It’s still too early to call the figures in, but most punters, indubitably, are hurting after American Football favourites The Kansas City Chiefs were crushed by the Philadelphia Eagles in a runaway 40-22 victory in Sunday’s Super Bowl L1X (59).
From the number of times Kansas’s brilliant, mercurial quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked (six), to his thrown interceptions (two), tight end Travis Kelce’s woeful catching display (one miss, one catch, one late, and irrelevant, nine-yard run), the props all ran against form in the unexpected beating suffered by the Chiefs in Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, home of The Saints.
Defeat, said Mahomes, was “the worst thing in the world” as he and his teammates were looking for an unprecedented “three-peat”, winning the Vince Lombardi trophy three years in succession.
But the three-peat was beyond their grasp.
Sweet Re-peat
For the Philadelphia Eagles and their classic all-action quarterback Jalen Hurts Sunday’s Super Bowl was more “re-peat”, than three-peat, and it turned very soon to sweet revenge for their narrow 38-35 defeat by the same Chiefs in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona at Super Bowl LV11 (57), as they outplayed the Chiefs in every department of the game.
In recent times, powered by the 2018 post-PASPA legalisation of sports betting in the U.S., the Super Bowl has become the biggest betting bonanza in world single event sport.
Last year–Kansas beat the San Francisco 49ers in Los Angeles’ Allegiant Stadium by a close run 25-22 points–the match generated more than US$20 billion in bets (some £16bn), both legal and nefarious, according to the American Gaming Association.
This year the AGA declined to specify their estimated take on illicit Super Bowl betting, but the association did project a handle of some US$1.39 billion (£1.11bn) from legal licenced operators.
Awesome
Other industry stakeholders put the good market total even higher at US$1.7 billion (£1.36bn).
Bets aside; the game at the latest iteration of the World Championship between the winners of American football’s two major conferences, the AFC and NFC, was a humbling experience for the much-fancied Kansas City Chiefs, who have dominated the sport since 2019, winning three Super Bowls in five finals.
To deploy that often over-used word, the Philadelphia Eagles defense–coached by co-ordinator Vic Fangio–was awesome.
Mahomes, arguably the most talented, if not greatest, quarterback in history, was well and truly muzzled, until the fading minutes of the game when he launched a spectacular 50-yard touchdown throw to wide receiver Xavier Worthy.
It was a reminder of Mahomes’ brilliance. But it came too late to affect the outcome of a game that had been shaped by the outstanding performance of his rival quarterback Jalen Hurts, who quite rightly was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player.
Jalen had taken a “journey to the top of the mountain” and was hurting no more.
