PHILADELPHIA − Eagles center Jason Kelce was hoping for a reunion with his brother, Travis, in the Super Bowl.
He was cheering openly for a matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona, after the Eagles clinched their spot with a 31-7 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
The Chiefs played afterwards in the AFC Championship game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I have a Kansas City sweatshirt that I will wear for the next three hours, and that’s it for the rest of the year,” Kelce said. “Win or lose, I am done being a Chiefs fan in three hours. I am looking forward to see who wins that one. They are two really good teams. Not trying to get my hopes up, but we’ll see who we are playing.”
Kelce got his wish as the Chiefs beat the Bengals 23-20 on a field goal with 3 seconds left.
Travis Kelce and Eagles center Jason Kelce were first-team All Pros. Travis Kelce led all tight ends with 1,338 yards receiving. Their mother, Danielle, has shown up to playoff games wearing a half Eagles-Chiefs jersey. No doubt, she’ll be torn watching her sons in the Super Bowl.
The Eagles last faced the Chiefs on Oct. 3, 2021. The Chiefs won 42-30 as Patrick Mahomes was 24-for-30 for 278 yards and 5 TDs. Jalen Hurts threw for a career-high 387 yards and 2 TDs.
There are so many intriguing storylines heading into this game, including the Kelce reunion:
Andy Reid reunites with Eagles
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is also the most successful coach in Eagles history.
Reid coached the Eagles from 1999-2012, finishing with 140 wins, including playoffs. Reid led the Eagles to five NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl.
Since taking over in Kansas City, Reid is 128-52. He won that elusive Super Bowl with the Chiefs in 2019. It’s Kansas City’s third Super Bowl under Reid, and fifth straight year that Reid led the Chiefs at least as far as the AFC Championship game.
Also a reunion for Sirianni
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni began his NFL coaching career with the Chiefs in 2009 as the quality control coach. He was promoted to wide receivers coach in 2012. But the Chiefs went 2-14 that season, and Sirianni and several other coaches were fired when Reid took over the following season. Sirianni went to the Chargers, starting off as offensive quality control coach.
And a Delaware reunion
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach was a wide receiver at the University of Delaware. The Chiefs also have former UD receiver Joe Bleymaier on staff as the wide receivers coach and former UD quarterback Matt Nagy as the quarterbacks coach.
Veach and Nagy got their start with the Eagles as coaching interns before going with Reid to Kansas City in 2013.
And top QBs
Of course, there’s also the quarterback matchup between Hurts and Mahomes.
Mahomes led the NFL with 5,250 yards passing, with 41 touchdown passes. His rating of 105.2 was second in the NFL. Hurts had 3,701 yards passing and 760 rushing. His rating of 101.5 ranked fourth.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
