MAHOMES, KELCE SAY THEY’LL BE BACK
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce promised thousands of fans celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl championship Wednesday that the team will be back for more.
During a boisterous victory rally at downtown’s Union Station after a parade, Mahomes and Kelce joked about “experts” who predicted the just-concluded NFL season would be a rebuilding year for the Chiefs, who defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on Sunday.
“We’re back again, we’re back again,” Mahomes, the NFL’s regular season and Super Bowl MVP, told thousands of cheering fans clad in the Chiefs’ red and gold team colors.
“When we started this season the AFC West said we were rebuilding,” Mahomes said. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what rebuilding means. In our rebuilding year, we’re world champs, we’re world champs.”
Kelce noted that some “haters” predicted the Chiefs wouldn’t even make the playoffs.
“In all reality, this was the best season of my life,” Kelce said. “I owe it to (the fans), I owe it to the guys on this stage, I owe it to everybody in Chiefs Kingdom and the organization we’ve been able to create.”
Celebrating his second Super Bowl win with the Chiefs, coach Andy Reid told the crowd that “there’s no place you’d rather be, and no greater place to be than right here, baby. Not very often are you able to say you’re the greatest team in the world, you have the greatest players in the world, have the greatest organization in the world and, most of all, the greatest fans in the world.”
Soccer
Karim Adeyemi sprinted
the length of the field to score the only goal as Borussia Dortmund beat visiting Chelsea 1-0 to leave its bigspending opponent’s Champions League campaign in jeopardy after the first leg of their last-16 meeting.
Chelsea created — and missed — many of the best chances before a lightning counterattack broke the deadlock for Dortmund.
• Joao Mario scored from the penalty spot and substitute David Neres added a second goal with two minutes left as Benfica took a step toward the Champions League quarterfinals with a 2-0 victory over host Club Brugge in the first leg of their last 16 tie.
Olympics
Sweden emerging as the front-runner in a troubled search for a 2030 Olympics host is as much a surprise in Stockholm as elsewhere.
The picture changed when Swedish officials met last month in Switzerland with International Olympic Committee leaders who faced uncertainty and time running out to find a 2030 host.
“We had a meeting in Lausanne in mid-January after the holidays,” Swedish Olympic official Hans von Uthmann told The Associated Press. “On our journey back we realized, ‘Hey, there really is an opening.’ ”
Winter sports
American skiing standout Mikaela Shiffrin had an unexpected split with her longtime coach, Mike Day, during the middle of the world championships after informing him that she planned to take a new direction with her staff at the end of the season.
“Mikaela wants to do something different going forward. She wants a new challenge. And she informed Mike and Mike decided to go home,” U.S. Alpine director Patrick Riml said. “It’s a shock for me that he took off.”
• U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced that Minnesota will host a World Cup cross country ski event next February, giving the Americans a rare home-course advantage. This will mark the first World Cup event the U.S. has hosted in the sport since 2001.
Also
West Virginia lawmakers have given final passage to a bill that will set aside a day each year to remember the worst sports disaster in U.S. history. Seventy-five people were killed in a plane crash carrying Marshall University’s football team back from a game on Nov. 14, 1970.
• A Texas prosecutor will dismiss a felony domestic violence case against former Texas basketball coach Chris Beard, in part because of the alleged victim’s wishes not to prosecute.
• USA Hockey has given Executive Director Pat Kelleher a multiyear contract extension.
• The Nevada Athletic Commission is scheduled to discuss potential rules changes for UFC-backed slap fighting competitions during its monthly meeting.
• Gage Alexander made 29 saves, Rocco Grimaldi scored two goals and Glenn Gawdin had a goal and an assist as the host Gulls (1535-0-0) defeated Tucson (2125-4-0) 5-1 late Tuesday.