By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(CHIEFS)—Patrick Mahomes got his thrd Super Bowl MVP trophy Sunday night. But the most valuable player in the Chiefs win was Leo Chenal, a name seldom mentioned among all of the higher-profile names in the lineup.
Chenal, a linebacker, blocked the extra point that would have put the 49ers up by four points with 11:22 left in the fourth quarter, forcing the Chiefs to get a touchdown to win. Earlier in the game San Francisco kicker Jake Moody had kicked a Super Bowl-record 55 yard field goal. Afer the block it was was 16-13 and Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s 24-yard field goal tied the game with 5:46 left.
(Butker had broken Moody’s long field goal record near the end of the third quarter with a 57-yarder.
Moody put San Francisco on top with 1:53 remaining by becoming the first place kicker in Super bowl history to nail two field goals of 50-plus yards in the same game.
But giving the ball back to the Chiefs with two minutes left on the clock has been fatal to a lot of teams and the Chiefs did it again, tying the game with three seconds left in regulation on a 29-yarder by Butker.
But without that blocked PAT the Chiefs would have had to go for the touchdown, not settle for a field goal.
Moody’s field gial with 7:22 left in overtime again put San Francisco in the lead, 22-19. But Mahomes and the Chiefs went on their longest drive of the game when it counted—thirteen plays that lasted 7:19 before Mahomes threw a three-yard pass to Mecol Hardman with three seconds left in the ovetime period.
Chiefs win 25-22 because Leo Chenal blocked that PAT.
The Chiefs, who struggled during the regular season at times finished with three straight underdog wins. After the game, Mahomes told an interviewer, “Just know that the Kansas City Chiefs are never the underdog.”
(THE FUTURE)—Two names pop up in discussing the future for the Chiefs—Coach Andy Reid and Chris Jones. Reid, who is now 65, said after the game that retirement is not on his horizon. And Chris Jones, a holdout at the start of the year who played the season with an incentive-laden deal and hit his incentives, has been clear all along, says he has told the team Chairman Clark Hunt, “They’ve got to keep me here so we keep this thing going. We’ve got something special brewing here….We can continue to carry this thing, man.” Even as a holdout he was saying he wanted to be a lifetime member of the team. He’s 29 and wants to stay in Kansas City.
(mizz)—-The Missouri Tigers continue their worst conference season start ever with two more losses, both with leading scorer Sean East on bench with an injury. Neither loss was close.
Missouri had back-to-back seasons under Coach Bob Vanatta in 1965-66 and in 66-67 when hey went 6-43 overall, 3-30 in the Big Eight Conference. But in both cases, they won a game early in the conference season.
The Tigers are now 8-16, and in the SEC, 0-11. They have this entire week to get ready for Ole Miss, in Oxford, next Saturday night. The outlook is grim. Ole Miss is 18-5, splitting ten conference games and is 13-1 in Oxford as we go to press. (zou)
(CARDINALS)—Pitchers and catchers are reporting TODAY to Cardinals headquarters in Jupiter Florida. Their first workout is TOMORROW. Some players have been in Jupiter for several days for informal work but the first full-squad workout is next Monday. The first game is the 24th.
This is the 26th year for the Redbirds at Roger Dean Stadium. They share it with the Marlins.
(ROYALS)—While the folks in chilly Kansas City are having a big parade tomorrow, the boys in blue will be assembling in Surprise, Arizona, northwest of Phoenix. As with the Cardinals, the Royals’ first workout is tomorrow—long tosses and bullpen sessions. The first full-squad workout is on the 19th. They’ve been using Surprise Stadium for their spring training since 2003, sharing it with the Texas Rangers, the World Series champions.
Getting up to speed now:
(NASCAR)—NASCAR rolls off for its 76th season this week with qualifications and qualifying races for next Sunday’s Daytona 500. The field will be forty cars. There are 42 entries. Among those who will have to race his way into the lineup is seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson who will drive a limited schedule this year.
(INDYCAR)—IndyCar opens its season March 10 with a street race at St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Indianapolis 500, of course, is the marquee race of the year for IndyCar and the big headline for the 500 going into this season is 2021 NASCAR champion Kyle Larson, who is going to try to run the 500 in Indianapolis and the NASCAR 600-mile race at Charlotte that night.
He’s been getting more seat time in an IndyCar in the off-season and a few days ago ran 172 laps at Phoenix Raceway. He thought the test “went smooth” with “a good run through some things” to get more comfortable in an entirely new kind of race car. He even got to practice pit stops.
He did his first experience getting an Indy car sideways. “I almost spun out,” he said afterwards. “Just got caught off guard a little bit.” He thought the Indy car had a lot of the characteristics of the Cup car, at least on the Phoenix track but “The moments happen a lot quicker. The edge of good versus not good feels a lot sharper.”
(FORMULA 1)—Formula One’s first race is in Bahrain on March 2.