In terms of Kansas City Chiefs playoff history, consider linebacker Nick Bolton and other young-ish players like him part of the greatest, most fortunate generation. There is an entire era of Chiefs players—those drafted or signed in, say, the past five seasons—who win playoff games as easily as brushing their teeth, or driving to work on a day featuring ideal weather and open roads. Which isn’t to say that their pursuit has been easy. It only seems that way.
Consider Bolton within that calculus. In high school, even while playing for the powerhouse Lone Star Rangers in Frisco, Texas, each of his four seasons ended the same way, with another postseason defeat. In the NFL, Bolton is 11–1 in the postseason. Which isn’t to say his presence hasn’t mattered. Without him, the Chiefs aren’t 11–1 in their past four playoff runs. They haven’t won two Super Bowls in those seasons, with a three-peat possible on Sunday.
Consider Bolton’s seminal playoff moments. All will live in the franchise’s long and storied lore. Like two years ago, in the Super Bowl, against these same Eagles.
Jalen Hurts, per two Chiefs sources, had played out of his mind all afternoon against K.C. The sources say Hurts didn’t make a mistake. Well, except for one instance. It happened when the game started to escape Kansas City, after the Eagles took a 14–7 lead and had the ball midway through the second quarter. Hurts fumbled on that play—his only mistake that Sunday—and there was Bolton, scooping up the loose ball and rumbling 36 yards into the end zone to tie the game. Philadelphia soon added 10 more points before halftime, making it 24–14 at the break. Without Bolton, they’re down 24–7, a nearly insurmountable deficit.
Even then, Bolton praises all-galaxy defensive tackle Chris Jones on that play. Jones had wiggled free, gotten vertical and helped loosen Hurts’s grip on the football. That play, Bolton says, gave the Chiefs’ sideline “some life.” Kansas City triumphed, the first in what could be its historic three-peat, 38–35. Bolton made sure to keep that football. He still has it.
Bolton also remembers his high school playoff record, X–4—he can’t recall how many playoff games he won, only that he never won a state championship and finished high school football with a 43–6 record—especially in relation to his NFL mark. “Honestly, when I first came into this league, I wanted to show that I belonged, that I could play in this league, that I could compete with great players,” Bolton tells Sports Illustrated some 10 days before his latest big-game appearance.
His first playoff run, after the 2021 season, built confidence throughout the roster, Bolton says. The second built cohesion and led to that title over the Philadelphia Eagles. The third cemented a dynasty. The fourth he’s still immersed in. “It’s really crazy to think about,” Bolton says. “I hadn’t, until you said that. We live by a mantra: on to the next. I’m still trying to get the next one.”
Jones notes, in a separate interview last week with SI, that this Kansas City defense, one of the NFL’s most dominant units, took time to build and reconfigure starting around that 2021 draft when Bolton became a Chief. Many starters weren’t first-round or second-round selections. All play as if they have something to prove. “We don’t really care who gets the credit,” Jones says. “It’s about getting the job done. At the end of the year, we all have that celebration parade. We all understand we’re all part of it.”
Defensive stalwarts such as Bolton and Jones receive more credit than most. Even then, those who know Bolton’s impact best describe him as underrated nationally. “He is one of the top, most cerebral players I’ve ever coached,” says Steve Spagnuolo, longtime and lauded defensive coordinator. “A Mike linebacker needs to make the other 10 guys around him better. I’m not sure we can do the things we do without Nick.”
This is no slight to Jones. Spags wouldn’t argue with anyone who described his superstar as the single-most impactful defender in pro football, whether this season, or dating back to, roughly, 2021.
Bolton, Spagnuolo tells SI, “is our Patrick Mahomes—that’s what he means … to me.”
“He’s the piece, the key ingredient, just like Antonio Pierce when I was with the Giants in [2007]. They’re that glue that holds everything together.”
Barkley struggles with celebrating his ‘accomplishments’
Saquon Barkley is headed to the first Super Bowl of his career. This, after he compiled a season among the greatest ever for a running back in NFL history. Just don’t mistake that for any thought put toward what it might feel like to win. Barkley won’t consider any of that yet, nor has he had much time to reflect on the magical season and career resurgence he has powered through 2024 into ’25.
“You really don’t,” Barkley told SI in an interview last week. “You’re excited about [first-team] All-Pro and the Pro Bowl and all the good stuff that’s been coming along with [success]. But you really can’t enjoy it until you’re done. I’m not going to sit here and give you a coach’s cliché, like job’s not finished. I’m not saying [it like that]. But the mentality is like that.”
“Truth is, when you win the Super Bowl, you get a month to enjoy it, and you’re back at it. Or you get a month to hate yourself for [losing], then you’re right back at it. You don’t give yourself too much time to enjoy it, either way.”Barkley
Barkley spent much of this spring and summer sharpening his mindset. He’ll operate from a stronger, healthier outlook until the season truly, officially, ends. “Truth is, when you win the Super Bowl, you get a month to enjoy it, and you’re back at it. Or you get a month to hate yourself for [losing], then you’re right back at it. You don’t give yourself too much time to enjoy it, either way. But I struggle with that; struggle with celebrating my accolades or my accomplishments.”
In recent months, Barkley’s personal trainer, Ryan Flaherty, has encouraged the running back to reflect more; to reflect, in fact, as often he can find a few minutes to soak everything in. At various points this season, Barkley told SI that he found a day or part of a day to actually do some reflecting. Did that help in his push to break the all-time single-season rushing record? No one can say for sure. Didn’t hurt, as Barkley and his trainer see it.
Tell me a story: Man suffered ‘cardiac event’ during first Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl
This comes from Michael Hopkins, Battalion Chief of the Kansas City Fire Department—and, naturally, a K.C. native who still takes game days off, if possible. As part of a wide-ranging interview with SI, Hopkins told one story that typifies the bonds that have long existed between the community and its football team.
Two years ago, Super Bowl Sunday, Chiefs vs. Eagles, Part I. A local resident, watching the game at home, stepped outside to release heightening frustration at its peak. As this resident shouted to the heavens or the football Gods, he had what Hopkins describes as a “cardiac event” and went into cardiac arrest. The man’s wife noticed right away. She called 911. The game continued, as an ambulance whisked this man to the nearest hospital. On the drive, he lost consciousness. His heart stopped. He stopped breathing. But as the ambulance pulled in, sirens blaring, this man began to regain consciousness, which Hopkins describes as “not very typical.”
The man opened his eyes and grunted. While being wheeled inside, he was told by an emergency worker that the Chiefs, his Chiefs, had won.
“And he let out an expletive,” Hopkins says. “He’s going in the hospital! This guy that, you know, a few minutes ago, was not alive!”
The emergency workers were honored at a department banquet in October. Those involved received Life Saver awards. Each would surely trade theirs for … another Super Bowl championship, won this Sunday, if those football Gods cooperate once more.
Then to now: Howie Roseman’s brilliance
In the 2022 season, the Eagles’ offense was fairly prolific and for long stretches, especially when quarterback Jalen Hurts was healthy. That offense featured Hurts; running backs Miles Sanders, Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott; wideouts A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Zach Pascal, Quez Watkins; and tight end Dallas Goedert.
To illustrate how quickly things change in the NFL, this same offense, only two seasons later, features Hurts, Brown, Smith, Goedert and Gainwell. That list also highlights the brilliance of Eagles GM Howie Roseman. If you were going to ensure some folks from the 2022 list made the ’24 one, he certainly locked in the right mainstays, then built, yet again, around them.
On background: K.C.’s respect for Eagles’ defensive front
Perhaps this is obvious. But to say that the Chiefs respect the Eagles’ defensive line, their front four and their pass rush, which does feature blitzes but not at high rates, is an understatement. Anyone with eyes and cable television could see the same. Jalen Carter. Milton Williams. Nolan Smith Jr. Josh Sweat. Linebackers who can rush the passer. Cornerbacks who can do the same. The Super Bowl upcoming, then, can be winnowed from thousands of threads focusing on every aspect of one football—many that don’t matter at all—down to this specific matchup. Can Philadelphia get to Patrick Mahomes? If they don’t, they should be afraid, very much so.
Quote without context:
“We embrace who we are. We believe we play the game the right way. We believe that we play with a lot of heart and a lot of passion for the game, and then we win football games. If winning football games make you a villain, then we’re going to keep going out there and doing it.”
Context:
That was Mahomes, at Super Bowl Opening Night, an annual circus that features a lot of things but no actual journalism. Respect his willingness to answer that query. But remain wary. For one, a more accurate read on this crucible of “hatred” cast toward Kansas City is that there is “more” of that stuff than in recent seasons. Anyone, including the Chiefs, who wholesale buys into that narrative is either 1) trying too hard to be upset or 2) in need of some motivation that isn’t needed. It’s fine to think that America hates the Chiefs. It’s just not true that the majority of American football fans feel that way. Not even close.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Super Bowl LIX Newsletter: Nick Bolton ‘Is Our Patrick Mahomes’.
