The big game that’s taken 26 weeks to reach, starting on August 11, 2022, spanning to  the Super Bowl’s set date of February 12, 2023, is finally almost here. The game will be played in State Farm Stadium, Arizona, the home of the Cardinals. The stadium will welcome two foreign teams to battle one another in just under two days: The Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. The two teams have come out on top of their respective conferences, proving to the NFL that they are the most dominant and showing why they were both the number one seed in the playoffs for their respective conferences. 

 The Eagles are coming off their win over Brock Purdy and the 49ers with a score of 31-7 after a slew of injuries at QB. Philadelphia and their fans booked their ticket to the Grand Canyon State on January 29th, in what was a three-hour contest spanning to the start of the Chiefs game later that evening.

On the other side of the NFL, in Kansas City. The Chiefs played a nail-biter of a game full of penalties and mixed emotions from fans against the Bengals and Joe Burrow. Burrow was previously undefeated touting a 3-0 record against Mahomes and the Chiefs in his career, and is the best by any QB in the NFL. That streak ended on a game-winning field goal by the Chiefs and a failed attempt at laterals by the Bengals hoping for a miracle. The Chiefs won by three with a score of 23-20. Coincidently, all three of the Bengal’s previous wins over the Chiefs had been by three. 

Mahomes has been dealing with a high ankle sprain since his game last week against the Jaguars in the AFC Divisional round and is expected to play even given the fact that the recovery time is 4-6 weeks. Mahomes is only to get about half of that. Jalen Hurts, meanwhile, is set to make his first Super Bowl appearance of his career with the Eagles, the team which drafted him. The Eagles appear as the expected favorites in the contest; AJ Brown, his best friend, is slated to make his first appearance in this year’s Super Bowl with the Eagles, a team he was just recently traded to from the Tennessee Titans. Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Chiefs, is now being asked to play against not only the Eagles but his family; Kelce’s brother, Jason Kelce is the starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles. The pairs’ mother will be in attendance, and NFL fans around the league have been advocating for her to do the opening coin toss. In other exciting news, the winner of the Super Bowl will finish the season with more wins (two) than the Arizona Cardinals who went 1-8 at home this season. 

The Super Bowl is one of the only nights during the year where people look forward to the commercials as much as the game, and is arguably one of the biggest sporting events on the planet based on viewership, expectations, and overall excitement is almost here.

Senior Justin Vincent is a staff writer for the 2022-2023 Colonel Newsmagazine. He enjoys watching football, playing soccer, movies, and dogs.