Follow the latest news ahead of Super Bowl LIX, which will see the Chiefs and Eagles clash in New Orleans on February 9

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Chiefs vs. Eagles at Super Bowl LIX — latest

The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are heading to Super Bowl LIX for a much-anticipated rematch.

The Chiefs are just one win away from an unprecedented ‘three-peat’ after beating the Buffalo Bills 32-29 in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game to reach Super Bowl 59.

But they will need to overcome a familiar foe, with the Eagles breaking the record for most points ever scored in a conference title game in a 55-23 victory over the Washington Commanders.

Jones: Hate ’em if you want, but Chiefs make no apologies while continuing pursuit of history

Patrick Mahomes couldn’t help himself.

A couple hours after leading the Kansas City Chiefs to an AFC championship victory over the Buffalo Bills — a triumph that clinched the team’s third consecutive trip to the Super Bowl and the fifth in the last six seasons — Mahomes pulled out his cell phone, fired up the good ol’ Twitter/X app, loaded the iconic Kermit sipping tea meme and sent out the message: “I’ll see y’all in New Orleans! #ChiefsKingdom.”

It was a slick clapback. Kermit jokes are nothing new for Mahomes, who has long been ribbed for the way his unique voice reminds many of the Muppets star. During training camp, members of the Las Vegas Raiders mocked their divisional rival with a Kermit puppet wearing a curly wig and red No. 15 jersey. Mahomes got the last laugh in the form of a regular-season sweep. Ahead of the Chiefs’ regular-season road game against the Bills in November, some fans found humor in hanging a Kermit the Frog doll in a similar wig-and-jersey getup high above a street outside Highmark Stadium (the racist overtones many saw in the image are likely the reason it stuck in Mahomes’ mind).

Buffalo won that regular season game. However, Mahomes again laughed last, in the game that really mattered. He ripped out the hearts of the Bills and their fans with one of his most dominant performances of the season, ending Buffalo’s Super Bowl hopes for the fourth time in the last five years.

Mahomes’ meme deployment represented both a good-natured rubbing of salt in the Bills’ wounds, and a wink directed at the increasing number of football fans who would love to see anyone but Mahomes and the Chiefs hoist yet another Lombardi Trophy.

The Chiefs have officially taken over as football’s Evil Empire. They replaced the New England Patriots, who under the direction of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady dominated the NFL for the better part of two decades. The Patriots won six Super Bowls while appearing in nine from 2002-19. One season after losing to those same Patriots in the 2018 AFC Championship, Mahomes and the Chiefs won their first Super Bowl. Three years later, they won another, and then another, the first back-to-back champs since New England (in 2004 and ’05). And now they’re back in the Super Bowl again, going for an unprecedented three-peat.

It’s remarkable that dating back to Super Bowl XXXVI, played in February 2002, 14 of the last 24 Super Bowls have featured either the Patriots or the Chiefs, with New England winning six out of their nine appearances and the Chiefs winning three of four (with the outcome of the fifth to be determined). The dominance, however, has caused the Chiefs to — in the eyes of some fans — morph from fresh-faced underdogs into reviled power players whose prospect of continued success provokes feelings of nausea.

Is it logical? No.

Surprising? Not entirely.

But there is a mindbending aspect to the speed at which some fans have turned on the Chiefs.

Hate ’em if you want, but Chiefs make no apologies while continuing pursuit of history

No team advances to its Conference Championship Game by accident. They get there through a combination of players, coaches, scheme and the way they were built.

So what lessons can we learn from the Chiefs, Eagles, Bills and Commanders—and the Lions, let’s be real—this season that we can apply to finding winners in future years? Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and old friend Nate Tice dig into that question on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

It might have been easy for some people to predict the Chiefs and Eagles being the last two teams standing for the 2024 season. But that doesn’t mean their paths were easy. Dianna Russini and Chase Daniel pull out some old clips and tell you how both team’s overcame obstacles to return to the big dance. Plus what’s next for the Washington Commanders and Buffalo Bills?

Then they get into what they’re hearing about the flurry of hiring activity that closed out last week, from the drama around Jacksonville poaching their new coach from Tampa Bay to Pete Carroll getting a chance at a comeback in Las Vegas to the Cowboys making a head coaching hire that Jerry Jones is already scrambling to explain.

The Athletic NFL Staff

Post Malone to headline Super Bowl LIX YouTube tailgate concert

(Getty Images)

From NFL Communications

NEW YORK — The NFL announced 9x diamond-certified Grammy Award-nominated global superstar Post Malone as the headline performer for the Super Bowl LIX YouTube Tailgate Concert, the league’s ultimate pregame party, exclusively livestreamed on YouTube. The concert is set to take place at 3 p.m. on Feb. 9 just steps away from the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, before the championship game begins. Post Malone already made an appearance on NFL broadcasting this year at the Ravens-Texans halftime show headlined by Beyonce on Christmas Day.

The Super Bowl LIX YouTube Tailgate Concert brings the energy of New Orleans’ ultimate pre-game party straight into the homes of fans, delivering all the excitement and action live from the Caesars Superdome. Now for the first time, fans can tune in to the NFL’s YouTube channel to watch a high-energy live performance.

There’s no mistaking this year’s Kansas City offense for the Tyreek Hill-featured units of old. That era of the Chiefs’ offense enjoyed the perfect storm of Hill and Travis Kelce in their primes paired with an untethered version of Patrick Mahomes. It’s more than likely the Chiefs never feel that fast and explosive on offense again.

This year’s Chiefs team is fast enough, however, and that might be all it takes. The return of Hollywood Brown in Week 16 has gone a long way in that regard, but so has the continued development of rookie Xavier Worthy.

The first-round pick had his most productive game of the year in the AFC Championship: six catches on seven targets for 85 yards and a score, plus two carries for 16 yards. Those numbers put Worthy over 100 scrimmage yards for the first time this season.

While Worthy’s “controversial” contested catch will go down as his most memorable of the game, that type of play is not where his true value lies within the offense. Worthy’s primary value is in how quick and explosive he is in tight spaces and when racing across the field. On Sunday, Worthy made Buffalo’s secondary feel big and slow.

Take his touchdown, for instance. The Chiefs put Worthy in a stack behind JuJu Smith-Schuster, tight to the left side of the formation. The stack helps shield Worthy, a smaller player, from any contact at the line of scrimmage. That’s especially useful given that the Bills are showing man coverage.

Smith-Schuster’s vertical route creates some traffic in front of Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who is responsible for Worthy on this play. Worthy gets a clean runway to snap his route off to the sideline and simply wins the foot race to the pylon. When a receiver is that explosive, sometimes all you need to create is a sliver of space in which they can work.

Worthy had a couple other clutch plays in this game, including a 23-yard gain on a shallow route late in the fourth quarter to set the Chiefs up for the go-ahead field goal. He was a necessary part of the Chiefs’ win at every point.

It would be strong to call this a “breakout performance” for Worthy, but he showed what he can be within this offense. Brown is the true one-on-one separator, Kelce is the safety valve, and Worthy is the short-area receiver whose explosive ability warrants schemed-up touches and targets.

With a quarterback like Mahomes, a receiving trio like that just might be enough.

NO. 1 IS ON ONE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ihHcq1mqxJ

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 27, 2025

National Anthem prop bets are nothing new. They usually revolve around how long the performance will take or whether the performer will forget a word or mess up the song.

You can bet on the length of Jon Batiste’s performance (over 120.5 seconds is -122, and under 120.5 seconds is +100) and whether or not he will use a piano to perform (yes is -650, and no is +420). The over has hit in six of the past 10 years, and Kelly Clarkson (in Super Bowl XLVI) is the only recent performer to hit the number right on the mark.

But you can also bet on whether or not Batiste’s performance — or the moment — is so moving that it brings a player or coach to tears.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni could not get through “The Star-Spangled Banner” in his first Super Bowl appearance against the Chiefs two years ago without shedding a tear. Maybe his prior experience and the focus on unfinished business will have him in a different headspace this time.