagles, but also history and our personal histories of watching the Super Bowl. So why don't we just jump right into it with our first question, which is, I struggled with this one myself, and I'm the one who wrote it, which is the case for which one of these teams, the Eagles or the Kansas City Chiefs, which team deserves to win the Super Bowl? Now, I know what our home base fan base here in Minnesota would say,

that the Eagles deserve to win nothing and that they hope their city burns to the ground. But I don't think that's a fair way for us to objectively look at it because I know Vikings fans are still very salty about that. See, Colin, see what I'm thinking is if Vikings fans want the city of Philadelphia to burn to the ground, they should be rooting for the Eagles to win the game. Oh, that's true. The Eagles win, they might burn the burn to the ground. They should be rooting for the Eagles to win the game. Oh, that's true. The Eagles win. They might burn the city to the ground.

They have greased the poles there, so people can't climb up them because they've put grease on them. No, I mean, you're right. They definitely nearly burned that city down the last time that they won the Super Bowl, but we won't look at it that way. We'll make objective arguments for which team, which franchise, which city is more deserving to win the Super Bowl. So since you are our guest, Manny, why don't you begin?

Pick which team deserves it more to win this Super Bowl. Yeah, you know, like you, Collar, I kind of struggled with this because, I mean, there's so many storylines going into this game for both teams, right? I mean, you have Jalen Hurts that's had so much to prove, you know, and so many people just continuing to doubt him and, you know, thinking that, well, Jalen, should you be a running back when you play in the NFL? And here he is three years into his career and he's playing the Super Bowl. But I'm going to go with the Chiefs simply because I think when you look at a coach like Andy Reid, everything that he's done for 20 plus years as a head coach and all the success he had in Philadelphia and the success that he's had in Kansas City, if he wins the Super Bowl, it's his second championship. It's his fourth trip to the Super Bowl as a head coach.

And now you're really starting to talk about, he's already viewed as one of the great coaches of all time, but you get a second Lombardi trophy. Now you're just, you're going up an even higher ladder. You're climbing that ladder even higher. And you're getting into some really, I think, exclusive company. there's there's so many coaches that have won like one Super Bowl. Right. Like Barry Switzer won one Super Bowl. You know what I mean? If you're Andy Reid and you get a second one, now you're into the you know, you're into the Belichick conversation. You're into the Chuck Knoll conversation and the guys that have won multiple

Super Bowl championships. And I think with Patrick Mahomes, a way to kind of solidify himself as I think just five years into his career as a starter, solidify himself as one of the all-time greats. You get a second Super Bowl at this age in three trips. I mean, you're in rare company. So I'm going to go with Kansas City deserving this more. Can I make the case for Vikings fans to root for the Eagles here on Hot Routes?

Because if Vikings fans want to move on from Kirk Cousins, the franchise they should look at is the Philadelphia Eagles with how they've transitioned from winning the Super Bowl in 2017, getting rid of Nick Foles, getting rid of Carson Wentz, kind of tearing things down a little bit, but then keeping things still a little competitive. They didn't go full out tank mode, but they drafted a quarterback that they believed in, in Jalen Hurts, and they built around him on that rookie quarterback contract. If the Vikings fans, and if they want them, if they want the front office, the Vikings front office to be able to go to the ownership and say, Hey, we need to move on from Kirk Cousins. We can't keep doing this just mediocre stuff where we win 13 games somehow

by the skin of our teeth and just kind of squeak things out every now and then and sneak into the playoffs. If they want to give Kweisi Adafomensa the proof that a teardown works, the Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super Bowl this year would absolutely be the proof of that because they've built around Jalen Hurts. They've stacked up on that defense, went out and traded for another star receiver, even though they already had a young up and coming wide receiver in Devante Smith, they went out and got AJ Brown to add to that offense. If the Vikings fans want, if, if they want the ownership to be able to say, Hey, all right, let's, let's just get rid of Kirk. Let's get rid of some of these aging guys that we,

that are taking up a lot of cap space. If they want the ownership to understand what's going on and how they should build for the future, the Eagles winning the Super Bowl this year would be the best way to do that. I think that from both teams' perspectives, if you like smart front office moves, if you believe that there are two games being played in the NFL, there is the actual games that are played on Sunday, and then there is the chess game that all front offices play against each other. So it's almost like if you had any of those, well, if you like the old Madden's and you like the offseason more than you liked playing the regular season games, which was definitely me at times, depending on the Madden game, or if you like adventure strategy games I mean it's a big strategy game is can I use what I have for resources better than you basically and now of course Patrick Mahomes makes this all

much easier for Kansas City but they made really smart decisions as well with their money around a quarterback who is now very expensive most notably moving on from Tyreek Hill and there were people not a ton of people, but some who thought, well, you know, this team's just going to fall off now that they don't have their best receiver and so forth. But they knew exactly what they could move on from, how they could get receivers that were less expensive who would fit with Patrick Mahomes' style.

And then on the Eagles' side, you laid it out, Jonathan. I mean, the draft pick of Jalen Hurts was widely given C's or C minuses or D's or F's on draft night by the draft analysts. And yet it turned out to be A plus plus plus of a draft pick because I think that maybe they didn't understand the long-term vision of the Eagles, seeing that if Jalen Hurts became a complete quarterback and with his character and work ethic, maybe they should have projected that anyway. And some other teams in the NFL should have projected that and drafted him higher, but they took advantage of that fact that they knew something was there, or at least that it was worth the swing.

If he had never turned out to be anything, they would have been in position to get a different quarterback anyway. So I think now that's making the case for both of being deserving front offices and winning the off-season game that exists in the NFL. I think I would lean a little bit toward making the case for Kansas City just because I think as far as the Mahomes thing, if he loses this Super Bowl, we're going to have to deal with a year of, you know, well, can he really win it? I mean, he only won one. And, you know, Trent Dilfer also won one. So maybe he's not that great.

And maybe it's somebody else who's the best quarterback in the league. And I don't know that my brain can take that without just exploding into 10,000 pieces like it did when they were talking about Burrow potentially being better than Mahomes if they won another face-to-face matchup. So I think for the legacy purposes, Manny, I think I want to see Mahomes just solidify his name among the all-time greats who have won multiple Super Bowls. And then if he never wins another one ever in his career, he's always going to have two Super Bowls and we can never have this discussion about who the best quarterback is again. Yeah, I'm with you. I just, the manufacturing of these debates that so many

people are having, I mean, it's just, this guy is playing in his third Super Bowl. He's very likely going to win his second MVP award. I mean, the guy is going to be in the MVP conversation basically every season until, you know, he starts to, I guess, kind of decline out of his prime. But I mean, what more can this guy, what more should this guy actually have to do for people to understand he's the best in the game right now and it's really not a conversation it's okay to look at joe burrow and say yeah joe burrow's pretty damn good and just leave it at that it doesn't have to be a conversation where well you know should should we compare these two guys because well when they've played head-to-head i mean bur, Burroughs always had the upper hand.

Like, it doesn't, none of that matters. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Just leave it be. I mean, five straight trips to the AFC Championship, all of them at home, is completely unprecedented for any quarterback. And the numbers these put up and everything else but it's sort of like that boredom thing that happened with tiger woods or with serena williams where it was like what about this maria sharapova like no no no serena's about to beat her face in like 700 straight times so i mean that you know i think that that does happen where there is that element of like

i mean even with aaron rogers he wins back-to-back MVPs, doesn't get to the Super Bowl because of a blocked punt or a snow game or whatever. It was like, well, is Rodgers, you know, his legacy hurt by not winning another Super Bowl, even though it is so difficult to win multiple Super Bowls. Drew Brees only had one in his career, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but Mahomes can put himself in such a unique echelon that we'll never have to discuss it again, and I will be very pleased. And as far as the Vikings' angle to this, I mean, I guess I look at Kansas City as the AFC Vikings for such a long time.

They were always switching quarterbacks from Dave Craig to Steve DeBerg to Elvis Gerback, and yet always winning and always good and then never quite good enough. And then Alex Smith is similar to Kirk Cousins in a lot of ways. And then they got the guy. And I guess what I would say from that is to Vikings fans, like it's possible, folks. It is possible. Try to get the guy.

Try to find the guy. You got to try. Give it a shot. For your middling franchise. So just in the same way that Jonathan made that argument, I think you can make it for your middling good franchise can also take another step if you get the guy. And Kansas City has better food than Philadelphia.

So I'm going to lean ever so slightly, having been both toward Kansas Cityansas city on this one all right i want to go back in time a little bit guys with you here and ask you this question which super bowl result still stings you to the core to think about which one were you rooting for a team that didn't win or came up short or that you were super hyped about. And it just flat out disappointed you from the very start, like wolves and nuggets tonight, or you know, whatever way you want to interpret this one.

Why don't you start with the Superbowl that still stings you to think about John? For me, it goes back to the 2009 Superbowl Pittsburgh versus Arizona. I was a huge Kurt Warner fan. Loved that Minnesota zone. Larry Fitzgerald was in there, had himself a pretty big game. But then they lost on the last, what is it,

essentially the last second catch by Antonio Holmes, if I'm remembering correctly. Antonio Holmes, yes. Antonio Holmes. And just an incredible catch by him in the back corner of the end zone in the biggest moment. You also have the James Harrison like 101 yard fumble return run back at the end of the half just some incredible plays

there but I also just wanted to see Kurt Warner kind of go out winning the Super Bowl because I was always a big fan of his uh he was one of the first quarterbacks that I can remember just kind of latching on to when I was first starting to kind of understand what football was and everything. So I wanted Arizona to win that for multiple reasons. And it was very disappointed that they didn't off that incredible catch by Santonio Holmes. Yeah. I remember that block in the back that they missed on that James Harrison pick six right before halftime, that blatant block in the back that would have nullified that touchdown. That would have changed the course of that game, perhaps. But I digress. Anyway, so I'm going to go with Super Bowl 38.

You remember the Cardiac Cats, the Carolina Panthers, on their run to the Super Bowl with Jake DeLome. And, you know, they win that double overtime game in St. Louis and overtime, Steve Smith has the long touchdown in the divisional round against the Rams. They go into Philadelphia and their defense just dominates the Eagles in the NFC Championship game. And then they get to the Super Bowl in Houston. And they're matched up against Tom Brady and the Patriots. And, you know, the Patriots were the best team in football that year, but it was still kind of like, they weren't really like viewed as the dynasty Patriots yet. I mean, Brady was, was really good, but he wasn't, nobody was thinking like this guy's going to be

the greatest quarterback of all time. It was just, Hey, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are in their second Superbowl in three years and maybe they'll win it again. The Panthers were right there with the Patriots, neck and neck with them. And John Fox keeps going for two because he keeps chasing points. And they don't convert any of their two-point conversions, and they're put in a weird spot. Well, then they finally tie the game with a late touchdown from Ricky Prohl. And on the ensuing kickoff, John Casey, the left-footed kicker for the Panthers, kicks the ball out of bounds, giving the ball to the Patriots at like the 40-yard line.

And basically Brady completes like two passes to get Vinatieri in position to kick the winning field goal. And it's like Jake DeLome, who you're already watching this game and you're thinking, Jake DeLome's never going to take a team to the Super Bowl again. Like, come on. Like, this is never going to happen again. And it gets his great gutsy, gritty performance on the biggest stage

gets just nullified because the kicker kicked the ball out of bounds. So that's the one that always kind of stings to me. Well, there is a theme here to this then for my couple of picks. One is just a couple of words here. Hand the ball to Marshawn. Just give the ball to Marshawn Lynch. And, you know, over the years, and it happened in the immediate after, and over the years people have argued this,

well, you know, there's not that many interceptions that get thrown at the goal line, and maybe it was the right idea and whatever other stuff. Give the ball to Marshawn. No, the defense had this certain look. Marshawn Lynch was playing like Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl in that game. He made a one-handed catch and then had a big run to get them to the goal line. That man would not be denied in that game. I don't care what the defensive look was.

At least you have to give him a shot to score that touchdown. And instead, they end up throwing the ball. Everybody knows about the rest of the history and there you have it uh the new england patriots get a super bowl win when they really didn't deserve it but instead russell wilson threw the interception which probably sent him on a very weird path for the rest of his career where he couldn't relate to people and they wouldn't trust him and i don't know like pete carroll never had the whole trust of that group again. It was a very defining moment for what happened after, which is that, you know, they were always good, but never great again, really after that never

truly, truly great like they were that season. So that was an unfortunate one. And I still just feel bad for Marshawn Lynch. I mean, he's such a dominant running back. Give him the ball. And then poor Matt Ryan, a great quarterback of the era and what Matt Ryan needed for his legacy and to go to the hall of fame. Cause I'm not sure he goes or not is a Superbowl and he's up 28 to three. And if you go back and look, Matt Ryan played a phenomenal game against the new england patriots but like the seattle seahawks before them kyle shanahan got a little cute wouldn't run the ball then there's a holding penalty and moves them out of field goal position it stays at 28 instead of going to 31 just enough time for tom brady to pull the comeback against the Falcons, the incredible what Julian Edelman catch that looked like it wasn't to be. That is still a stinger.

And I also have to say that Super Bowls that are terrible also bother me. And look, I mean, it happens. It's the NFL. There are blowouts. But when a team completely no-shows, it just ruins America. So I just cannot stand when that happens. And when the Denver Broncos snapped it out of the back of the end zone or into the end zone on like the first play against Seattle, and it was just over, I was so mad. I was mad for weeks because I thought like that Denver offense was one of the best ever.

And here's a Seattle one of the best ever. And here's a Seattle defense in the whole week. They're hyping it up and like, let's go Superbowl. And then what, like what, what is everyone doing? So there are, uh, there are dozens that fall into this category of either some team giving Tom Brady a free Superbowl or, uh, the Superbowl no-shows, but, and of course, Tom Brady involved in one recently with Kansas City a couple of years ago where Kansas City's O-line was just dominated. So those are the ones that still hurt the most, guys. Yeah, I know that there's a few more that come to mind.

The Titans coming up one yard short against the Rams of such a great game. And Steve McNair just played his heart out, you know, rest in peace to him. But yeah, there's that one. You know, I think about the the one, the, the Steelers Seahawks Superbowl where there was all of these like officiating, you know, officials that were, you know, making these weird calls. And, you know, it was just not a very well played game at all by either team, really. I mean, Ben Roethlisberger, you know, if you're a starting quarterback on a team that wins the Super Bowl, you get credit for that. But Ben Roethlisberger

did not play well in that game at all and he was given a free touchdown in that game that ball did not go across the line and they still ruled it a touchdown um and that game was just uh not not very well played and then of course we were told for the 50 millionth time that jerome baddis was from detroit when the game was oh he was i had no idea uh mike holmgren still claims to this day that a comment that he made to the refs before the game is what swung the tide with the referees i i think that it's a hard game to ref but there were some very mysterious calls and i also agree with scott in the comments that every time a bad super bowl occurs a piece of amer America's soul dies.

And, you know, a good Super Bowl could bring the nation together. I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully we get one. Is that the problem with America? Not enough great Super Bowls recently? Who's to really say? So there are, but there are many here.

And I'll just bring up one more to rub salt in Vikings fans' wounds, which is 1998, because we know who should have been in the Super Bowl we know what happened for them not to be in the Super Bowl and then you know the again America slowly dying with bad Super Bowls it was over so fast with the Broncos just blasting the heck out of the Atlanta Falcons and even as someone myself who at the time did not even live in Minnesota, it was just so disappointing. It was like, oh, the Vikings would have done better here. The Vikings at the time had the best offense, I believe, of all time at that point, that they had scored more points in the regular season. If anyone was going to match up with that amazing Denver Broncos team, it would have been the Vikings because it clearly was not the Falcons. So that one is still a stinger, I imagine, for everyone.

Now let's look at the opposite side of that, though, friends. Which Super Bowl made you feel the best for the winner? Because you know what? With this Super Bowl, one thing that's great is as long as it's a good game and it doesn't ruin our country, you know, I think that I'll feel good for whoever wins. I mean, we laid out the cases. If Jalen Hurts wins, it'll be a great kind of underdog story of someone who came from getting benched in college to progressing to being questioned. And, you know, I'm sure that the Eagles weren't even complete believers

after last year and then to kind of prove everybody wrong there uh or if it's Patrick Mahomes it'd be great for him and Andy Reid so like yeah you can get on board with either one from my perspective but let's go into the past which Super Bowl winner made you feel the best why don't we start with Manny on this one yeah so this the the game itself wasn't great in fact it was really bad because it was played in the rain and both teams were kind of fumbling the ball all over the place. But when the Colts won Super Bowl 41 in Miami over the Bears, it was I think it was it was for a lot of people in Minnesota, I think a lot of people were happy for Tony Dungy because of the local connection with him being a former Gopher and then being a former Vikings defensive coordinator. And so a lot of people here in Minnesota, I think, were kind of rooting for Tony Dungy to win the Super Bowl. And they were playing the Bears, a division rival. So, like, you're a Vikings fan.

You don't want to see the Bears win the Super Bowl, you know. But I was also kind of happy because not that I was even rooting for the Bears, but I couldn't believe at that point, I couldn't believe that Lovie Smith was sticking with Rex Grossman at that point. If you go back and you look at Rex Grossman's last like seven games of that regular season, he was awful. He was brutal. Everything about what he was doing was telling you if the Bears even make it to the Super Bowl, this guy is going to short circuit their chances of winning a championship. He stinks. And the fact that Lovie Smith didn't even, like, for a second, think about going to Kyle Orton.

And look, Kyle Orton, not a great quarterback in his own right. But, like, give yourself a chance, Lovie. Give yourself a chance. This guy is going to short circuit your season. And he didn't listen to anybody. He started Rex Grossmanman and we saw the super bowl did not go well so you add that into it i was especially happy that tony dungy won that night because he deserved it and a great point uh from our friend aaron which is prince absolutely

demolished yes the all-time greatest halftime show unquestioned by Prince. And again, it's funny. I wasn't living here in Minnesota at the time, but since I play guitar, I was just totally captivated by Prince. I already knew that he was great, but that to me solidified, like Prince is one of the great guitar players of all time after that.

So, I mean, as far as like the great guitar players of all time after that so I mean as far as like the winners and losers of Super Bowls Prince though oh he's a basketball player as we found out from Chappelle's show and not a football player but uh one of the all-time winners of uh of the Super Bowl so uh what's your choice Jonathan I'm gonna go with uh where Scott in the comments was talking about the very next year from Manny's was the Giants defensive performance against the Patriots. Scott says this the year that the Patriots would have gone undefeated. The defense was just overwhelming, Brady. And I'm not really happy for the Giants because they won.

Congratulations. You win another Super Bowl. I'm happy for America that the Giants won, that we didn't have to deal with an undefeated Patriots team. We didn't have to hear Boston fans continually forever be able to, you know, just spout it off from the mountaintops that they had the undefeated season. They had the greatest season of all time with a completely stacked roster with Randy Moss and Tom Brady and everything, everybody else they had on that team. I'm just happy for America that the Patriots were not allowed to win that one, that David Tyree had some kind of stick them on his helmet and was able to

catch, catch that ball, that paint, that Eli Manning's Jersey somehow didn't completely rip off though. Pretty much did rip off that the Giants offensive line definitely was choking the Patriots defensive line on that play as well, as that was brought up this past this past week or whatever. I think I think America won that one, that the Patriots didn't go undefeated. America won. America won by the Patriots losing. That's a Super Bowl, which heals all of us.

That's really the focus here is it's a very patriotic podcast here tonight. We care about our nation and how they feel about the Super Bowl. But no, you're right, Jonathan, it would have been miserable had they won the Super Bowl. And I you know, what's funny about that one? I just I remember I was working. I think I was in college at the time and I was working at a grocery store and I had to work during the Super Bowl. So just bad break for me and got home just in time to see that. Like I had taped the game, but I was like, I got to see like what's going on just in time for that drive and to see him make that catch. And I mean, it's one of the great plays, one of the iconic plays in Super Bowl history.

And also it was great to see someone else other than the Patriots win because that was obnoxious but uh for me I'm going to go back a little bit here into the 90s as one does on this podcast I will say the get the monkey off my back Super Bowl for Steve Young 1994 he was the best quarterback in the NFL if you look statistically and I did this recently, of all the quarterbacks in the 90s, just 1990 to 1999, you'd be amazed how bad the numbers are for the great quarterbacks. That if you had an 88 quarterback rating, you used to be pretty good. But he was so far ahead of everybody else statistically, pretty much across the board. And yet it was always the Dallas Cowboys who kept getting in his way, the best team of the nineties. And he finally got past them, faces a Chargers team that really had no

business being there. It should have been the Miami Dolphins and crushes them in that Superbowl. And even though it was painful to watch a bad Superbowl, it was great for Steve Young with just the incredible career that he had. He was deserving of being a Super Bowl quarterback. So I felt very good for him to win that one. And then another quarterback who had struggled to win one for a long time was John Elway. John Elway was known as the biggest Super Bowl loser there was outside of Jim Kelly, who never got his. But with John Elway, he had lost four Super Bowls and it was like this guy could just never win one he goes to Super Bowl after Super Bowl and lost them badly too

yes right got crushed was it four or three it might have been three yeah three okay that was his fourth Super Bowl that he got to that was the number and then he ends up uh winning it and just like what it means to win after you've lost three of them, and that's been your reputation, is that you've played terribly in all of those Super Bowls. Plus those teams were just so good, so exciting. Elway throwing it down the field to McCaffrey and Smith and Terrell Davis having his all-time great years. That was just a really cool team to see win, and John Elway deserved it. I also agree with Scott about Andy Reid winning his Super Bowl for the first time and how it got won on the throw from Patrick Mahomes to Tyreek Hill off the back foot,

50 yards in the air. I mean, it just couldn't have been won in a cooler way for Andy Reid to finally get one. So I agree with that. But those two in the nineties really stuck out to me as ones that were deserving. And Hey, look, I mean, even though Steve McNair lost that one, which is certainly on my list of ones that sting because I liked Steve McNair so much. Kurt Warner winning a Superbowl is one of the coolest stories in NFL history, hands down. So that one was another one.

Similar to how I feel going into Sunday, where it's like whoever wins this one, it's going to be pretty cool for them. So let's move on to the next question here, which is you guys have heard that the NFL is scripted, of course. And now I'm pretty sure that this, that whole thing was just a gag. I don't know, but like Arian Foster saying that, you know, the NFL is scripted and so forth. And obviously if you're, I've seen some pretty gruesome injuries on the field that they've had to script. I saw a guy

break his leg right in front of me in training camp. I don't know if that was on the script, but that was disturbing. So anyway if that was on the script, that guy got really mad when he got that one. But let's say that we were the script writers of the Super Bowl. I want you guys to write out the script for how this game could go to make it one of the best. Jonathan, why don't you begin with your Super Bowl script? Well, I'm going to start off with kind of the footnotes of this script and that there will be no questionable calls by the referees. They will call a perfect game because I don't want... Okay, then we know it's scripted, Jonathan. You have to make it seem like it's not. No, no, no, no, no. I don't want any questionable

calls because I don't want the focus after the game being on the refs. I want the focus of the game being on the game that was played. And as much as everybody likes defense and everything, I want an offensive shootout between two of the best offenses in the league. I don't care about defensive play. Give me essentially flag football and these two teams going at it. The last quarterback to have the ball wins essentially is how I want it to come down at the very end of this game with the season wins essentially is how I want it to come down at the very end of this game with the season on the line, the championship on the line,

the biggest prize there is in this game on the line. And it's just pure offensive football. Like the 13 seconds last year between the Bills and the Chiefs, still considered one of the best games of all time. Give me that in the Super Bowl. bowl i don't care about i don't want a defensive battle like we've seen in the past where it's 13 to 3 and the patriots beat the rams just by shutting down the offense because that is a disgusting game that no one ever wants to remember give me an offensive shootout with it it honestly it doesn't matter who wins because both these teams deserve it as we've talked about already and if it comes down to Jalen Hurts throwing an absolute dime of a pass to A.J. Brown so be it I'm all for it as long as it's a good

hard-fought game and there's plenty of offense and no questionable calls from the refs yeah I'm 100% with Jonathan on this I'm'm envisioning, for me, this scripts out the way. Do you guys remember that Chiefs-Rams Monday night football game where the final score was like, I don't know, it was 52 to 48 or something like that? It was like an Arena League game. That's what I want to see on Sunday. I want Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes just throwing haymakers back and forth,

just both just making unbelievable plays. We know they can both make plays, obviously, with their arm, and they're both mobile quarterbacks as well. I know Mahomes is dealing with the ankle thing, but I think these two weeks will give him a little bit more juice in that ankle. He'll be able to move around a little bit better. I think if both guys put on a show, nobody has a lead larger than four points in this game. The game is just tight the entire way.

There's no double-digit leads. I like Jonathan's idea of the referees are not interjecting themselves into this and making bad calls. They just call the game the way it should be called. They let the players play. And then Patrick Mahomes scrambles for a 15-yard touchdown on fourth down as time expires.

And the Chiefs win 51-48. Okay, I'm going to go with no punts. There's just no punts. I don't even care how it happens. I don't even care if there are interceptions, turnovers, fumbles, as long as it's not like the Broncos and Cowboys one, which was in the late seventies where there were eight turnovers by the Broncos in that game. So let's not have it be that ridiculous, but just as long as we're not seeing any punts,

Andy Reed and Nick Sirianni, they decide we're going for it in every red zone opportunity we're trying to score here. So that's one place to start. But I think you guys kind of took out the iron and hit it off the tee right down the middle. Like, oh, let's see the quarterbacks have fun. Neither of you went for like total calamity, outrageous ridiculousness. See, what I was thinking is let's say it is at the end of the game, 45 to 42 or something, and the Chiefs have the ball Mahomes throws it to Travis Kelsey who pitches it backward to MVS who takes it all the way a hook and ladder to win the

Super Bowl now that is how you script the end of a Super Bowl guys Jonathan I expected more from you as a wrestling fan as someone who likes you're like, I hope they all have fun. Like, come on, Jonathan. I mean, I once watched one of the wrestling things where a guy brought out a tractor and picked up the whole ring and threw the other guy out of it. You couldn't come up with anything crazier? I'm sorry I don't have a welcomed-in member of the bloodline interjecting and hitting the Chiefs in the back with a chair at the last moment.

Sorry I didn't have that. There's a connection, the tribal chief, Roman Reigns. So maybe if you're a Simpsons fan, fan man flies down and knocks down the game-winning field goal with his fan or something. Come on. Okay, i've got it i've got it for the most preposterous ending would be mahomes has got the ball with a chance to win the game it's been a back and forth legendary performance somebody hits him in the ankle chad henney comes in goes full legend leads the game winning drive out of nowhere

just throwing dimes off the bench you know what i i saw chad henney as a true freshman quarterback at the university of michigan driving 90 yards with no touch with no timeouts against the gophers for a winning touchdown back in 2000 that is 2004 2004. So he's got it in him. He can do it. He could do something like that. He's always been clutch. And maybe if we throw in a power bomb or a people's elbow or something into this game, that'll be good.

Somebody off a top rope to win this. But yeah, I mean, I think that this one will, at least I always think this probably, but I think this one is a really good matchup and i have trouble seeing it not be like that but you know if kansas city wins the uh nfl is scripted people will return i just wish that they had scripted us a better nfc matchup if they were scripting it like hey josh johnson coming off the bench would have been amazing but then the script had him getting hurt too. What did they want?

Kyle Juszczyk to throw a couple of touchdowns or what? Are you really complaining about a fullback throwing passes? Yeah, I mean, they could have done a better job with that one. All right, last question here. Your all-time Super Bowl what if, and then we'll decide who we think is actually actually going to win the game so jonathan uh or wait manny you start this one your all-time favorite super bowl what if what if adam vinatieri misses that kick in 36 and the reason why i say that is because the Rams had captured all the momentum.

They were down, remember, they were down 17-3. And then they went down and scored two touchdowns. Ricky Prohl, we were talking about Ricky Prohl earlier. Ricky Prohl scores the tying touchdown. The Rams had gained complete control of that game. And if Tom Brady doesn't march down and get them in the field goal range, obviously, you know, who knows what would have happened so I've always kind of thought like what if Vinatieri just like shanked that kick to the left or something and they go into overtime

and then the Rams like win the toss in overtime Kurt Warner and those guys they probably march down the field you know and the original overtime rules at a sudden death at that time you get in the field goal range your kicker makes the kick and it's over and you win um and then we're talking about we might not be talking about a Patriots dynasty we might be talking about what the St. Louis Rams had become because it would have been a second Super Bowl in three years for them so that's that's one that I've always kind of thought about is what if Vinatieri had missed that kick? Maybe it doesn't. I don't know. It probably, like Tom Brady probably becomes that great anyway.

But I don't know. Like that confidence from that one happening where it wouldn't feel like his only shot. It would feel like just the beginning for him. Maybe it does turn out to be a little different. There's like seven Brady what-ifs. He is this close to being the biggest Super Bowl choker ever. I mean, if they lose to Seattle, if they lose to Atlanta, if they lose to Carolina, if they lose to the Rams,

I mean, you're really thinking like this guy can't win the big one. He keeps getting his teams there. But guess uh if you keep getting chances in the super bowl that you'll probably have some luck bounce your way but what if jadrell holmes has a healthy offensive line two years ago or or even in 2018 if they don't get called for some kind of weird and questionable penalties against the patriots that allowed the patriots to go to that super bowl and beat a very mediocre Rams team that probably shouldn't have been there anyway. It should have been New Orleans in that Super Bowl.

So yeah, I mean, the Super Bowl is made for what ifs. What is your favorite, Jonathan? I mean, continuing on what you guys said, what if Terrell Owens didn't have the broken leg going into that game and he was fully healthy? Because you already saw what he did essentially on that damaged leg. If he had a fully healthy leg

and was able to just go full go against the Patriots, do the Eagles win that one? I think it gets a little bit closer than it was. For me, it always comes down as a lifelong Vikings fans to what if the Vikings had gotten to the 98 Super Bowl and then the Super Bowl against the Colts, if they had beaten the Saints, how do those two games play out differently? I think the one against Denver is a little bit closer than Atlanta was able to put up. And then I think they would probably beat that Colts team in that Super Bowl with Brett Favre if he didn't have to get, you know, just absolutely just beaten up and just driven

into the ground like the Saints did. If the Vikings are able to get to either of those two Super Bowls, I think they win one or two or both of them. But also if Brett Favre gets there and he wins with the Vikings, what does that do for his, before the Mississippi thing, obviously, what does that do for his legacy, especially as a Packers great, winning one for the cross-border rivals? He obviously probably wouldn't get his jersey retired as quickly as it did, but how long does it take to mend that relationship outside of just kind of the legacy,

the overall football legacy of his? No, I thought of a few related to a Packers quarterback or maybe soon to be former Packers quarterback. I don't know. But there's a lot of Aaron Rodgers what-ifs too about multiple Super Bowls and Brett Favre. I mean, Brett Favre throws the interception against the Giants

where they had a bunch of chances to win that game. And with Aaron Rodgers, a lot of it's sort of been out of his hands where, okay, he could have played better in the snow against San Francisco, but they're winning that game. They're punting it away. It's pretty normal stuff. And Garoppolo wasn't moving the ball. Nobody was in that weather.

If they just get the punt off regularly, do they go to the Super Bowl? Or if their defense could have stopped the 49ers running game at all in 2019, does Rodgers get another Super Bowl? If they could recover an onside kick against the Seattle Seahawks, does Aaron Rodgers get another Super Bowl? So I think that nobody feels any sort of sadness for Green Bay. They have lots of Super Bowls over their history and lots of great seasons and chances, but also there's so many that came close and just never happened for them. I'm sure that Drew

Brees kind of feels the same way about the latter part of his career where they were one of the best teams in the league repeatedly, and it's minneapolis miracle it's a missed pass interference call it's a final catch in the end zone by kyle rudolph these crazy endings vernon davis beats them yeah right i mean right it's just crazy like the way that uh their seasons ended um so there's there's some of that but but the all-timer for me, and this won't surprise either one of you guys, Scott Norwood. The all-time what if. I don't know if the Bills make it back to three more Super Bowls after that because they were driven by losing those Super Bowls and that miss, but Buffalo would have a Super Bowl if that ball does not go a few feet to the right.

And I don't know, man, like it's just one of the, one of the iconic moments of the Superbowl, one of the saddest moments in all of pro sports history where the guy has a chance, but it was a hard kick back in the day, 47 now a little easier, but you know, back in the day, it was not as easy with the K balls and everything else that that's kind of set up the training for the kickers. If someone made a 47 yard field goal, that was like a long boot back in 1990. Now it's, you know, kind of a chip shot. So that's just kind of how it is. But poor Scott Norwood, any of those guys who went through that with kicking misses. And one other one would be the San Diego Chargers,

the LaDainian Tomlinson, Phillip Rivers, Antonio Gates. How did it not happen for them that they even got to a Super Bowl with those teams that they came up short? They are a what if. They had just made one more play, one more kick, didn't fumble interception, all those things go into that category. So that's not just one all-timer. That those things go into that category so that's not uh just one all-timer that's a lot of them but that's what the super bowl does so let's make our picks we didn't actually script it they didn't ask us so we don't know who's going to win uh what would be best for our nation fellas what's the pick uh i'll go first i'm'm going to take Kansas City. I feel like Philadelphia is the better all-around team.

I think they have the better defense. And, you know, obviously they have terrific weapons on offense, and Jalen Hurts is – and, I mean, you just look at the way they played in the two games against the Giants and then against San Francisco in the NFC title game. I mean, they just look like a, like a complete buzzsaw that they look almost unbeatable really. Uh, but there's just something about Patrick Mahomes and all of this talk about

legacy and, you know, all the talk about his ankle, is he fully healthy? And, you know, and then, you know, Andy Reed kind then Andy Reid kind of trying to get that second Super Bowl against a team that he coached for over a decade long ago. There's just something about this edge that the Chiefs seem to have with the way that they've won in these playoffs. To me, it just feels like they're going to find a way to get it done on Sunday. So I'm going to take Kansas City. Yeah, I'm not deviating too much from that. I just believe Kansas City has it in them. Not that Philadelphia doesn't. I just think, as Manny said,

they find ways just every single time when they're down, they just find ways to pull it out of the, pull it out of the hat and find a way to win it and yeah they probably the eagles are probably the more well-rounded team they have a they have a more i think they have a better defense than the chiefs and it's more much more physical and they've played much more physical in these playoffs than the chiefs have but i just there's something about patrick mahomes that I see him winning this one. Jalen Hurts is a great quarterback. He's done well this season. I just don't think this is, this is it right now. I think maybe next year is probably the better chance for the Eagles,

but I think the, the chiefs pull this one out. Well, I don't want to be one of those graphics that gets shared. And everyone says the disrespect or old tapes exposed. Look how wrong these idiots were i'm also picking kansas city it's really just for patrick beholmes but also steve spagnolo has done an amazing job in these games i mean this is nothing new for him as a defensive coordinator to go up against the very good offense i do think that philadelphia is an absolute house when it comes to their offensive line their weapons and that this is an absolute house when it comes to their offensive line, their weapons,

and that this is going to be some problems for the Kansas City Chiefs. It's just that they have the greatest walking human being playing quarterback on Kansas City's side and a defense that I think can make some plays in the passing game, as we've seen some big interceptions, big sacks. But I don't know. I mean, it's a great matchup between uh two very very good teams two well coached teams two well designed teams but for the sake of the future of the united states i hope it's a great game that's all that's all i'm really looking forward to but i guess i'll we'll sweep the panel here and go all kansas city but you, we could be wrong. That's why I don't bet because who knows who's ever going to win.

It's actually not scripted. I don't know if you guys knew that. So, Manny, always a pleasure to have you on the show. Tremendous stuff as always. And I think we said a couple weeks ago when we did a show, like, Manny's got to be here for the Super Bowl show no matter what. You moved all the things off your schedule, the parties, the Wolves game, everything else.

And so I'm glad that we could get together, and Jonathan and I do this for anybody listening for the first time every Tuesday night here on YouTube. So make sure you continue to tune in 9 o'clock on Tuesdays. And we will catch you all later. Thanks again, guys.