NEW ORLEANS — The Kansas City Chiefs aren’t interested in distractions.
As they prepare to pursue an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title in Super Bowl LIX against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, they will have to deal with more than usual.
Super Bowl Opening Night — the media kickoff that was held Monday — almost always presents a multitude of diversions and hysteria, with celebrities, international media and jokesters alike all vying for the attention normally directed at the participating teams.
After all, this is an event at which a reporter once showed up in a wedding dress and asked both starting quarterbacks if they would marry her.
Underscoring the fun on Monday, Cleveland Browns quarterback Jameis Winston, who formerly played for the New Orleans Saints, was on hand passing out (OK, throwing) cookies to all of the players.
It might have been somewhat tame by New Orleans standards. The city, set to host its record-tying 11th Super Bowl, has a well-earned reputation for being a travel destination for those looking to give in to most any interruption or vice a person could devise.
It’s a lot of the reason New Orleans continues to win Super Bowl hosting nods.
Within that environment, at a sometimes crazy media event in an often wild city, it was perhaps more than appropriate that the theme of distractions came up repeatedly for the Chiefs on Monday.
Several players spoke about tuning out the noise and focusing on the football.
“New Orleans is great .. they do a great job of hosting,” Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton said. “We came here to do something special. At this point of the year when you have this on the line, you’ve got to stay focused.”
Teammate Trent McDuffie agreed, noting that it was already tougher this year than last, when they stayed in a hotel far away from the Las Vegas strip.
“This year, we’re right downtown,” the cornerback said. “All hours of the night you can hear bands and trumpets playing; there’s a lot of chaos right outside the building. So, we’re staying inside, chilling, kicking my feet up — that’s how I’m locking in.”
Late last week, Chiefs coach Andy Reid took it a step further, saying he probably would even boycott his favorite New Orleans restaurant this week (Emeril’s), though he had a good reason beyond the distraction angle.
“The head chef there, tremendous chef, was a huge Eagles fan,” Reid noted. “I probably won’t go there.”
The bigger concern might be the biggest elephant in the room of all. The pursuit of a third title in a row and earning a place in the history books could be called a distraction all by itself. No NFL team has ever won three Super Bowls in a row.
In fact, no major professional sports team in the United States (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, WNBA, MLS) has managed to pull off the feat of winning three championships in a row in the past 22 years.
Chiefs players and coaches have been asked about it ever since it became a possibility following their win in Super Bowl LVIII last season.
But Kansas City players know that none of that — winning a championship, let alone a third straight while making history in the process — is even possible without a focus on the task at hand: winning a singular football game against the Eagles.
Several players pointed to their veteran roster — a team that has been in high-pressure situations before — as having the culture in place to cross the finish line.
“I think our team (stays focused) really well,” offensive lineman C.J. Hanson said. “We’re all really close, sticking together at all times, and being together, it keeps it the same and keeps that formula together.”
Kansas City defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah added, “We follow along in (the veterans’) footsteps, follow their processes so that those processes can help me.”
–David Gladow, Field Level Media
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