Can the best quarterback beat the best team?
That is the question hovering over Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Philadelphia has the better team with an edge on both the offensive and defensive lines. It is often said games are won or lost in the trenches and that is where the Eagles have the edge.
But they are only favored by a point or two because the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes, who is appearing in his third Super Bowl in the last four years although he is still recovering from an high ankle sprain.
The Eagles also have a good quarterback in Jalen Hurts, who is in his third season and first Super Bowl but he is not yet in Mahomes class.
One thing they have in common is that they are both black quarterbacks and it is the first time both starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl are black. That says more about how long it took for the NFL to play black quarterbacks than it does about them.
Another popular storyline is that Andy Reid will be coaching against the team that fired him after the 2012 season. He made one Super Bowl in Philadelphia and lost it. He is 1-1 in Super Bowls with the Chiefs.
The two sides seem evenly matched. Both are 16-3. Both scored 546 points. Both have six all pro players and both were top seeds.
But that doesn’t mean it will be a close game. Only four games have had spreads of three points or less since 2002 when the league went to 32 teams and three were decided by 10 points of more.
The Eagles won the Super Bowl after the 2017 season and the Chiefs won after the 2019 season so the winner will get its second victory in either the last five or three years.
So next year the Eagles will be going for their third win in last six years or the Chiefs will be going for their third in the win in the last four years.
The league is looking for the next dominant team to replace the Patriots. The winner of this game will have a shot at that legacy.