The 2023 Super Bowl was decided this past weekend, as the Philadelphia Eagles triumphed emphatically over the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs squeaked out a controversial win over the rival Cincinnati Bengals.
The Super Bowl now pits two of the best teams in the league against one another, with strong quarterbacks in Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes leading their juggernaut teams in the annual contest.
The game will also feature a first for its kind: A mother of two will be having her sons square off on opposite sides of the field in the Super Bowl for the first time ever.
Donna Kelce is the proud mama whose sons Travis and Jason play for the Chiefs and Eagles, respectively. Travis is the renowned All-Pro tight end who ropes in throws from Mahomes whereas Jason is an All-Pro center snapping to Hurts.
At Super Bowl LVII, Donna Kelce will officially become the first mother to have two sons play against each other in the Super Bowl. pic.twitter.com/4GSSeykGQD
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) January 30, 2023
“It’s your hopes and dreams coming true, but it’s your worst fears,” Mother Donna said during a recent interview. “Somebody is going to go home a loser, and neither one of them lose very well.”
The only way this story could possibly get better is if the sons lined up opposite sides of the pigskin, but unfortunately that sort of matchup will have to wait for a future game. Both of Donna’s sons play offense.
Proud parents! Ed and Donna Kelce’s sons will play on NFL Championship weekend on different teams in different cities. So, where will the Kelce’s be? @dkelce1 @tkelce @JasonKelce pic.twitter.com/DT61ocVlbZ
— P.J. ZIEGLER (@PJFOX8) January 24, 2023
The first-of-its-kind matchup is special to the family, though plenty of NFL fans have gripes with how it came to be. In a 20-20 tie game in the 4th quarter, the Kansas City Chiefs got an extra play on a controversial whistle from a distant ref.
Breitbart wrote about that incident:
Though every NFL game will offer a botched call or two from officials, the referees on Sunday offered several head-scratching moments especially toward the end as the Cincinnati Bengals picked up the pace to tie the game. In one particular incident, the referees went as far as to give the Kansas City Chiefs a full extra play after the Bengals stopped them on third down after an official allegedly tried to break up the play before the snap. Since no team appeared to hear the whistle, the play went as scheduled and the Bengals forced a fourth down; the referees gave the Chiefs an extra play anyway.
Take a look as announcers broke down the play.
This play was blown dead by the refs and the Chiefs got another play out of itpic.twitter.com/m0oS4rjxi1
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) January 30, 2023
And that was far from the only curious referee involvement that eventually help decide the game’s outcome. Breitbart again had the story:
The “rigged” conspiracy theories only worsened as the game unfolded, especially when the officials appeared to overlook a blatant holding violation by the Chiefs as quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran the ball for a first down, picking up an extra 15 yards due to a roughing the passer call. The Chiefs would go on to score a field goal to seal the victory in the last seconds of the game.
It is this play, or non-call, if you will, that catapulted the hashtag “NFL Rigged” to popularity on Twitter. Not only did the refs miss the holding call, but they were then able to tack on 15 extra yards for a penalty that should never have happened in the first place.
The Chiefs would go on to make a tie-breaking field go in the final seconds.
two absolute blatant holding calls missed. nfl rigged pic.twitter.com/CWGU6YhMkK
— john sund (@sundjohn) January 30, 2023
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Featured image: Screen shot from embedded Twitter.
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