NEW ORLEANS — Hype, hype, hooray.
It’s Super Bowl week and that means we are going to analyze, dissect and debate every aspect of Super Bowl 2025 until kickoff on Sunday night.
These are two teams that are familiar sights in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs are here for the third straight year and fifth time in six years. The Eagles are here for the second time in three years and third time in the last decade. That means there is plenty of familiar ground that will be covered this week, but there are a few new faces, too (look away, Giants fans).
Here are the top 10 storylines entering the Super Bowl:
Super Saquon
Let’s get this one out of the way first because it is going to dominate locally. Giants fans may want to take a vacation to a cabin in the woods with no WiFi, TV or even electricity. Stories on Saquon Barkley are going to be tough to avoid this week.
Barkley bolted from the Giants and signed a three-year, $37.75 million contract with the rival Eagles.
Barkley led the NFL in rushing with 2,005 yards and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in the regular season. He’s added another 442 yards and five rushing touchdowns in the playoffs.
He is the biggest addition the Eagles have made since they were last in the Super Bowl and Barkley is charismatic, which means there will be plenty of cameras and microphones heading in his direction this week.
An official problem
The NFL is going to hate all the talk about the officials entering this game and whether they favor the Chiefs.
It has become a theme all season that Kansas City gets all the calls and the playoffs have only added fuel to that belief after questionable penalties on the Texans in the divisional round and then a controversial fourth-down spot on Josh Allen and the Bills in the AFC title game.
Ron Torbert will be the referee for the Super Bowl. He has not officiated a Chiefs game since the 2022 AFC Championship when they beat the Bengals.
Torbert and his crew will be under the microscope during the game and there will be plenty of discussion this week about whether the Eagles are facing the Chiefs and the officials.
Three-ring circus
It feels like some people have Chiefs fatigue and others have become numb to watching them win so much, but they are on the cusp of an historic achievement.
No NFL team has ever won three Super Bowls in a row. You have to go back to the Packers in the 1960s for the last NFL team to win three championships in a row. Kansas City has a chance to elevate their legacy in NFL history and do something no other dynastic NFL team has done during the Super Bowl era.
Howie’s heroics
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman has established himself as maybe the best in the NFL during his second act with the team.
He already brought a Super Bowl to Philadelphia. Now, he’s going for his second and his offseason is a big reason the team is here.
The signing of Barkley and linebacker Zack Baun were huge. He also extended key players like A.J. Brown and Landon Dickerson. Then in the draft he landed Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in the first two rounds, reshaping the Eagles secondary.
Travis and Taylor
The craze around Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and girlfriend Taylor Swift is not as high as it was last year but it remains.
Fox is going to show Swift plenty of times during the game and Kelce will be asked about her plenty this week. The Kelce/Swift romance has played a role in turning the Chiefs into the villains in the NFL. Many people are sick of hearing about them and seeing the shots of her in the suite.
The last time the Eagles and Chiefs played in the Super Bowl it was the Kelce Bowl with brother Jason on the Eagles. Jason is now retired but he surely will be all over TV this week.
The rematch
These two teams met two years ago in the Super Bowl and the Chiefs won 38-35 in a great, back-and-forth game. The main characters are still the same with coaches Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni still in charge and quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts back for Round 2.
Back for four
Reid has a chance to elevate his legacy to another level with a win on Sunday. This would be Reid’s fourth Lombardi Trophy. Only Chuck Noll and Bill Belichick have ever won four Super Bowls as a coach. Reid is already considered one of the best coaches of all-time. This would just cement his status further.
Hurts so good
Jalen Hurts won’t be the most talked about quarterback in this game but there will still be plenty of discussion this week.
Hurts had his breakout season in 2022 when the Eagles got here and then he took a step back in 2023 when his relationship with Sirianni seemed to sour. Hurts rebounded this year to lead the Eagles to 12 wins in 15 games during the regular season and three playoff wins.
GOAT hunting
Patrick Mahomes can enter another stratosphere with his fourth Super Bowl victory. Only Tom Brady (7) would have more. Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana both have four wins as well. The focus this week figures to be on how Mahomes did not have his best season but still found ways to win. The Chiefs have won 17 consecutive one-score games and that speaks to Mahomes’ brilliance.
Speaking of the GOAT
The Super Bowl is as much a TV show as it is a sporting event and there will be plenty of focus on Brady, who will be calling the game for Fox in his first year as a broadcaster in a season that included concerns about his Raiders minority ownership creating a conflict of interest.
