Ex-West Morris Regional Star Now Super Bowl Champ

CHESTER, NJ - After a hard fought contest Sunday night, the Eagles lost the Super Bowl 57, 38-35, to the Kansas City Chiefs and in the process former West Morris Regional Michael Burton became a champion.

In what will doubtlessly go down in the books as one of the greatest Super Bowls in NFL history, the Eagles and the Chiefs went back and forth for 60 minutes of thrilling football, with neither side holding a decisive advantage for most of the game. Ultimately, the Chiefs erased a 10 point halftime deficit to win a game that came down to the final second.

And for fullback Burton, in his second season with the Chiefs, it all began in West Morris.

"He was always an outstanding athlete, but I think what set him aside and why he is having so much success is because he just has a great work ethic," West Morris football coach Kevin Hennelly said.

As Hennelly tells it, when Burton first joined the West Morris football team his freshman year, he quickly demonstrated to coaches that he could play with the varsity players and, more importantly, that he could hold his own.

"He played varsity all four years. As a freshman, we moved him up, and he survived. He didn't dominate, but he survived. He's just tough," Hennelly told Patch.

That toughness, that resilience, seems to characterize the Chiefs.

The first half was all Eagles. At the start of the second quarter, the Eagles broke it open when Hurts soared a 45 yard spiral a yard into the end zone, where AJ Brown wormed around two of the Chiefs' secondary to make the catch.

Momentum seemed to be turning to the Birds after that. They stopped the Chiefs on three downs the next drive, and Hurts made a beautiful move to escape a blitz and connect for an 11-yard pass for a first down. Another first down seemed imminent at midfield a few plays later, but the Birds were stunned when the ball was knocked out of Hurts' hands and Nick Bolton returned it 36 yards for a touchdown.

That abrupt series and turnaround characterized the early going, as the Eagles wasted no time in giving Hurts an immediate chance at redemption: a massive drive featuring two successful fourth down attempts was capped by three Hurts rushes, including the touchdown run. By the end of the half the Eagles were up 24-14, with the 24 points marking more than the Jaguars or Bengals had scored against the Chiefs in full games this postseason.

The pendulum swung dramatically in the second half. The Chiefs scored immediately to make it a three point game, and on the ensuing drive, it appeared that the Chiefs scored again after recovering a fumble a few plays into the Birds' possession. But the call was overturned, and a pair of epic completions to Dallas Goedert capped a drive that ended in a field goal.

But for a player like Burton, adversity was nothing new. Despite setting several West Morris records while playing football in high school, Burton did not receive any NCAA Division I scholarship offers, instead choosing to walk on at Rutgers University.

"Mike only had two opportunities. It was the University of Pittsburgh or Rutgers as a walk-on. He's that story that you hear about, one in a million where no one gave him a chance in college, but he made it. That's just hard work. It's not even just raw talent, it's outworking people," Hennelly said.

And the Chiefs were not to be deterred. They scored twice more in quick fashion, including once off of a huge punt return at the start of the fourth quarter. The Birds were facing a 35-27 deficit with just nine minutes remaining. And they wasted no time.

They started off methodical with a few runs and few short passes, drawing near midfield, before Hurts unleashed another massive 45-yard toss downfield to Smith that brought the Eagles to the one-yard line. Hurts followed it up with his third rushing touchdown of the night, a Super Bowl record, and then took in the two-point conversion himself to knot the game at 35.

That led to what would prove to be the Chiefs late game winning drive.

Hennelly told Patch that Burton’s talent and determination are rivaled only by how likable he is.

"He was a humble player because he had a lot of success in more than just one sport. He was probably the best athlete in that grade. He's always been a genuinely good kid and treated everybody fair and was nice to everyone. So he wasn't above anybody, nobody was below him," Hennelly said.