The Kansas City Chiefs experienced heartbreak for the first time in three years after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles, 40-22, in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday.
As the score would suggest, the Chiefs were utterly dominated by the Eagles in nearly every aspect of the game, eliciting an unfamiliar feeling for head coach Andy Reid who reigns as the winningest head coach in both Kansas City’s and Philadelphia’s franchise history.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who threw two costly interceptions in one of the worst games of his career Sunday night, was brutally honest about coming up empty-handed this postseason. Reid, too, didn’t mince words after the blowout defeat and reportedly shared a blunt message to his players.
“This one’s going to hurt,” he said. “Let it hurt. Figure out how to get better because of it.”
The 66-year-old coach also denied that the Chiefs lost due to external pressure to complete the elusive three-peat—which in actuality may have motivated the Eagles more.
Reid, who’s spent 26 years and counting as an NFL head coach and has amassed 420 career wins to 273 losses, saw his former team ruthlessly demolish the Chiefs’ hopes for a third straight Super Bowl, so it’s safe to say Sunday’s defeat was as painful for Reid as much as anybody else.
“They all hurt,” Reid said in a postgame presser. “You get this far, you battled your tail off to get this far. Very, very hard to do. And you know, we spend a lot of time doing this. It’s not a hobby, right? We’re in it the whole way and spend a lot of hours doing it as players, as coaches. So, it’s going to hurt.
“They all hurt when you get to this level and these things happen. Three-peat aside or any of that stuff. You get this far and you don’t play as well as you want to, it hurts.”
This time experiencing the other, bitter side of history, Reid will look to get the Chiefs back to the big game next season with no intention of retiring anytime soon.
