Super Bowl LIX: the Game, the Show, and the Experience By Jack Cranmer '25, Keva Elie '26, and Aaron Linden '28.

Above: Caesars Superdome in New Orleans lights up in the Eagles' signature Kelly green, following their Super Bowl win. Photo by Jack Cranmer '25.

The Philadelphia Eagles' National Football League domination brought a thrilling month and a half of postseason magic to Philadelphia, quickly consuming the many Eagles fans of Moorestown Friends School. Read below for MFS WordsWorth's coverage of the excitement from three distinct student-reported perspectives.

Produced by Charlotte Nesevich '25.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs faced off Sunday night in Super Bowl LIX (59). The Eagles defeated the back-to-back champs in a lopsided 40-22 victory, giving the Eagles their second Super Bowl victory in franchise history.

The Eagles came into the game as the National Football Conference’s (NFC) number two seed with a record of 14-3. The Eagles lost Super Bowl LVII (57) to the Kansas City Chiefs and were looking for revenge. This season, the Eagles had the eigth best ranked offense in the NFL, led by running back (RB) Saquon Barkley, as well as the number one ranked defense.

The Kansas City Chiefs were the American Football Conference’s (AFC) number-one seed with a record of 15-2. The Chiefs came into this game as back-to-back defending champions, looking to accomplish the first three-peat in NFL history. They were the seventeenth-ranked offense led by quarterback (QB) Patrick Mahomes and the ninth-ranked defense, yet nearly always found a way to win close games.

The Eagles’ offense is led by star RB Saquon Barkley, who rushed for over 2000 yards during the regular season and was third in MVP voting. Barkley led this Eagles team to the Super Bowl with two 100+ yard performances and one 200+ yard performance in the playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl, and played a huge role in the game, despite not having his best game rushing-wise, posting 57 rushing yards on 25 rushes.

Josh Carroll ’25, an avid Eagles fan, felt that Barkley had a huge impact on the game, despite being slowed down.

Carroll stated, “He was our main weapon all season, and, the Chiefs, they knew that so they stopped him, but we have Jalen Hurts. He was throwing it around and beating them in the passing game.”

Jalen Hurts put up a very solid statline, throwing for 221 yards with a highly efficient completion percentage of 77.3%, 2 passing touchdowns, and a rushing touchdown.

MS/US Religion/History Teacher Dan Zemaitis also felt that Jalen Hurts did a great job passing the ball, with the run being mitigated.

Zemaitis shared, “Jalen Hurts did a great job at recognizing the defensive lineup and adjusting plays on the fly. He also was a lot more decisive in choosing when he should run and when he should pass, more so than I think he’s been all season, and that really opened up the offense to not being a one dimensional run team.”

Many people were concerned about the Eagles’ passing offense, ranking twenty-ninth in the regular season, but Jalen Hurts was able to step up when he needed to. Defensively, the Eagles held the Chiefs to zero points and merely 40 total yards in the first half of the game. The Eagles' defense also had six sacks and forced three turnovers. The Eagles pressured Mahomes 16 times on his 42 dropbacks, while only playing with four defensive lineman.

Jude Sansevero ’25 talked about the Eagles defensive success and constant pressure on quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Sansevero noted, “We didn't blitz once the entire game. We rushed forward and got constant pressure. I think it speaks to our talent up front and in the coaching box; our secondary played really well. We made Mahomes panic.”

The Chiefs struggled this game, both offensively and defensively. They had many missed cues on offense, such as poor timing on both routes and throws as well as multiple dropped passes. The Chiefs defense couldn’t stop the passing game, and their pass rush was not very strong, as they were unable to pressure Jalen Hurts often.

Freshman Jack Anaya ’28 explained what drove the Chiefs' struggle to stop Jalen Hurts and the rest of the Eagles offense.

He said, “As soon as the Chiefs defense started to blitz, Jalen Hurts scrambled and got into their secondary.”

Additionally, Anaya expressed his reasoning for why the Chiefs struggled offensively, adding, “Their offensive line did not play great, which caused Patrick Mahomes to make those kinds of mistakes. There were a lot of miscues between Mahomes and [Travis] Kelce [Chiefs Tight End].”

Eagles quarterback, Jalen Hurts, won the Super Bowl MVP award. Hurts joins former Eagles quarterback Nick Foles as the only Eagles to win Super Bowl MVP.

To my excitement, during this year’s Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar performed as the Halftime Show headliner, putting on a shocking and unconventional performance.

Lamar is known for his intense lyrics that typically intend to call out the flaws in modern-day society. This year, he continued that trend by delivering an America-inspired performance using flags, flag colors, and songs that nodded to American ideals. For example, one song that was performed was “DNA,” a song that I love and is well known for sampling an interview in which a Senior Correspondent for Fox News argued that “hip-hop has done more damage to Black and Brown people than racism.”

The performance was unapologetically filled with Black American culture and symbolism. Lamar accomplished this by incorporating elements including an entirely Black group of dancers posing in the formation of the American flag, suggesting that America was built off of the work of Black Americans.

A very controversial part of the show was Lamar’s reference to his feud with rapper Drake. Most notably, he performed the diss track “Not Like Us,” which was made months ago during the height of the fights between Drake and Lamar that referenced Drake's alleged pedophilic behavior; Lamar even wore a necklace with a lowercase “A,” likely a reference to the well-known “Not Like Us” lyric “a minor.” While many view this addition as unnecessary, the song was highly lauded and recently won a Grammy, making it a quite reasonable song to add.

Additionally, tennis star Serena Williams was shown doing the Crip Walk during “Not Like Us.” The Crip Walk is a dance created by a Black member of the Los Angeles Crip street gang, originating in Compton, California, Lamar’s and Williams’s hometown. Williams also has a known history with the dance, having gotten into some trouble in 2012 after doing it at Wimbledon following her championship win there. She also previously dated Drake, who has made several negative references to her in his more recent songs, which is likely why she decided to come out during this specific song alongside Lamar.

However, what I found most interesting was that towards the end of the performance, a cast member pulled out a Palestinian and Sudanese flag that displayed the names of each respective country on it. This act of protest was censored, and the protester was quickly removed from the stage. While it was not Lamar's decision to remove the protestor, I find the protestor’s detainment to be completely antithetical to the point of the performance, which is to go against mainstream viewpoints.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson made a guest appearance during the show playing Uncle Sam, a popular characterization of the United States and its ideals. Throughout the show, Jackson interrupted Lamar to shame him for the “ghetto,” “loud,” and anti-American nature of the performance as part of the show’s larger narrative describing Lamar’s playing of the “great American game.” In other words, the show offered commentary on how artists like Lamar choose to, or choose not to, comply with societal expectations in the view of the public eye.

Lamar references this “great American game” by setting up the stage like a PlayStation controller with platforms shaped like triangles, squares, circles, and x’s. Additionally, the lights in the audience frequently lit up to spell phrases such as “Start Here,” “Warning Wrong Way,” and “Game Over.” These are all phrases that are typically seen in video games and the warning phrase could be interpreted as a warning to the American people about choosing Donald Trump as president.

A fun addition to the performance was an appearance from SZA who performed “All the Stars” and “luther” with Lamar. In response to these slow-paced songs with less rap in them, Uncle Sam reappeared saying, “That’s what America wants.”

I found the show to be cleverly aligned with Lamar’s goals as an artist to push boundaries and defy the expectations that are typically put on Black Americans. I also think that this message is particularly important within our current political climate in which Black Americans have been consistently subjugated to anti-Black rhetoric due to the results of the recent election.

Growing up as a die-hard Philly sports fan is no easy task. From watching brutal playoff losses, to bad injury luck, to huge collapses, I’ve just about seen it all. But, it's those losses that make the wins and championships that much more special.

My mom and I were lucky enough to secure tickets to Super Bowl LIX through a family friend with NFL connections. I was so excited for the game and spent the entire two week period between games trying to wrap my head around the fact that I would be attending the biggest and most watched sporting event in the United States: the Super Bowl.

We flew down to New Orleans, Louisiana on Friday afternoon on a flight full of Eagles fans. The passengers (like most Eagles fans) were rowdy and made sure there were plenty of E-A-G-L-E-S chants throughout the flight. From the energy alone, anyone could tell there was something exciting brewing for Super Bowl Sunday.

We spent most of Friday afternoon and Saturday walking around New Orleans. It was incredibly crowded and felt very tourist-like, which is not uncommon for the city. Yet, you couldn’t go more than two minutes without hearing someone say, “Go Birds!” There is no other way to describe the scene of the weekend; Eagles fans had taken over New Orleans.

Super Bowl Sunday kicked off to an exciting start as we walked over to the Eagles team hotel to watch them board the buses heading to the stadium. It was incredible to see and be a part of the large crowd of Eagles fans who had gathered to send the team off. There was a level of excitement there watching the players that I’d never felt before while watching professional sports.

Shortly thereafter, all the fans gathered at the hotel walked together through the streets of New Orleans towards the Caesars Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints and Super Bowl LIX. Walking to the stadium felt similar to a parade, as every single street was blocked off in the downtown area. Entering the stadium, the security checkpoints were harsher and lengthier than usual due to the heightened security concerns, especially considering that prominent figures such as US President Donald J. Trump were in attendance for the game.

New Orleans is the perfect host city for the Super Bowl; it can handle big crowds, it’s very walkable, and is already prone to tourism. However, I found the Caesars Superdome to be a disappointment. The stadium is accessible via foot and public transportation. Such modes of transportation are only good for games like the Super Bowl, and are obviously not ideal for normal regular season games. Because of the parking issues, there was limited tailgating, which is a traditional part of any football game.

As soon as I entered the stadium, it was obvious that the crowd was mostly Eagles fans; my best guess of the fan ratio was a 75/25 split between Eagles fans and Chiefs fans, making it feel like a home game. The Eagles fans were loud and made their presence known, which impacted the game. The Kansas City Chiefs ran out of their tunnel first and were mostly greeted with loud boos from Eagles fans that drowned out the cheering from Chiefs fans. The Eagles were led out by Bradley Cooper, a lifelong Eagles fan, and were greeted with loud cheers and applause. This set the tone for the game.

Halfway through the second quarter with the Eagles up 10-0, a Patrick Mahomes pass that Eagles rookie cornerback Cooper Dejean picked off and returned for a touchdown filled the stadium with energy. The stadium was so loud with Eagles fans going crazy in the stands. That was the moment that it really occurred to me just how close the Eagles were to winning their second ever Super Bowl. After another touchdown with just under two minutes left in the first half, the Eagles went into halftime up 24-0, a scoreline nobody outside of the Eagles organization expected. Yet, the Eagles knew that three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes was still on the other sideline, and that the game was far from over.

But just like they had all season, the Eagles came out of halftime firing back, and found themselves up 34-0. Yes, you read that right. The Philadelphia Eagles, underdogs, led the back-to-back Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, by 34 points in the Super Bowl. Eagles fans in attendance knew we were watching something special happen: a team that has overcome so much adversity over the last few seasons, playing their most complete game in franchise history. We knew that the Vince Lombardi Trophy would be coming back to Philadelphia, and that there would be a parade down Broad Street when it did. The rest of the fourth quarter was a blur as Eagles fans waited for the clock to strike zero and for their team to officially become Super Bowl Champions.

Following the game, we went down to the section next to the Eagles tunnel and cheered them on as they jogged off the field. Big shout out to Mama Ringo, Kelee Ringo’s mom, for hooking up all of the fans who stayed after the game ended with a bunch of confetti to take home as a souvenir from the win. As the players walked off the field with their families, the 100 or so Eagles fans still remaining broke out into many E-A-G-L-E-S chants. And of course, the night was not complete without a “Dallas Sucks!” chant.

This Super Bowl win is a testament to the incredible coaching by Nick Sirianni and free agency by GM Howie Roseman. Roseman made critical signings like linebacker Zack Baun, safety CJ Gardner-Johnson, right guard Mekhi Becton, and, of course, running back Saquon Barkley. But above all of that, it was the players who delivered on the field who are fully responsible for the end result: a Super Bowl win.

I think it is only fitting to end this personal narrative with a quote from NBC Sports commentator, Mike Tirico, after the Eagles’ 37-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams in week 12 of the season. Tirico was talking about the signing of Saquon Barkley, and the success that the Eagles were having. Not only did it represent the Philadelphia Eagles back in week 12, but it even more so represents them now, as Super Bowl Champions:

“What a game, what a team, what a season.”