The Eagles left no doubt in Super Bowl LIX: They’re the best Philly team of all time

NEW ORLEANS — There was no point, as the confetti feathered to the Superdome turf, as the Eagles and everyone who loves them let waves of euphoria wash over them Sunday night, to be anything but direct and succinct and true: What happened here was the greatest victory in the greatest season in the history of Philadelphia sports.

That is not an exaggeration, not an overstatement, not hyperbole. With their 40-22 victory in Super Bowl LIX over the Kansas City Chiefs, with a performance so dominant that only the caution and cynicism that once defined Philadelphia fandom could have caused doubt to seep into anyone’s mind from the first quarter on, the Eagles completed a remarkable five months of football.

They played 21 games and won 18 of them. They did more than avenge their loss to the Chiefs two years ago in Super Bowl LVII. They did more than get the better of their old head coach, Andy Reid, and the best quarterback in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes. They did more than prevent the Chiefs from becoming the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls. They made the Chiefs look foolish for even daring to think that a “three-peat” was possible. They made the league’s reigning dynasty look like a bad high school team.

They did all this on the biggest stage in U.S. sports — no, U.S. culture. There is one night a year when one event serves as a shared experience for the country, and the Eagles owned that night.

This setting, these stakes, the popularity and reach and resonance of professional football in modern America — they are what separate the 2024-25 Eagles from the 1973-74 Flyers, from the 1982-83 76ers, from the 1980 or 2008 Phillies, even from the 2017-18 Eagles. From Nick Foles to the Philly Special, for winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl, that team was a better story. This team is simply better. What’s more, it was better in all the ways that aligned with the still-accurate clichés about its city, all the sensibilities that Philly people want in a football team.

The Eagles were the most productive rushing team in the NFL. They had Saquon Barkley — who even without having a spectacular Super Bowl, had a spectacular season, perhaps the best of any running back ever — and an offensive line that ground opponents into sand. They had, in Jalen Hurts, a quarterback who in this postseason erased any reservations about whether the Eagles could count on him to excel when the games mattered most. All he did Sunday night was run for 72 yards and a touchdown, throw for 221 yards and two more scores, and outplay Mahomes from start to finish.

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They had, in Nick Sirianni, a head coach who wears his heart on his sleeve, on his shirt collar, on his pants, and on his socks. His players love him for it. They respect him for always being himself. Sirianni does what a 21st-century coach has to do, first and foremost, to succeed: He connects. It took him a while to get out of his own way in that regard, to not allow his emotions and insecurities to overwhelm him in the moment, but the results demonstrate that he has learned that valuable lesson.

And finally, the Eagles had the league’s best defense — a defense directed by a wise old owl in Vic Fangio, a defense so good Sunday night that it sacked Mahomes six times, held him and the Chiefs to 23 total yards and one first down in the first half, forced him to fumble once, and intercepted him twice.

The first of those interceptions was the capstone to a sequence that changed everything about the direction and expectations of this game. The Eagles led by 10 points with 8 minutes, 38 seconds left in the second quarter. It was not a comfortable lead, not at that time, because a 10-point deficit has been nothing to Mahomes throughout his career. Hell, the Eagles had led Super Bowl LVII by 10 at halftime, and Mahomes, Reid, and the Chiefs spent that second half making Jonathan Gannon’s head spin.

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Not this time. On first down, Mahomes dropped back, and Josh Sweat sacked him. On second down, Mahomes dropped back, and Jalyx Hunt sacked him. On third down, Mahomes rolled right and fired a pass toward the middle of the field — a no-no for any other quarterback, par for the course for him … usually. Except Cooper DeJean picked it off and surged forward, and as he weaved through the Chiefs for a 38-yard touchdown, the sound within the Superdome kept rising, a crescendo that reaffirmed what had been clear all week here: New Orleans was overflowing with Eagles fans, and now they knew what was coming.

Their team shared that confidence. All week here, in every media availability, in every public interaction, the Eagles’ coaches and players projected a sense of relaxed self-assurance. It was a striking thing to witness, in part because it was so obvious and so widespread. There was no excessive exuberance from DeJean, from Quinyon Mitchell, from Hunt, from the youngest players on the roster, from the guys who had never been here before. From the veterans, there was nothing but a radiating feeling of calm, as if the outcome were certain all along. We know we are better than the Chiefs. We are supposed to be here, and we are supposed to win.

“It comes down to the character of the guys you have,” tackle Lane Johnson said. “Do you have guys who care about money, or do you have guys who really love football?”

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The Eagles answered that question Sunday night, and no Philadelphia team has ever met a comparable challenge with such poise and pure force. This was no upset. This was no Cinderella story. This was no surprise to anyone who watched the 2024-25 Eagles. Call them what they are. Call them the best.