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Super Bowl 59: Top 10 storylines includes the Chiefs as villains, and Saquon the Great

frank schwab
Senior writer
·7 min read

As the AFC championship game reached its conclusion, that started the two-week window to talk about Super Bowl LIX.

The Super Bowl is the most watched and also the most dissected game of the sports calendar. A week before the teams get to New Orleans, let's take a look at the 10 storylines we'll be hearing a lot about before kickoff on Feb. 9:

There have been 58 Super Bowls to date, and no team has ever won three of them in a row. The Chiefs have a shot to be the first in NFL history to do it.

Be aware that you’ll hear no NFL team has ever won three championships in a row. That’s untrue. The Packers did it twice, in 1929-31 when there were no playoffs and record determined the champion. Green Bay did it again in 1965-67, with the latter two titles being the first two Super Bowls. But no team has won three straight Super Bowls. No team that won two straight Super Bowls even made it to the Super Bowl in the third season, which means the Chiefs have already made some history.

Barkley has been unbelievable all season. He escaped the misery that is the Giants franchise and in his first season with the Eagles, Barkley turned in one of the greatest seasons a running back has ever had. Barkley went over 2,000 yards in the regular season but sat in Week 18 with a shot to break the single-season rushing record. That looks smart now that the Eagles are in the Super Bowl.

Barkley continued his dominance in the postseason, rushing for 119 yards in the wild-card round against the Green Bay Packers, 205 yards against the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round and then setting the tone for the NFC championship game by taking his first carry 60 yards for a touchdown. Barkley needs 30 rushing yards in the Super Bowl to break Terrell Davis' record for most rushing yards in a season, including the playoffs. It has been the year of the running back renaissance, with Barkley leading the way.

Saquon Barkley had a great regular season and kept the momentum going during the postseason. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)
Saquon Barkley had a great regular season and kept the momentum going during the postseason. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)

When 130 million or so people turn a game on their televisions, the broadcast itself is a story. Especially when it includes Tom Brady, Fox's $375 million announcer. Brady is in his first season as Fox's No. 1 color commentator and reviews of his work have been mostly mixed, at best. No player appeared in more Super Bowls than Brady, who was in 10 of them. Playing quarterback was in his comfort zone though. We'll see how he deals with the pressure of being on the call for the biggest game of the year.

Fangio has spent 24 seasons as either a defensive coordinator or head coach, and is widely considered one of the greatest defensive minds in the sport. His coaching career started as a high school assistant in 1979. He has never won a Super Bowl. Fangio earned this trip to the big game. The Eagles' defense has been tremendous all season, finishing first in yards allowed and second in points allowed. Fangio will get plenty of attention for his tremendous career before the Super Bowl kicks off.

New Orleans will tie a record this year. Miami has hosted the most Super Bowls, at 11, and this will be the 11th for New Orleans. Caesars Superdome has held onto the record as the stadium that has hosted the most Super Bowls. This one will be the eighth (Miami's Super Bowls were split between Hard Rock Stadium and the Orange Bowl). The last one in New Orleans was Super Bowl XLVII in February of 2013, which is known for an exciting game won by the Baltimore Ravens over the San Francisco 49ers and also the lights going out to cause a delay of a little more than a half hour. After a New Year's Day attack, in which a pickup truck ran into a group on Bourbon Street, security will be a big story for the Super Bowl.

It’s impossible to watch Chiefs games anymore without having to hear about officiating. Much of the NFL viewing public believes officials are favoring Kansas City, and wait for the first 50/50 call to go the Chiefs’ way to unload on social media.

When you bring in an audience like the Super Bowl, it’s going to get even louder. There will be plenty of conversation over the next two weeks about officiating, and doubters bringing up “Chiefs Derangement Syndrome,” the term for those who believe that the Chiefs’ dynasty is being propped up by biased officials. That conversation isn’t going away.

Hurts was almost an MVP and a Super Bowl MVP two seasons ago. He won neither but was a budding star. He hasn't been bad by any means this season but he also hasn't been a prolific passer on a team that plays a decidedly old-school game of running the ball and relying on defense. Hurts hasn't been bad at all, but it will be strange in the quarterback-centric world of NFL analysis to realize that Hurts is far from the reason his team is back in a Super Bowl.

Brown said it best when he was seen reading a book on the sideline during a playoff game and was asked if that was due to frustration. "Why y’all always think I be frustrated?" Brown said.

Controversy always seems to follow Brown. Part of that is the intense Philadelphia market. His seemingly innocuous answer that the Eagles' passing game had to improve near the end of the regular season was a reason for days of wondering if he and Jalen Hurts were getting along. The one thing about Brown is he'll be one of the key players of Super Bowl LIX. And maybe the most likely player to be involved in a manufactured controversy the week before the game.

When teams win too much, fans start to hate them. It happened to the New England Patriots a decade ago. It's happening to the Chiefs now.

The Chiefs' only crime is they keep winning, but that has been enough to turn NFL fans against them. Their dynasty started off as a fun, feel-good story, between the likable Andy Reid finally winning a Super Bowl and a dynamic new quarterback star in Patrick Mahomes. That's long gone, replaced by feelings of jealousy and bitterness among fans of any one of the other 31 teams.

This is all you need to know: The Chiefs will turn the team from Philadelphia into the plucky underdog everyone is rooting for by Super Bowl Sunday.

Roseman, the general manager of the Eagles, is a favorite of NFL media members. To say the least. You might believe that Roseman won't take the Eagles' team flight to the Super Bowl, he'll just walk on water to New Orleans instead. But he has earned most of the praise. Roseman's drafts have produced players like defensive tackle Jalen Carter, one of the NFL's most dominant defenders. His signing of Saquon Barkley changed the trajectory of the Eagles' season. Roseman's trade for receiver A.J. Brown a few years ago was a robbery in plain sight. It's easy to respect Roseman's approach and has been much tougher for other teams to replicate it.