Seven years after Doug Pederson and Nick Foles delivered Philadelphia its first Super Bowl title, Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts did it again with a 40-22 win over Kansas City in Super Bowl 59.
Winning multiple titles in that short a time period is far from rare in the NFL, with the league often dominated by transcendent coach-quarterback combinations.
Doing so with different people in those key positions is extremely unusual. Only two other teams have won multiple Super Bowls in a span of eight seasons with a different coach and different quarterback in both wins.
The Raiders broke through with their first title in the 1976 season when coach John Madden and quarterback Ken Stabler led Oakland to a 13-1 record and a Super Bowl win over Minnesota. They did it again four years later when Tom Flores and Jim Plunkett led the Raiders past the Eagles in Super Bowl 15.
The 49ers did it as well as their dynasty extended long past Bill Walsh’s retirement. Walsh and Joe Montana collaborated on three championships from the 1981-88 seasons before Walsh stepped down. George Seifert then won the Super Bowl in his first season in 1989 with Montana and again in 1994 with Steve Young at quarterback.
The Raiders had 11 players appear in both Super Bowl wins, while the 49ers had six, including Hall of Famer Jerry Rice and four other players who started on offense in both Super Bowl 23 and 29.
The Eagles had a bigger roster turnover, with only right tackle Lane Johnson, defensive end Brandon Graham, kicker Jake Elliott and long snapper Jake Lovato appearing in both wins.
The main constant between Philadelphia’s two titles was general manager Howie Roseman, who has now built two championship teams.
Back to school
The Super Bowl featured firsts for college football powerhouses Alabama and Texas.
Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith’s 46-yard touchdown catch were the first points scored in the Super Bowl by a player who finished his college career at Alabama. NFL scoring rules give credit for points to the player who catches a touchdown — not who throws it — so Bart Starr and Stabler’s TD passes didn’t count.
Players who finished their college careers at 144 other schools had scored in the Super Bowl before 12-time AP college football champion Alabama cracked the list.
The win also put Smith in an exclusive club of players with a Heisman Trophy and championships in college and the NFL. Only four other players have done that: Tony Dorsett, Marcus Allen, Charles Woodson and Reggie Bush.
Texas previously had two kickers score in a Super Bowl, with Justin Tucker getting 10 points in Super Bowl 47 for Baltimore and Raul Allegre getting seven for the Giants in Super Bowl 21.
But Xavier Worthy’s two TD catches in the second half for Kansas City were the first touchdowns scored by a player who finished college at Texas, the fifth-winningest program in college football history.
One other college got on the Super Bowl scoreboard for the first time, with Justin Watson’s 2-point conversion catch the first points scored by a player from Penn. It marked just the second time a player from the Ivy League scored in the Super Bowl, with Harvard grad Kyle Juszczyk catching a TD pass for the 49ers in Super Bowl 54.
Payback
Hurts drew even with Mahomes in head-to-head Super Bowl matchups.
This game was the fourth rematch between quarterbacks in a Super Bowl, with Mahomes and the Chiefs having won in Super Bowl 57. Hurts is the only one to get revenge, with the other three all ending in sweeps: Eli Manning over Tom Brady, Troy Aikman over Jim Kelly and Terry Bradshaw over Roger Staubach.
Hurts also became the fourth player who lost his first Super Bowl as a starting QB to go on to win one as a starter, joining Hall of Famers Len Dawson, Bob Griese and John Elway.
Grounded
In what was billed as the season of the running back, it was the quarterbacks who led both teams in rushing.
Hurts ran for 72 yards to lead all ball carriers in the game and break his own record of 70 for most ever by a quarterback. The only other quarterback who led the Super Bowl in yards rushing was San Francisco’s Steve Young with 49 yards in Super Bowl 29 against San Diego.
Mahomes led the Chiefs with 25 yards rushing, marking the first time that the leading rusher for both teams was a quarterback.
Kansas City got only 24 yards rushing from its running backs for the fourth-lowest total ever.
Even Eagles star Saquon Barkley struggled to get going, with just 57 yards on 25 carries, with his 2.28 yards per carry the worst for any player with at least 20 attempts in a Super Bowl.
That doesn’t take away from what Barkley accomplished this season, with his 2,504 yards rushing in the regular season and playoffs breaking the record of 2,476 set by Terrell Davis in 1998.
Barkley finished the postseason with 499 yards rushing, trailing only John Riggins (610 in 1982) and Davis (581 in 1997) for the most in a single postseason.
NFC Beast
Philadelphia’s second Super Bowl win made the NFC East the only division where every team has won at least two Super Bowl titles.
In fact, no other division has all four teams winning even one Super Bowl.
With the five titles by Dallas, four for the New York Giants and three for Washington, the four teams have combined for 14 Super Bowl wins — four more than any other division.
Next up on the list based on the current affiliations is the AFC West with 10 titles and the AFC East with nine. The NFC West and AFC North each have eight, followed by the NFC North (five), NFC South (three) and AFC South (two).
