Chiefs Looking at Potential Dynasty in Super Bowl 58

by Robert Ferringo - 2/9/2024

If time is a flat circle, can I sharpen the edges and use it to slit my wrists?

Four years ago, San Francisco and Kansas City squared off in Super Bowl 54, played under the shadow of a Biden-Trump presidential race.

Here we are, today, with San Francisco and Kansas City ready for a rematch in Super Bowl 58, to be played under the sick spectacle of a Biden-Trump presidential rematch.

The first 49ers-Chiefs championship was followed almost immediately by a torrent of death, disease, disinformation, denial, democratic crisis and domestic unrest. The 2021 Super Bowl ushered in an American hellscape.

So, what in Papa Legba’s name will befall our fragile civilization at the end of this year’s championship showdown?

And does anyone even care?

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Nihilism is in right now, dear readers, and the only way out is through. So on the eve of a game that may end up as the paragon of American sports spectacle in this century the only rational choice seems to be to embrace The Darkness and use it as fuel, a spiritual heroin. Eat, drink and be merry, folks, for tomorrow we die. At least.

Naturally, Las Vegas is the eye of this particular karmic storm. And why not? The Gambling Gods have proven themselves unbeatable. And they have proven their strength by becoming the only power capable of bringing the NFL and sweaty shill Roger Goodell to heel. Common decency, Renaissance ethics and legal jeopardy all failed. But after decades of disparagement, professional football has finally embraced sports gambling. And this year’s Super Bowl accommodations in Sin City are a clear sacrifice at the Altar of Odds.

Beyond that, the hope is that the Super Bowl’s grotesque spectacle of violence and late-stage capitalism can somehow serve as a cease-fire, for one day, of our national psychological and ideological warfare. Can sports still serve as a unifying force in an increasingly divided society? Or is that too lost to the ether, a quaint notion of a bygone era? If the early returns are any indication, the morons and moat people are ready to suck any sense of joy out of this as well. But can they? Or is this game, and all it represents, too strong for the even darker forces creeping around the edges of his American experiment?

Heady questions. And maybe not what you want to be faced with at 3 a.m. the morning of what may end up as the Greatest Super Bowl We’ve Ever Seen. It’s true. This game has the type of dynastic underpinnings that only come around once every other decade or so. And if you can block out the deeper societal symbols and shameless product placements you may find yourself mesmerized by a truly special matchup.

The Chiefs have already etched their names into the tree of immortality. They ensured their place in American sports folklore with last year’s improbable and undeserved Super Bowl upset. Anyone can win one championship. But for Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Co. that second ring calcified their greatness for all time.

Yet, they still have higher rungs to climb, though. After you’ve achieved ‘greatness’ you’d be a fool not to try for the top of the mountain, “The Greatest”. And while this year’s championship wouldn’t make or break the legacy of these animals it would be another link in the chain as they try to reach Patriots Peak and topple Mt. Brady.

The stakes are more desperate for the 49ers. And that’s why I give them the slight edge in this game.

Kyle Shanahan, the nepo-baby failson of star-crossed father Mike Shanahan, is running out of time. As is his aging roster. Shanahan has been on the end of some of the most soul-crushing humiliations in Super Bowl history. He was the architect of Atlanta’s epic 28-3 collapse in Super Bowl 51. Shanny was able to cower behind Dan Quinn, Matt Ryan and Tom Brady for years, eschewing blame for his own stupidity and shortcomings in that game. But once his 49ers blew a double-digit fourth quarter lead to these very Chiefs in Super Bowl 54, Shanahan’s place among the sport’s all-time big-game failures was secured.

Like Mahomes, twice gets you in the history books. Three times is something else. And a third defeat on a stage of this magnitude would be something that follows the Shanahan name forever.

If Kyle Shanahan is going down, though, he’s going down packing. This San Francisco team has been one of the best in football for more than a half-decade. This is a team of hard, angry savages with ill-intentions. The only thing that can match San Francisco’s savagery is its skill. With savants like Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Kyle Juczczyk, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle among the most talented players at their positions. And they, along with a bone-crunching defense, play football in the very manner it was intended, full of pain and fury.

The more I think about this game the more excited I get. And not just because of the grandness of the stage or because of the dizzying array of alcohol and gambling that I plan on immerse myself with. But I am excited to see how it all develops, to see what history and humanity has in store for us. And I’m curious to see how we answer The Question on Monday morning: who are we?

Who are you as an individual? Who are we as a People? Who are these superstar players and their brilliant coaches, and what will Sunday mean to their legacy? Who is The Winner? Who is The Loser? And what self-defining choices will each of us make on that fateful day, and what can that tell us about where we are headed?

Of all the questions posed by Sunday’s Super Bowl, that was always going to be the most important. And maybe enough will happen that the darkness will break, even for a minute, as the circle keeps spinning.

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Chiefs Looking at Potential Dynasty in Super Bowl 58

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