Tag: Viral

To the chagrin of basically everyone outside Philadelphia and Kansas City, the Chiefs and Eagles will face one another in Super Bowl LIX, two years after their matchup in Super Bowl LVII.

That game is famous for being the “Kelce Bowl,” the first matchup between two brothers on the field (the famous Super Bowl XLVII saw the Harbaugh brothers face each other as head coaches), but a lot more happened in that game. Whether it’s burned into your memory because of the pain of the defeat or you’ve chosen to block it out of your memory entirely, here’s a short recap of some of the iconic moments from that fateful day …

» READ MORE: Brandon Graham on if he could return in time for Super Bowl LIX: ‘I feel good, I do feel good’

Nick Sirianni cries during the anthem

This image lives on in internet lore, so I’m sure you’ve already seen it. Anthem singer and 10-time Grammy Award winner Chris Stapleton brought Sirianni to tears during his rendition of the national anthem.

Honestly, Nick, same. Stapleton rocks.

Turf issues

Before the Super Bowl, outlets like ESPN published stories praising the two years of work that went into growing and maintaining the Super Bowl field. Sorry to those groundskeepers, but it was a total failure. Players were sliding around and falling on the surface.

“I’m not going to lie: It was the worst field I’ve ever played on,” former Eagles edge rusher Haason Reddick said after the game. “… It was very disappointing. It’s the NFL. You would think it would be better so we could get some better play, but it is what it is. I don’t know. Maybe the league will look at it and tell Arizona they got to step their stuff up.”

Andy Reid and the Chiefs had called out the surface at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., after their Week 1 matchup against the Cardinals that season, but they didn’t see significant improvements.

“It was a little loose. That’s what happens sometimes when you resod,” Reid told the Associated Press. “It’s part of the [Harrison] Butker injury and the [Trent] McDuffie injury, and that’s unfortunate. The turf picked up, and I would tell you that did have something to do with it. If it didn’t, I’d tell you that, too. It’s not an excuse by any means. But you all see it when you watch the tape.”

» READ MORE: Josh Hart leaves early, Nick Sirianni gets a former player drunk, and more reactions to the Eagles’ win

Rihanna performs pregnant

Rihanna finally awakened after years of silence on the music front, and delivered a halftime show for the ages. She was always going to — her catalog is full of hits — but what really stole the show was an accidental pregnancy announcement, thanks to an outfit that didn’t fit the way she’d intended.

“Here’s the thing — I do what I have to do, right?” she told Access Hollywood in 2023. “My jumper couldn’t zip up. No one knew I was pregnant — I just told my stylist, ‘Make sure it’s stretchy.’ The zip, it just stopped right there, so it had to be what it had to be!”

The newest Kelce

Rihanna wasn’t the only one pregnant at the Super Bowl. Kylie Kelce was 38 weeks pregnant with her and Jason’s third daughter, Bennett, at the time, and brought two of her doctors with her to the game just in case of a Super Bowl Baby.

“If it happens during the Super Bowl, I’d like to think my wife would not tell me,” Jason Kelce said. “Find a way to hold off the actual delivery until after the game. She’ll have her O.B. with her. Her parents are coming along on the trip. She won’t be on her own. But I think if it happens during the game … just don’t even put that in my head, please. … If she has a baby in the stadium, it’s officially scripted.”

It didn’t ultimately end up happening. Bummer, I wonder if Bennett would have been the first ever.

The penalty

Everyone was sick after seeing James Bradberry get called for a defensive holding penalty on JuJu Smith-Schuster during Kansas City’s final drive, allowing the Chiefs to run out the clock and win the game.

Carl Cheffers, the lead referee in the game, didn’t see the call as controversial, saying that it was “a clear case of a jersey grab that caused restriction.”

“The receiver went to the inside and he was attempting to release to the outside. The defender grabbed the jersey with his right hand and restricted him from releasing to the outside. So, therefore, we called defensive holding,” Cheffers said following the game.

Many others watching the game disagreed — including Fox broadcaster Greg Olsen and NBA star LeBron James.

“I don’t know,” Olsen said during the game. “On this stage, I think you let them play. I don’t love that call.”

Postgame, Bradberry accepted the decision.

“I pulled a jersey. They called holding,” Bradberry told reporters. “I was hoping they would let it ride, but it was holding.”

Smith-Schuster took a shot at Bradberry days later, posting a card in honor of Valentine’s Day with Bradberry’s face reading, “I’ll hold you when it matters.” The Eagles jumped to Bradberry’s defense — and so did some other players, like Tyreek Hill and Micah Parsons.

Many of those tweets have since been deleted, but here’s a recap of the feud.