The Sodfather George Toma has found himself at the center of the Kansas City Chiefs’ controversial Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Despite an injury to quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a seemingly clear talent disparity, Kansas City found a way to prevail at Super Bowl LVII to win another championship.
How did they do it? Many NFL fans believe it had a lot to do with Toma, the 94-year-old groundskeeper for the event.
As noted by ‘Guardian’ NFL insider Ollie Connolly, the field for the Super Bowl was uncharacteristically slippery. And yet despite the fact that obviously both teams had to play on it, only the Eagles seemed to have serious issues.
“The Eagles’ defense had a player slip on 38% of Patrick Mahomes’ dropbacks — five times they had multiple slippages,” he wrote.
“The Chiefs’ defense had a player slip on only 14% of Jalen Hurts’ dropbacks — with no multiples.”
Because Mahomes was already hurt and significantly less mobile, he was more ripe for the attacking by Philly’s defense than the more mobile Hurts was. That is indisputable. The fact that the Eagles couldn’t get to him because of field conditions is telling.
And Toma’s ties to the winning side simply can’t be ignored.
Toma first started working at Arrowhead in 1957. He is so intertwined with the Chiefs organization that he reportedly got a ring from them after their 2020 Super Bowl win.
This past week, in an interview with Francesca Gariano of Today.com, Toma revealed that he was rooting for Kansas City even though commissioner Roger Goodell told him not to.
“Commissioner Goodell told me, ‘George, you work for the league, the league pays you, you have to be normal, or I can’t cheer for anybody.’ But in my heart, there is the Chiefs, and on the other side is the Eagles,” he said.
Make of that what you will.
It is hard not to wonder if maybe a more well-maintained field wouldn’t have posed such a clear advantage for Kansas City. Brittany Mahomes is out here partying harder than the players and arguing that people owe the Chiefs an apology, but maybe the Eagles are the ones that are owed an apology.
The photos speak for themselves. https://t.co/hXzYPmx0fx
— Game 7 (@game7__) February 16, 2023
Perhaps instead of everyone focusing on Molly Qerim’s wild Super Bowl outfit or Sam Ponder’s polarizing choice of attire, some more attention should be trained on why a known Chiefs fan who allegedly already has one ring from the organization made life so hard for Philly at Super Bowl LVII.
Will it happen? Probably not.
Should it? Absolutely.
Related: 2 NFL Teams Emerge As Baker Mayfield Frontrunners
