Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the NFL-champion Kansas City Chiefs will be celebrating their recent Super Bowl LVII win with a parade along the banks of the Missouri River on Wednesday.
And if the event is anything like their last Super Bowl celebration in 2020, as many as 1 million may be in attendance in the city of roughly 500,000 residents.
That parade had more than a few frightening moments, as joyriders drove through barricades along the planned route, only to be arrested at gunpoint, and later some fans fell from a tree when the branch they were standing on snapped.
Otherwise the parade went off as planned, aside from the impromptu bathroom stop for the beer-chugging Mahomes, who ran off to one of the 700 portable toilets lining the route. Mahomes re-emerged after a few minutes and high-fived a few fans on his way back to the buses.
Some of the other highlights included actor and Kansas City native Paul Rudd riding along in a golf cart, and an exuberant Kelce thanking fans while wearing a WWE championship belt. At one point Mahomes even poured a beer into Kelce’s mouth from atop a double-decker bus as the All-Pro tight stood on the ground below, twirling underneath the cascading trickle of booze.
Fans wait before the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory celebration and parade in Kansas City
Fans snap a picture of themselves while they wait for the start of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade
The Chiefs are, of course, celebrating Sunday’s dramatic 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona – a win made possible by Mahomes’ dramatic return from an ankle injury.
It was late in the second quarter that Mahomes aggravated the high ankle sprain he suffered a month earlier. But while the reigning NFL MVP was visibly in pain as he limped into the locker room at halftime, he returned to complete 13 of 14 passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns, as Kansas City erased a 10-point deficit for its second Super Bowl win of the Andy Reid era.
Big Super Bowl comebacks have gone from rarities to frequent occurrences — thanks in large part to Mahomes and Tom Brady.
Mahomes led Kansas City to its second Super Bowl title in four seasons when the Chiefs rallied from 10 points down at the half to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on Sunday.
The first championship for Mahomes also required a second-half rally when Kansas City turned a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit into a 31-20 victory over San Francisco in the 2019 season.
Brady is the only other quarterback to engineer two double-digit comebacks in the Super Bowl, erasing a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Seattle 28-24 in Super Bowl 49 and the record rally from 28-3 down in Super Bowl 51 to beat Atlanta 34-28 in overtime.
Before the four double-digit comebacks by Brady and Mahomes in the past nine Super Bowls, no team had ever rallied from at least 10 points down in the second half to win a Super Bowl.
The only double-digit comebacks of any kind in the first 48 Super Bowls came when Doug Williams and Washington turned an early 10-0 deficit to Denver into a 42-10 win in Super Bowl 22 and when Drew Brees and New Orleans did the same to Indianapolis in a 31-17 win in Super Bowl 44.
The only double-digit comeback in the NFL’s championship game in the pre-Super Bowl era came in 1934 when the Giants rallied from 13-3 down in the third quarter to beat the Bears 30-13.
Fans are bundled up in the early morning cold during the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory celebration and parade in Kansas City
A man carries a portrait of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes through the crowd during the Chiefs’ victory celebration and parade
Kansas City Chiefs fans gather early at Union Station for the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory celebration and parade in Kansas City
No quarterback has been better at erasing big deficits than Mahomes. The Chiefs have a 14-10 record (.583) with Mahomes at quarterback after falling behind by at least 10 points. The next highest winning percentage in the Super Bowl era for a QB who faced at least 12 double-digit deficits belongs to Brady at .378 (42-69).
The Super Bowl broke many recent trends with Mahomes being responsible for ending many of them.
Mahomes followed up his second regular season MVP award by winning the Super Bowl, ending a stretch of nine straight losses by the MVP in the Super Bowl. The last MVP to win it all before Mahomes was Kurt Warner in the 1999 season.
Warner and Mahomes both pulled off the MVP double, winning both the regular season and Super Bowl awards in the same season. The only others to do that were Steve Young (1994), Emmitt Smith (1993), Joe Montana (1989), Terry Bradshaw (1978) and Bart Starr (1966). Joe Namath won the AFL Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP in the 1968 season.
Mahomes joined Brady and Montana as the only players to win multiple regular season and Super Bowl MVP awards.
Mahomes also was the first player to lead the league in yards passing and win the Super Bowl. The previous passing leaders were 0-6 in the big game.
The Chiefs also won the game after also winning the coin toss — ending an eight-game losing streak by the coin toss winner. Seattle was the last to do it in Super Bowl 48 against Denver.
Fans do the tomahawk chop during the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory celebration and parade in Kansas City
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