Sports
The New Jersey Connections To 2024 Super Bowl
The Jets, Giants, and Eagles may have fallen flat, but both the Chiefs and 49ers give Garden State residents several reasons to cheer.
NEW JERSEY — The 2024 Super Bowl matchup is now set, and despite rabid preseason prognostications, teams with Jersey connections like the Aaron Rodgers-helmed Jets (remember that hype?) and the defending NFC champion Eagles (less than seven weeks ago they had the best record in the NFL) did not get anywhere near the promised land.
No, but for fourth time in five years, Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and the Kansas City Chiefs will take the midwest version of the Brady-Bellichick dynasty to the sport's biggest stage. They'll face off against a longtime NFC favorite, the infamously low salaried Brock Purdy and his San Francisco 49ers.
It's a rematch of the 2020 Super Bowl, when a Chiefs crew that looked similar at the top took on a very different 49ers squad. The Chiefs prevailed, 31-20.
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Some might imagine there is not a strong rooting interest for the Garden State, but that's not entirely true. Jets fans up north have no love lost with the newest dynasty in the AFC, and they're probably happy to cheer for San Francisco. Eagles fans in the south, meanwhile, have a hated rivalry with both squads, but most will probably choose what they see as the more noble foe, the Kansas City team they did battle with in the big dance last year, rather than the 49ers squad whose very public beating of them on national television presaged their precipitous late season decline.
Those looking for a more local, personal angle, however, can find plenty of Jersey angles. Here's a glance at Super Bowl players with connections to the Garden State. Players are listed with hometowns, if applicable, and schools.
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San Francisco
Ji'Ayir Brown, safety, Trenton Central High School in New Jersey and then at Pennsylvania's Lackawanna College and Penn State
Sebastian Joseph-Day, defensive tackle, Rutgers
Logan Ryan, safety, Rutgers
Kevin Givens, defensive lineman, born in Newark, Penn State
Kansas City
Isiah Pacheco, running back, native of Vineland, Rutgers
Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator, born in Dunellen, New Jersey, went to Manheim Central High School in Pennsylvania and then the University of Delaware
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