Getting there on alternate pathways
This Super Bowl matchup shows two blueprints to the top
He stood in the winning locker room three years ago after a Super Bowl win in Hard Rock Stadium, dripping champagne and football wisdom, when someone asked him to look back at the decisions that won the night.
“I’m not good at looking back,’’ Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach said that night in 2020. “I’d rather look ahead.”
Now comes a Super Bowl with two teams, Kansas City and Philadelphia, that looked ahead from one ring to the next in two distinct ways. These are franchises that don’t come to rent the trophy. They want to keep it.
Their two ways of climbing the mountain didn’t involve sacrificing seasons or losing for high draft picks — strategies used not just the Miami Dolphins but also by the teams they beat Sunday: Cincinnati and San Francisco. The Chiefs and Eagles are just better, smarter.
There are other, more visible themes to this Super Bowl. Kansas City coach Andy Reid plays the Philadelphia franchise that fired him a decade ago. Donna and Ed Kelce’s boys — Philadelphia’s Jason and Kansas City’s Travis — meet in the big game.
But the larger theme is how these teams keep winning, year after year. Kansas City has been in the AFC Championship Game five consecutive years, winning three to go to the Super Bowl. Philadelphia has made five playoffs and chases its second Super Bowl title in six years.
Kansas City’s success started when a faceless scout went to watch video of Texas Tech tackle before the 2016 draft. He was mesmerized instead by the team’s sophomore quarterback. He kept watching all the tape of him out there.
“What you watching?” Reid asked the scout one day.
“The next quarterback of the Chiefs’’ said the scout, Brett Veach.
Kansas City boldly traded from 27th to 10th to take that quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, in the 2017 draft. Veach was promoted to general manager by the time of Mahome’s second Super Bowl and first ring at Hard Rock.
Last winter brought Kansas City’s next difficult decision: How to win with Mahomes off his rookie contract and on a 10-year, $450 million deal. Kansas City traded star receiver Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins rather than pay him. It downgraded to average receivers beyond tight end Travis Kelce to go with average running backs.
It has two All-Pro offensive linemen. It has the seventhranked scoring defense despite paying four rookies. It mainly has Mahomes, who lost three receivers, played on a bum ankle Sunday in the AFC Championship and was steadfast in his refusal to lose. “You saw again why he’s special and a big reason why we’re going to the Super Bowl,’’ Reid said.
That’s one way to keep going there. Philadelphia took an opposite path for its return trip. Since beating New England in the 2017 season, it has changed coaches, quarterbacks and most of the roster.
General Manager Howie Rosen was the constant. So was his philosophy: Build high-priced talent around an average quarterback on a cheap contract. He won it with Carson Wentz (and Nick Foles) in 2017. He’s back in the Super Bowl with Jalen Hurts this year.
The Dolphins scrimmaged Philadelphia last August and left saying it was the best offensive and defensive lines they’d face all year. Roseman traded for a top receiver, A.J. Brown.
He hired a coach, Nick Sirianni, who just like the previous one, Doug Pedersen, is a good coach making his name but not a risen star like Reid. The front office is the star in Philadelphia’s way.
Philadelphia shows the way to win if you can’t get a Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen or quarterback who could become one of them. It’s harder to maintain. Mahomes, at 27, assures Kansas City will be a contender year after year.
This roster architecture gets to the idea of Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh stressed inside his San Francisco organization. “You only have to worry about eight teams,’’ he’d say.
The others will beat themselves on the field or the front office, he was saying. There are only eight good enough and smart enough to win each year.
Kansas City and Philadelphia are two of those eight. They’ve done it different ways: one with an elite coach and quarterback, the other with a good coach and quarterback. The common ground is in the front office. The general manager wasn’t looking back at success, but looking ahead to the next Super Bowl.