The Kansas City Chiefs broke a near-decade “coin toss curse” with their 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night.
It was reported over the weekend ahead of the big game that the Chiefs were already dealing with three other curses — the MVP curse, the Drake curse and the Rocky Balboa curse.
While Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes recently won the regular season MVP award for the second time in his career, that had been a bad omen in the past for Super Bowl signal-callers. The last nine regular-season MVPs to reach the Super Bowl had lost prior to Mahomes, as the most recent MVP to come out on top was Kurt Warner in 2000.
Meanwhile, Drake announced recently on Instagram that he was betting heavily on the Chiefs to capture the Lombardi Trophy, with various wagers totaling $965,000. Having the rapper and singer bet on your favorite sports team hasn’t been good news in the past, as Philadelphia 76ers fans well know.
Despite warning from Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, at least one Chiefs fan was bold enough to ignore the Rocky Balboa curse, throwing some of the team’s apparel on the iconic statue ahead of the game. The San Francisco 49ers became the latest in a long list of teams to fall to the curse after the NFC Championship Game.
Not only did Mahomes break the MVP curse, but a lengthy streak of NFL passing leaders to appear in that season’s Super Bowl and then lose.
With all of the curses stacked against Kansas City on Sunday, it took some brilliant coaching from Andy Reid, a timely penalty in the waning moments and a heroic effort from Mahomes to overcome them. Having some good juju — as in wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (team-high seven receptions) — probably helped as well.
