Oscar's Super Bowl Picks

By: Oscar Orellana '24

The Super Bowl LVIII matchup has been confirmed. The AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs will face the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers on February 11th at Allegiant Stadium. Yippee. 

Trust me, I have absolutely no issue with the Chiefs making it back to the Super Bowl for the 4th time in 5 years. The football world and even people who have never watched a game got drawn into the “Lamar Jackson please save us” narrative, but real ones KNEW what would happen. The Chiefs completely dismantled the high-powered Ravens offense, and it just reinforces the fact that you do NOT bet against Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. Lamar Jackson did not save the football world. The football world should know by now that Patrick Mahomes is the next GOAT, and until someone besides Joe Burrow steps up, the Chiefs will run the AFC for the next 10 years. 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know that world-renowned pop star Taylor Swift is dating the best tight end in the NFL, Travis Kelce. I think it is insane how angry people get when the NFL posts about her. Even when she’s shown on a broadcast people get mad. I swear, these men say that she is taking over the NFL and ruining football, like how fragile is your masculinity? She’s literally shown two or three times every broadcast, yet people complain so much about how she bombards the whole game. First of all, she probably doesn’t even want to be shown. Second of all, the NFL is a business before it’s a sports league, and they will obviously show the most famous pop star in the world for more engagement. People need to stop complaining and stop getting butthurt and rather be happy that the NFL is being exposed to a new demographic and creating more football fans all over the world. 

NOW to move onto the NFC side of things. The 49ers made the Super Bowl. Yippee. As a Los Angeles Rams fan, that was a rough NFC Championship to sit through. The Detroit Lions absolutely choked what would have been their first-ever Super Bowl appearance, but blowing a 24-7 halftime lead will absolutely prevent that from happening. A plethora of bad drops from ex-Rams receiver Josh Reynolds and shaky passes from ex-Rams quarterback Jared Goff killed the Lions down the stretch. However, those plays would have never happened if head coach Dan Campbell could just kick a field goal every once in a while. They left 6 pivotal points on the board that would have WON THEM THE GAME! It has been almost a week and I am still baffled by those play calls. It literally will never ever make sense to me why they didn’t kick. I think that Dan Campbell coaches too hard with his heart. There needs to be a balance between head and heart, and he blew two games this year from that very idea, and this one ended their season altogether. I was rooting for Detroit to go and even WIN the Super Bowl, but this performance absolutely angered me. 

It angered me because they sucked. Yes. But it’s even worse because of WHO they choked to. I hate the San Francisco 49ers. They are the Rams’ biggest rival, and it was so painful to watch them go to the Super Bowl. I am absolutely fully convinced that if the Rams weren’t cheated by the refs in the Wild Card round against the Lions, they very much would have beaten both the Buccaneers and the 49ers to get back to the Super Bowl. However, that’s a discussion for another day. The San Francisco 49ers make my blood boil. From their obnoxious fans to their over-the-top cocky players that can’t handle a loss, they are the epitome of what an NFL franchise should not be. Their history doesn’t make me respect them. There is no player I like on their entire roster. They did not deserve to go this far. Their comebacks have not been impressive; they have only come at the choking artistry of the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions. However, a weird sense in me kind of wanted them to get to the Super Bowl once the Rams were eliminated. I want them to get there and lose. I want them to get there and have their fans live through another disappointment. I want them to get there and feel their first championship in 30 years slip through their hands and think “We were so close”. It brings me the utmost satisfaction to see them year after year get soooo close and crumble when the lights get too bright. In my opinion, if the Chiefs defense dismantled Lamar Jackson the way they did, then 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has absolutely no chance. And besides, “Brock Purdy please save us” does not have the same ring to it. 

That brings us to my official Super Bowl LVIII prediction. I predict that the Kansas City Chiefs will defeat the 49ers by a score of 42-27 as Patrick Mahomes wins his 3rd Super Bowl as well as his 3rd Super Bowl MVP. Brock Purdy will throw 2 interceptions, including a crucial 4th quarter pick on a drive that would have brought the game to one possession. Deebo Samuel and George Kittle will cry as the 2023-24 NFL season goes off into the sunset and the world is at peace again.