On September 7, the road to Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas began with a major upset. The upstart Detroit Lions (5-1) took down the defending Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs (5-1). Most fans expected the Chiefs to easily open their season with a win against the lowly Lions. Two days before the opening kickoff, the Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce injured his knee in practice. Without their star pass catcher, the defending Champs struggled and lost a close game 21-20.
Three days later, on Sunday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys (3-2) destroyed the New York Giants (1-5), 40-0. The next day, in the same stadium, the New York Jets (3-3) star quarterback Aaron Rodgers injured his Achilles tendon during the fourth play of the season, ultimately ending his first season with his new team. In Week Two, season-ending injuries cost another team, the Cleveland Browns (3-2) star running back Nick Chubb tore his MCL.
Week 3 saw the Miami Dolphins (5-1) drop 70 points in a game, the most of any professional football team since 1966 and only three points shy of the all-time record still held by Washington. That week, the disappointment of many fans turned to surprise when Taylor Swift watched her rumored boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and the Chiefs defeat the Chicago Bears (1-5) in a home-game blowout, 41-10. The resulting Kelce-Swift media frenzy has ushered in new media attention for the NFL from non-football fans, which it has not seen for a long time.
The Minnesota Vikings (2-4), Cincinnati Bengals (3-3), the Denver Broncos (1-5), and our New York teams are some of the franchises expected to do well by pre-season forecasters. Still, they are underperforming at this point in the season. Giants fan Ellie Hill ’27 said “I feel strongly that the Giants need to do better, and I have faith that they will eventually get better.”
Other teams, like the San Francisco 49ers (5-1), Lions, Dolphins, and the Philadelphia Eagles (5-1), are out-performing pre-season expectations and are currently leading their respective divisions.
Though these teams could go to Las Vegas, only time will tell who plays for the 58th Super Bowl. Sirius XM sports radio host Brian Geltzeiler says, “The Super Bowl will be decided in the NFC. As good as the Chiefs and the Dolphins have looked, the two teams that have stood head and shoulders above everyone have been the 49ers and the Eagles, who played in last year’s NFC Championship game with the Eagles emerging victorious. With San Francisco’s dominant defense and the emergence of second-year QB Brock Purdy, if these two teams meet again to see who advances to Super Bowl 58, I think we’ll see the Niners represent the NFC.”
