Chiefs win Super Bowl: Reaction and updates (2024)

LAS VEGAS — The NFL has a repeat champion for the first time in 19 years. The Kansas City Chiefs, with a third Super Bowl triumph in five seasons, cemented the league’s modern-day dynasty with a 25-22 overtime win against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

This one, the same as the last two for Kansas City and its superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, came with a stirring second-half comeback and, this time, with some late heroics in overtime.

Jake Moody’s 27-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime put the 49ers ahead 22-19, but the Chiefs responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive and won it on 3-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman.

It was but the latest must-have drive for Kansas City, a team that has built a reputation behind Mahomes as most dangerous when holding the ball last. The Chiefs trailed 19-16 with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter when they marched 75 yards in 11 plays and Harrison Butker kicked a 29-yard field goal. The key play on the drive came on a third-and-7 with 16 seconds left, when Patrick Mahomes hit Travis Kelce on a crosser for a 22-yard gain that set the Chiefs up for the easy kick.

It’s the fourth Super Bowl win for the Chiefs franchise and the third for the team under coach Andy Reid, who joins Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs in a tie for third-most all-time. Only Bill Belichick (six) and Chuck Noll (four) have more.

“The number three is a big number in terms of dynasties,” tight end Travis Kelce said this week, adding that he wanted to win this Super Bowl more than any of the previous three he’d played in. Three titles in a five-year window puts the Chiefs in a different conversation, one that includes some of the greatest runs in league history.

Mahomes earned his third Super Bowl MVP going 34-of-46 passing for 333 yards, two touchdowns and one interception resulting in a 99.3 passer rating.

The championship also elevates Mahomes — a remarkable 15-3 in the playoffs in his six-year career — into elite company: he’s now one of five quarterbacks in league history to win at least three Super Bowls, joining Tom Brady (seven), Joe Montana (four), Terry Bradshaw (four) and Troy Aikman (three). Aikman and Mahomes, 28, are the only ones of the group to win three before their 30th birthday. Across the last two postseasons, Mahomes has gone 7-0, throwing 13 touchdowns and just one interception.

It’s a devastating defeat for the 49ers, and particularly coach Kyle Shanahan, who adds another chapter of Super Bowl heartache to what’s otherwise been a stellar career. As Atlanta’s offensive coordinator in 2017, Shanahan was on the wrong side of the biggest blown lead in Super Bowl history, when the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 third-quarter deficit to stun the Falcons in the only other championship game to go to overtime. Sunday’s loss is Shanahan’s second as a head coach in the Super Bowl; four years ago, the 49ers blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV, eventually losing 31-20.

San Francisco’s championship drought is now at 29 seasons.

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When Tony Romo became the biggest sensation in NFL broadcasting, it was because he was a gunslinger as an analyst, predicting plays with an unconventional style that eventually led to a 10-year, $180 million contract, then the richest known deal in sports media history.

These days, four years into that deal, after all the criticism of Romo, CBS clearly went into his third Super Bowl as a TV analyst looking for a game manager instead of a game changer. But old habits die hard.

On the final call to end the Super Bowl LVIII overtime classic between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, Romo and play-by-play partner Jim Nantz’s lack of teamwork showed up at the worst time.

At first, Romo did a fine job with the Chiefs down three points and inside the 5-yard line late in overtime, explaining that it did not matter as viewers watched the clock wind down toward zero — the game would not end and would just roll into a second quarter of OT. But Romo kept talking too long.

This blocked Nantz from properly setting up the final play. As the winning touchdown was scored, Nantz said, “First and goal, Mahomes flings it! It’s there! Hardman! Jackpot! Kansas City!”

Romo first muttered in the background of Nantz’s call as if he were a yahoo on local radio. After Nantz finished, Romo started in, “This was the Andy Reid special. …” And then on and on.

For 30 seconds, as CBS showed reaction, Romo talked about the play when the best analysis would’ve been silence, which would have allowed the crowd and pictures to tell the story. It should have been Nantz’s broadcast moment, if anyone’s.

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More than two years ago, when The Athletic commissioned a project identifying the 100 greatest players in NFL history, we left off Patrick Mahomes because he hadn’t played long enough. By 2022, when the project was adapted for the Football 100 book published earlier this season, we had moved Mahomes onto the list but ranked him near the bottom, 18th out of 19 quarterbacks.

Again, Mahomes hadn’t played long enough, so we slotted him as follows among quarterbacks: Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, Johnny Unitas, Otto Graham, John Elway, Dan Marino, Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, Sammy Baugh, Drew Brees, Sid Luckman, Steve Young, Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Bart Starr, Bobby Layne, Mahomes and Fran Tarkenton.

What about now? Better move Mahomes up that list — way up.

“It didn’t take me long to slot him in where I thought he belonged,” said Randy Mueller, my Football GM Podcast co-host and an NFL evaluator for four decades. “For me, I had no argument with Brady being one. Elway would be two for me, and I would put Mahomes third. I have not seen this kind of talent, this kind of production, this kind of anticipation and instincts and football IQ.”

That comment was from our discussion Friday, before Mahomes did it again on the biggest stage. Just think how many Super Bowls the Chiefs will win once they get Mahomes a little more help on offense. They’ve already given him a young defense that ranked among the NFL’s top five in EPA per play this season.

LAS VEGAS — Andy Reid ran up to Chris Jones, the defensive cornerstone of his three Super Bowl-winning teams.

Jones was sprawled out on the field, physically spent and reveling in that new dynasty feeling after the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. Reid joined Jones on the grass, getting on his hands and vigorously shaking his player’s shoulder pads.

“What do you think, huh?” Reid shouted to Jones as the confetti fell around them. Reid lowered his face closer to Jones, then repeated for effect. “What do you think?!”

This childlike glee was a rare showing of emotion for the Chiefs’ veteran head coach. Reid’s bushy eyebrows and mustache and small, round glasses give him a distinct look and also have the effect of obscuring his true feelings.

“He never shows no emotion,” cornerback L’Jarius Sneed said after the game. “He’s like a snake, ah! Coming to get you. That’s what I love about him, like a little rattlesnake.”

Rattlesnake Reid sank his fangs into the Niners on Sunday in Las Vegas, as receiver Mecole Hardman scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime. It was the debut of new overtime playoff rules inspired by the Chiefs’ 2021 overtime playoff win over the Bills. Kansas City didn’t win the toss this time, but the Chiefs still couldn’t be stopped.

The 25-22 win is Reid’s third Super Bowl in his fifth try. He’s now the fifth head coach to win at least three, in the company of Bill Belichick (six), Chuck Noll (four), Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs (three), and the seventh coach to win it all in back-to-back years.

“It’s a little bit surreal,” Reid said in his postgame press conference. “Back-to-back is rare air for this football team and this organization. I don’t know what a dynasty is. You guys have the thesaurus, you can figure it out. It’s a great win because I know how hard it is to do. I know how hard the season was, the ups and downs of the season.”

Reid’s Chiefs were a little more definitive in their summation of the season — and of their coach.

“Dynasty, I think we did all the qualifications for it,” receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling said in the postgame locker room. “If he’s not the best, he’s one of the best to ever do this.”

“Check the stats, check the numbers,” Sneed said. “He’s legendary.”

“He’s one of the greatest guys in football, and this just makes him one of the greatest coaches,” said Chiefs assistant running backs coach Porter Ellett. “Now it’s becoming harder to argue against him being in the top two or three ever.”

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LAS VEGAS — The San Francisco 49ers kicked a field goal to take the lead in overtime, and Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid said to himself, “It’s over.”

He knew the Chiefs had won their second straight Super Bowl — not the 49ers — when teammate Chris Jones got pressure on San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy on third down to force an incomplete pass and the field-goal attempt.

Reid walked off the field at that moment smiling.

“We’re going to get the ball back to 15,” Reid said, out loud, of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who led the Chiefs on a 75-yard touchdown drive to no one’s surprise. The result: Kansas City 25, San Francisco 22 in Super Bowl LVIII.

Before Mahomes started running around to convert third downs and fourth downs … and long before coach Andy Reid called the “Corndog” short motion touchdown play for the second Super Bowl in a row, the Chiefs defense was making it all possible.

While the 49ers dominated the first half, the Chiefs kept them within 10 points and then shut them out in the third quarter. They held running back Christian McCaffrey to less than 4 yards a carry (and forced a fumble in the first quarter) and knocked tight end George Kittle around and only let him get his hands on two catches for 4 yards.

The Chiefs defense sacked Purdy only once, but they ramped up the pressure late, especially when they held the 49ers to field goals at the end of the fourth quarter and again in overtime.

Purdy didn’t have time to get the ball on would-be MVP Jauan Jennings against blitzes on both third-down plays. The one in overtime is going to stay with the second-year QB for a long time.

“Yeah, they brought (Cover) zero and I was trying to get the ball to JJ,” Purdy said. “That’s what was hurting me … to give them an opportunity to go down and win the game.”

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Some San Francisco 49ers players said following the team’s Super Bowl LVIII loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that they were unaware of the overtime rules that allowed for both teams to possess the ball.

It was the second Super Bowl to go into overtime — the New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons in overtime in Super Bowl LI in 2017 — but it was the first with the revised postseason overtime rules that ensured both teams would get the ball even if the first team to possess the ball scored a touchdown.

The Chiefs went on to beat the 49ers in a 25-22 thriller to win their third Super Bowl in five years.

“I didn’t even know about the new playoff overtime rule. It was a surprise to me,” 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead said after the game. “I didn’t know what was going on, in terms of that. They put it on the scoreboaAfter the Chiefs’ Harrison Butker kicked a field goal with three seconds left in regulation to knot the score at 19, the game went to overtime.

The first test run for the NFL’s overtime rule change would come under the brightest of spotlights. The 49ers won the overtime coin toss and coach Kyle Shanahan elected to receive the ball first.

“You know what? I didn’t even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime. I assume you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win,” Niners fullback Kyle Juszczyk said, according to ESPN. "I guess that’s not the case. I don’t totally know the strategy there. We hadn’t talked about it, no.”rd and everyone was thinking, even if you score, they get a chance still.”

The public-address announcer at Allegiant Stadium introduced the Chiefs as a “dynasty in the making” before the team ran onto the field.

For much of the game, the Chiefs played like a dynasty in the unmaking. They fumbled, wasted timeouts, incurred costly penalties and were fortunate to trail only 10-3 at halftime.

But when Kansas City had to score or else, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs delivered, just as even the most ardent 49ers fan should have expected them to do. And so here they are, with three Super Bowl victories in five seasons, and people will ask, are they a dynasty?

After studying the greatest Super Bowl-era runs, the 1974-79 Steelers, 1981-94 49ers, 2001-18 Patriots and 2019-23 Chiefs emerged as the only teams fitting what I think are logical requirements for dynasty status:

• Winning three-plus Super Bowls over five-plus seasons
• Posting the NFL’s best regular-season winning percentage, beginning with the first Super Bowl-winning season and ending with the final or most recent one
• Reaching the conference championship round more than half the time during the dynasty

These benchmarks account for dominant success over time.

Dynasty implies a run of significant duration. Five seasons feels just long enough. Three Super Bowl victories feels like the correct minimum, but not by itself. Three in a row would be a three-peat, not a dynasty. Three in four seasons would be incredible, perhaps a mini-dynasty, but not quite long enough to make it a dynasty.

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LAS VEGAS — Christian McCaffrey looked like he’d seen a ghost in the San Francisco 49ers’ locker room. He sat, upright and stone-faced, facing away from his stall. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk, seated next to the running back, whispered occasional words of commiseration to McCaffrey. But it clearly did little to soothe the pain. McCaffrey remained rigid. He moved once over several minutes, to rest his head against his locker.

Nothing could alleviate the agony so soon after that Super Bowl LVIII defeat. In a city that’s hosted so many heavyweight bouts, the 49ers had lost a 15-round slobber knocker to the dynastic Kansas City Chiefs, 25-22.

The fact that it took nearly 75 minutes of football to reach a decision only made it hurt more for the 49ers.

Across the way from McCaffrey, left tackle Trent Williams operated in slow motion. First, the left tackle slumped down in his folding chair. Then, as he rose to pack up his bag, Williams gazed up at his locker and back toward the floor, shaking his head as he went through the motions.

There was nothing to say in this tormented space, and even the words that did come out were nearly impossible to hear.

“I didn’t hear,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said of coach Kyle Shanahan’s postgame talk. “I was crying.”

Tears had began flowing far before this game was over. Dre Greenlaw ruptured his Achilles in the second quarter. Fred Warner broke down when he entered the locker room at halftime and saw his hobbled teammate.

“I was sick to my stomach,” Warner said after the game. “I’m still sick. I seen him at halftime and I’m just, I’m crying because I’m so hurt for him. And obviously I wanted to win this for him. Sickening.

“He’s just been dealing with that same Achilles injury for the last few weeks. So when we ran out on the field together and I see him drop down, I knew exactly what happened.”

Greenlaw’s injury, which came as he took the field for a defensive series, was a clear turning point in this Super Bowl.

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LAS VEGAS — There was a feeling of collective confusion among those inside Allegiant Stadium on Sunday as the team captains of the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers made their way toward midfield for the overtime coin toss. A detailed explainer appeared on the arena’s giant video screens to help those in the building, but many of the millions of viewers watching Super Bowl LVIII needed a refresher.

What are the new overtime rules again?

It was the second Super Bowl to go into overtime — the New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons in overtime in Super Bowl LI in 2017 — but it was the first with the revised postseason overtime rules that ensured both teams would get the ball. The Chiefs went on to beat the 49ers in a 25-22 thriller to win their third Super Bowl in five years.

After Harrison Butker of the Chiefs kicked a field goal with three seconds left in regulation to knot the score at 19, the game went to overtime. The first test run for the NFL’s overtime rule change would come under the brightest of spotlights. The 49ers won the overtime coin toss and coach Kyle Shanahan elected to receive the ball first.

“We went through all of the analytics,” Shanahan said after the game. “We wanted the ball third. If both teams matched and scored, we wanted to be the ones who had a chance to go win.”

Shanahan prioritized setting the 49ers up with the ball on a potential all-important third possession of overtime if the game remained tied after each team’s opening drive. But it never got that far.

On their opening possession of overtime, the 49ers drove down the field but stalled inside the red zone. A Jake Moody field goal put San Francisco up 22-19 but left the door open for quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

Mahomes methodically led the Kansas City offense down the field before hitting Mecole Hardman for the game-winning, 3-yard touchdown.

Since the 49ers lost, Shanahan has been subject to plenty of scrutiny from those on the outside looking in.

“He’s a pretty smart guy, so there’s got to be a reason why he did that,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of Shanahan’s decision to take the ball first. “Everybody’s got their own philosophy on it, and I get it. I don’t know that there’s a right or wrong way, but we felt you kick off first.”

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Travis Kelce and the Chiefs, who became the NFL’s first repeat champions in 20 years, certainly basked in the euphoria of their historic victory. But there was nothing easy about the Chiefs’ path to their fourth Super Bowl appearance in five seasons.

Unlike previous years, when Kansas City torched opponents behind the arm of Patrick Mahomes and the offensive wizardry of Andy Reid, this season’s Chiefs had to scratch and claw almost every step of the way.

While Kansas City endured growing pains at key offensive positions, Kelce had to provide even more leadership and poise, all while dealing with a new level of pressure on the field and intense scrutiny off it.

Kelce in 2023 morphed into one of the most popular figures in the NFL thanks to his romance with Taylor Swift. Every serious NFL fan already knew about Kelce, the nine-time Pro Bowl pick and four-time All-Pro selection. But dating Swift made him a household name beyond NFL circles and created a frenzy, something Kelce tried in vain to temper. He dodged media availabilities while trying to maintain a semblance of personal privacy. But his efforts did nothing to quell the infatuation about his relationship with Swift.

There were questions from outsiders about whether it would grow into a debilitating distraction for the Chiefs, but it never did. Kelce was too determined to help carry the Chiefs to his third championship, which would make this squad a dynasty, to allow his personal life to derail team goals.

So after the Chiefs had to overhaul the wide receiver position, Kelce worked even more tirelessly with Mahomes to ensure their connection remained unshakable. He took young pass catchers under his wing, in hopes that his knowledge could help expedite their development. For the first half of the season, defenses were able to better focus on limiting Kelce’s impact because they had fewer impact wideouts about which to worry.

As a result, this was not Kelce’s most statistically prolific season. He followed up a career-best 110-catch, 1,338-yard, 12-touchdown 2022 campaign with 93 receptions for 984 yards and just five touchdowns.

But Kelce kept working and kept leading, and the revamped Chiefs hit their stride in the second half of the season.

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LAS VEGAS — Patrick Mahomes was on the San Francisco 49ers’ minds even when they had the ball on Sunday.

Facing third-and-4 from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 9-yard line in overtime, Brock Purdy said he knew the 49ers couldn’t settle for a field goal because it would give Mahomes a chance to counter with the type of game-winning drive for which he’s become famous.

“You just don’t want to give him an opportunity to go down and win the game with a touchdown,” Purdy said.

That’s exactly what happened.

The 49ers’ third-down play was a good one. It called for Jauan Jennings, a strong contender for the game’s MVP award at that point, to start inside, then cut quickly back to the near pylon. He did, shaking his defender in the process.

“It looked like Jauan killed him, won pretty good,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said afterward.

The problem is that no one blocked Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, who’s both Kansas City’s best defensive player and someone who plagued the 49ers in their last Super Bowl meeting with the Chiefs. Right tackle Colton McKivitz put a hand on Jones, but moved to the outside to block defensive end George Karlaftis.

That gave Jones a free run at Purdy, who had to rush his pass and ended up throwing too far for Jennings. The 49ers settled for a 27-yard Jake Moody field goal and a 3-point lead. And that set the stage for what Purdy and the 49ers feared: A vintage Mahomes drive that went 13 plays, included a 19-yard Mahomes scramble and ended with a game-winning toss to a wide-open Mecole Hardman.

The score and resulting 25-22 victory left Mahomes with the MVP award and the 49ers exhausted, devastated and, for the second time in four years, ruing what could have been in a Super Bowl versus the Chiefs.

“When you have a good offense like the Chiefs do and what Mahomes can do, for us, it’s like, ‘All right we have to score touchdowns,’” Purdy said. “And we had opportunities to do so, I think. Shot ourselves in the foot just with penalties and the operations and stuff.”

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San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions.

Those are your top five Super Bowl favorites for next season, according to the latest odds from BetMGM.

San Francisco, despite Sunday's loss, is 5-1 to win the game next year, slightly ahead of Kansas City (7-1). The 49ers were the NFC's best team in the regular season, while Kansas City lost six games and entered the playoffs as the No. 3 team in the AFC.

Full odds:

• 49ers: 5-1
• Chiefs: 7-1
• Ravens: 17-2
• Bills: 12-1
• Lions: 12-1
• Bengals: 14-1
• Cowboys: 16-1
• Eagles: 16-1
• Dolphins: 20-1
• Packers: 25-1
• Texans: 25-1
• Chargers: 25-1
• Jaguars: 30-1
• Rams: 30-1
• Jets: 30-1
• Vikings: 40-1
• Falcons: 50-1
• Bears: 50-1
• Browns: 50-1
• Colts: 50-1
• Cardinals: 80-1
• Raiders: 80-1
• Saints: 80-1
• Seahawks: 80-1
• Buccaneers: 80-1
• Broncos: 100-1
• Steelers: 100-1
• Giants: 150-1
• Titans: 150-1
• Commanders: 150-1
• Patriots: 200-1
• Panthers: 250-1

LAS VEGAS — This was not the time for a speech or even a few plain sentences. This was Kyle Shanahan back in another losing Super Bowl locker room, back with the players he loves and back trying to communicate a message that nobody could bear to hear and maybe he wasn’t quite ready to believe himself at the moment.

What could he say? What could anybody say after the San Francisco 49ers’ topsy-turvy, heart-wrenching 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium? That all their fans will be happy, anyway? That coming so close to a championship will be celebrated wildly and warmly? That they can just brush this off and charge ahead into next season, no big deal?

Well … no.

This was not the time for a stemwinder. Not for a team and coach that are now 0-2 in Super Bowls, both to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, and both after the 49ers held late leads — including a field-goal lead after the first drive of overtime on Sunday.

“Don’t have a lot of words for it,” Shanahan said. “But obviously our team’s hurting. But that’s how it goes when you put yourself out there. I’m real proud of our guys. No regrets with our team. Our guys played so hard today. Not everything was perfect, by no means. But I’d play with those guys any time.

“We’ll take some time, we’ll get over this. And come back next year ready to go.”

There is, of course, no real consolation for the 49ers in playing hard but losing the last game of the season. In fighting through a brutal early injury to Dre Greenlaw and two crucial special-teams blunders. In taking the best Mahomes could throw at them for more than four quarters and having every chance to win this game.

No consolation in yet another crushing loss to end a hopeful season, after the Super Bowl loss four years ago and back-to-back NFC Championship Game losses in the previous two postseasons. No consolation in having the chance to close this game with one defensive stop but letting the Chiefs go down the field for the win on a Mahomes 3-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman.

After the confetti blew into the air and the Chiefs screamed in joy, the 49ers quietly walked off the field. They sat quietly in their lockers. They were mostly quiet, except when a handful of them, by NFL rules, went to the postgame interview tent for sessions at the podium.

“I feel like it was hard for anybody to say much after this one,” Nick Bosa said. “We’ve been so close so many times that there’s only so many opportunities that we have. We have an amazing core of players who are going to be back. We’ll have to be better.”

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Fresh off winning Super Bowl LVIII, the Kansas City Chiefs’ third title in the last five years, coach Andy Reid and tight end Travis Kelce both confirmed they plan to return next season.

“I haven’t had time to think about it, but yeah,” Reid said after the 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. “I’m mad at (Bill) Belichick and Pete (Carroll) because now I get asked all of those questions.”

Belichick and the New England Patriots mutually agreed to part ways in January after 24 seasons and six championships. Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks did the same following 14 seasons and a Super Bowl win.

Earlier in the news conference, Reid explained his reasoning for wanting to be back on the sideline.

“I appreciate every day I get to do this,” he said. “I work for a great owner and ownership family, between (team president) Mark Donovan and (general manager) Brett Veach and myself, we’re lucky to be Kansas City Chiefs. And we have a good locker room and good coaches.”

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt added postgame: “I expect Andy to be back next year as we go for the three-peat.”

Reid, 65, has been a head coach for 25 years, 14 with the Philadelphia Eagles and 11 with the Chiefs.

Kelce also shot down any notion that he would step away. The 34-year-old caught nine passes for 93 yards against San Francisco, including crucial receptions late in the second half and overtime. He set the all-time record for postseason receptions last month.

“The goal is always to get three (in a row),” Kelce said. “But we couldn’t get here without getting to two and having that target on our back all year. I love these guys right here. The men that we just won this thing with? Family forever, baby. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. And how about it? We get a chance to do it three times in a row.”

LAS VEGAS — After Mecole Hardman’s three-yard touchdown grab clinched the Kansas City Chiefs’ third Super Bowl win in five seasons, it all went dark.

“I blacked out,” Hardman said on the Allegiant Stadium field an hour later. “After I caught it, I can’t remember a thing that happened next.”

What happened next: a mob of teammates rushed towards him while the elation of back-to-back world championships started to sink in. Same as the previous two, Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII required a 10-point second-half comeback, and again, Andy Reid, the Chiefs’ veteran head coach, was at his best, pulling the right strings as offensive play-caller amid a 13-play 75-yard drive in overtime that culminated with Mahomes hitting Hardman for the walk-off score.

All of the Chiefs knew what had just happened, and what it meant.

Except Hardman. For a few moments, the fifth-year receiver was in a daze of disbelief. He held the football up with his right hand. Mahomes darted towards him. A sea of red followed.

“Can I tell a quick funny story?” the quarterback said later, interrupting Hardman’s postgame interview on NFL Network. “I threw a touchdown to this dude at the end of the game, and he looked at me and he had no idea. I said, ‘Dude, we just won the Super Bowl.’ He didn’t even celebrate at the beginning.”

“I swear,” Hardman said, “the first thing I remember is Pat yelling at me, saying, ‘Bro, you a champion!’”

For Hardman, it was a surreal moment. Nothing about his past two years hinted this was coming; not after the Chiefs let him walk in free agency last spring, not after he signed with the New York Jets only to barely get on the field.

Certainly not after the biggest scare of all, a rare groin injury suffered in 2022 that Hardman later revealed kept him in the hospital for 10 days, unable to walk for five. An osteitis pubis diagnosis cost Hardman nine games last season. After returning, Hardman tore his groin during the 2022 AFC Championship Game, sidelining him from last year’s Super Bowl win over the Eagles.

“Scary as hell,” he called the ordeal.

It would pave the way for his exit from Kansas City in the spring, but that wouldn’t last long. Never able to get on the same page with the Jets’ coaches, he made all of one catch in five games. Hardman landed back in Kansas City in October after the teams agreed to swap late-round picks. The Chiefs needed receiver help. And Hardman, if nothing else, was a familiar face.

According to Reid, Hardman was succinct with the coaching staff when he returned to the Chiefs’ practice facility: “Hey, I just wanna help you guys win.” But it would take time.

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The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII — just like the president jokingly claims he planned.

President Joe Biden posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, following the conclusion of overtime: “Just like we drew it up.”

The post was a reference and contained an image from a TikTok posted earlier in the day by Biden’s campaign where he joked about rigging the Super Bowl in favor of the Chiefs.

In the clip, Biden was asked if he rigged the Super Bowl or if the Chiefs were just that good. He replied: “I’d get in trouble if I told you.” The image he tweeted following the game then flashed on the screen implying a conspiracy in favor of Kansas City.

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LAS VEGAS — Several men wearing red Kansas City Chiefs jerseys began crying.

When the seventh-longest game in NFL history concluded, center Creed Humphrey ripped his helmet off, his tears beginning to fall. Malik Herring, a three-year defensive end, fell to his knees at midfield at Allegiant Stadium, his emotions overwhelming him. Even before the Chiefs’ final drive of the season, Nick Allegretti, the backup left guard who started in place of All-Pro Joe Thuney, had tears in his eyes. Rookie Rashee Rice wept when he bear-hugged his coach, Andy Reid.

The man who didn’t cry Sunday night, who simply exhaled — over and over and over again — was the NFL’s most talented quarterback, the league’s biggest game-altering superstar, the MVP of Super Bowl LVIII: Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes was the first person to hug receiver Mecole Hardman, the teammate who caught the game-winning touchdown pass. Then Mahomes ran to the Chiefs’ sideline, tossed his helmet and fell to the turf, rolling over on his back, his hands on his head, just above his red headband.

Mahomes’ final pass, an easy 3-yard, walk-off touchdown to Hardman, who was wide open in the corner of the end zone, finished the longest season in the Chiefs’ 64-year history with an unforgettable 25-22 comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers in overtime in front of 61,629 fans in the NFL’s first Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Chiefs claimed their third Lombardi Trophy in five years.

Once Mahomes stood up and collected his thoughts, he delivered yet another declarative message for the rest of the league when asked if the Chiefs are a dynasty.

“It’s the start of one,” Mahomes said before he and his teammates hoisted their newest Lombardi Trophy. “We’re not done.”

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Super Bowl LVIII ended in dramatic fashion in overtime with the Kansas City Chiefs beating the San Francisco 49ers in overtime, but the final score was just one piece of the puzzle if you’re into Super Bowl prop bets. From the time of the national anthem, to the coin toss and the color of the Gatorade bath (which almost didn’t happen this year!), we have the results of all the major Super Bowl prop bets right here.

We had our own Super Bowl party props sheet. Here were the answers to those questions, as well as some others.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the following Super Bowl records were set in last night's game:

• Career field goals made: Harrison Butker, nine
• Longest field goal made: Butker, 57 yards
• Most 50-yard field goals made, single game: Jake Moody, two
• Highest average punting, single game: Tommy Townsend and Mitch Wishnowsky, 50.8 yards
• Most fumbles recovered, career: Patrick Mahomes, four
• Most field goals made, combined: Seven (Kansas City made four, San Francisco three)
• Fewest kickoff returns, combined: Zero