There’s no doubt who the top two players are in this Super Bowl 59 matchup. It’s Patrick Mahomes for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Saquon Barkley for the Philadelphia Eagles. Just check the Super Bowl 59 MVP odds if you don’t believe us. Those two guys have been called every superlative in the book, but somehow, Rich Eisen has come up with a new one.
Advertisement
The legendary NFL commentator said that this clash of Mahomes and Barkley is essentially a battle between the “two Steph Currys” of the league. When it comes to Mahomes, the comparison centers on the fact that the QB has taken that “Dark Knight” path where he was once the hero but lived long enough to become the villain. Much like Curry and his Warriors in the late 2010s.
“Patrick Mahomes first up. He is the guy that chews on his invisalign and Steph chews on his mouthguard. But remember, when Mahomes started winning for the first time… and he’s as likeable as they come, and we absolutely fell in love with him… Right now, he is in the Steph Curry phase of winning too much for people who used to really like him. And now people are kind of getting tired of seeing Mahomes,” Eisen explained on The Rich Eisen Show.
Eisen is spot on in his analysis there, and the proof of that can be seen in the maps of rooting fan interest from the 2018 AFC Championship and this year’s edition. In 2018, all but seven states were cheering for the Chiefs against the dynastic New England Patriots. Fast forward six years, and all but six states were cheering for the Buffalo Bills against the now-dominant Chiefs.
While Mahomes is in the latter stages of his Steph Curry evolution, Saquon Barkley is the “new” Steph Curry. The guy who is just at the start of his “ascension” to the top of the league.
“The new Steph Curry, who’s at the beginning of his ascension, is Saquon Barkley. And Barkley, actually did [Curry’s] ‘night night’ pose on the Commanders. And when I saw that, I’m thinking to myself, ‘We’ve got another wonderfully likable player’, and we’re seeing… his beautiful family. And what’s not to like? It’s two different phases of the Curry experience,” added Eisen.
Being compared to Steph Curry is nearly always a good thing. Not only is he one of the greatest basketball players of all time, a man who literally changed how the game is played, but he’s also one of the more likable athletes we’ve got. Could Saquon Barkley evolving into a Curry-type figure change the feeling surrounding the Eagles?
Saquon Barkley has made the Eagles much more “tolerable”
Philadelphia sports fans are well-known for their surly and often aggressive behavior at games. Eagles fans once fought a Philadelphia 76ers player (who was a D.C. native) who attended a game with a Commanders jersey. They’ve pelted Santa with snowballs. That kind of behavior from fans has made the Eagles rather unlikeable to the rest of the NFL fandom, but Barkley is so likable that he could turn that tide.
“Is Saquon’s Curry-ness enough to bring people to the side of the Philadelphia Eagles when Super Bowl 59 kicks off? Because I’ll tell you what… I couldn’t be more honest when I say this to Philadelphia fans: not a lot of people like you out there. “
Because of those distasteful fans, as well as the chanting, the shouty head coach, the whole “Big Dom” fiasco, and many other reasons, Philly fans have created a siege “us-against-them” mentality that makes them beloved in the City of Brotherly Love, but not necessarily so in the rest of the country.
That is, until they go up against the Chiefs. This is a team whose immense success in recent years has resulted in a lot of fatigue from many neutral fans. Many would rather see anyone, save perhaps their own most bitter rival, other than K.C. win the Super Bowl. Barkley and QB Jalen Hurts could make the Eagles that “anyone” for a lot of football fans this February.
“I don’t know how many people are rooting for [the Eagles] this year—unless they have full-on Chiefs fatigue, and the Chiefs fatiguers are gonna start wearing green. Because Saquon is 100 percent someone to root for, so is Jalen Hurts, I might add. “
If there was any team that could challenge the Chiefs for least liked team by neutrals, it would be the Eagles. But, the Saquon Barkley factor could very well change how people look at the Birds heading into Super Bowl 59.
