The Kansas City Chiefs are trying to keep things as close to normal as possible. But that’s easier said than done when NFL history is at stake.
The Chiefs will play the Eagles in Super Bowl 59 at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in New Orleans, and if they win they’ll become the first team in NFL history to win the Super Bowl three years in a row. The Chiefs will be playing in their fifth Super Bowl under coach Andy Reid, and even with all the three-peat hype, defensive lineman Chris Jones said he and the team are relaxed and ready to go.
“There’s no pressure,” Jones said. “I’ve been preparing for this for so long for these moments. I’m familiar with this, with the environment and how big the game is. So there’s really no pressure. It’s more for me just preparing and making sure I don’t do nothing out of the ordinary or change up anything. I’m a little superstitious so I got to stick to the routine. Even though I’m not home, I got to make sure everything is flowing like at home.
“I have a routine throughout the week I like to stick to. I wear the same gloves, the same cleats. I don’t change my cleats throughout the season. My gloves smell like a dead animal. Especially if I get a sack in them, I’m not changing them up. Here lately I’ve been wearing long sleeves. We haven’t lost in long sleeves, knock on wood. So it’s little things, even my meal prep. If I had a good game last game, I’ll eat the same thing I ate last week.”
The Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35 in the Super Bowl two years ago, but the Eagles have an improved ground game with running back Saquon Barkley, who rushed for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season and 232 yards and five touchdowns in two playoff games this postseason.
“He’s such a dynamic player,” Chiefs safety Justin Reid said. “This guy’s legs are strong as an ox. He has great vision, he’s patient, he cuts back. I think you have to have extreme gap discipline in your runs because a lot of times he waits to see if a guy will peak around and get out of his gap then he just hits it and goes. Then he has the most 20 mph runs in the league this year. So when he hits the edge, this guy is rolling.”
The Eagles also return quarterback Jalen Hurts and wide receiver DeVonta Smith from the Super Bowl 57 team, while the Chiefs still have Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, among others. Jones said the main constant throughout the team’s historic run has been leadership from top to bottom.
“It trickles down,” Jones said. “I think the leaders set the example for the younger guys. For me, coming to work is fun. I love my teammates, and I love being part of the Chiefs organization.
“I love the brotherhood we’ve established, especially in the D-line room. I have so much respect for my position coach, Joe Cullen and my mentor, Coach Spags. So for me going to work, it’s not like going to work. It’s something I love to do. And also, I get to be around the game I love to play.”
But the Super Bowl for all its glitz and glamor is a business trip, and Justin Reid said the Chiefs are focused on getting the job done for the third year in a row.
“It’d be amazing,” Reid said. “It’d be a story that myself and my family would be able to tell forever. It’d be really cool.”
