SB Nation Reacts results, Super Bowl LVIII — Bills Mafia chooses sides

Team Niners or team Chiefs?

Tonight, the NFL crowns its next Super Bowl Champion, with the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs facing off in Super Bowl LVIII to decide which team hoists the Lombardi Trophy.

Neither franchise is a stranger to NFL success at the highest level, with a combined eight wins between the pair. The 49ers rank third among teams with Super Bowl wins. In total, the Niners have played in seven games, with a 5-2 record (.714) overall. They haven’t, however, won the big game since January of 1995 — when Steve Young played quarterback. There have been opportunities, though. In 2013, San Fran lost to the Baltimore Ravens and Super Bowl XLVII MVP Joe Flacco. Then in 2020, the Niners fell to Chiefs and Super Bowl LIV MVP Patrick Mahomes.

Kansas City ranks 10th on the list of Super Bowl-winning teams. The Chiefs have played in five games, going 3-2 (.600) overall. They also hold the distinction of having played in the very first Super Bowl, exiting as the losing team against the Green Bay Packers. It’s arguable that we’re in the Mahomes era of the NFL, with KC having such a dominant hold on the AFC, already winning two Super Bowls in four seasons with QB15. Prior to their current success, Kansas City hadn’t been to a Super Bowl in 50 seasons. At that point, it’s fair to say much of the NFL world was pulling for them to win, as they did, against the Niners in SBLIV. Following that win, the Chiefs would head back to the Super Bowl the following season, only to lose convincingly to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Taking a season off from another Super Bowl appearance, Kansas City then returned to play in the league championship the next season — a barn-burner of a close game they won against the Philadelphia Eagles last season.

Tonight’s game is a rematch four years in the making. A chance for head coach Kyle Shanahan to make right for what went wrong the first time he faced off against head coach Andy Reid in the NFL’s biggest game. He brings a roster talented enough to win. But the Chiefs still have Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Andy Reid — and what many consider to be the league’s best defense from the 2023 NFL season.

So this week, we naturally were curious to know which team you want to win SB LVIIl, and which team do you think will win? The results were a bit more surprising to me than expected.

Coming out on top by a very slim margin was those wanting SF / thinking SF. The want portion of that vote is pretty well understood. It would seem that voters simply believe the Chiefs won’t have the horses to run against all the Niners’ weapons. What is clear with these results is that Bills Mafia is very much over the Kansas City Chiefs’ stay at the top of the NFL — just 17% of voters here are pulling for KC.

Looking at polls regarding this game on the national level, better than half of voters believe the Chiefs will win Super Bowl LVIII.

Nearly half of voters also believe that Patrick Mahomes will be the game’s MVP

As for the always fun and classic prop bets, 55% of voters said that the coin toss is the most popular of all.

As for Taylor Swift, 90% of fans voted such that her attendance won’t detract, and in some cases helps expand the game. However, 10% of voters seem incapable of moving on past her as a topic of conversation in the NFL.

Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.