Cheetah Run: Chiefs’ Hill challenges Bucs’ Miller to race during Super Bowl halftime
Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill wants to be the Super Bowl halftime show.
Hill said Monday he’d be willing to race Tampa Bay receiver Scotty Miller during intermission at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.
“Someone line that up for us,” Hill said.
Miller raised eyebrows last week when he said he believes he would win a one-on-one footrace with Hill, considered one of the fastest players in the NFL.
“I’m taking me every day of the week,” Miller told The Dan Patrick Show. “I’ll take me over anybody. Tyreek is unbelievable, super quick, unbelievable talent. But if we’re talking about a race, I’ve got all the confidence in myself going up against anybody.”
Hill was given several chances to challenge Miller’s assertion during a virtual media day, but he declined each time.
“I feel like Scotty answered that question the right way,” Hill said. “I feel like if someone asked Luke, ‘Hey, Luke, are you faster than Tyreek? Or, hey, Rob, are you faster than Tyreek?’ Your answer should be, ‘Yes, I’m that confident in myself that I’m faster than Tyreek.’ That’s any man.
“So Scotty answered that question the right way. But do I think he’s faster than me? I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe we can do something during halftime or something like that. Someone line that up for us.”
Hill came close to tipping his hand, though, when asked about any NFL cornerback being able to cover him.
“For me to just sit here and say someone can keep up with me would be, you know, I don’t know,” he said. “But I feel like in my heart no one can keep up with me. I’ve ran track. I’ve ran Olympics. Somebody in the NFL, nah, I don’t really believe so.”
AWARDS SEASON
NFL Honors, the annual primetime awards special that recognizes the league’s best players, performances and plays from the season, will be broadcast nationally the night before the Super Bowl.
The two-hour show airs Saturday on CBS with Emmy Award-winning entertainer Steve Harvey hosting for the third consecutive year. Grammy award-winning rock band Green Day will open the show, and Leslie Odom Jr. will perform during the in-memoriam segment.
The show includes the unveiling of the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, the prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year announcement and The Associated Press’ annual accolades that include the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and Comeback Player of the Year.
CHIEFS (ANIMAL) KINGDOM
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have a record-breaking connection on the field for the Chiefs. But, what if the quarterback and tight end had to choose spirit animals for each other?
Well, that question was posed to both during media day — and the answers, not surprisingly, drew laughs.
“Travis, man, it’s got to be something funny,” Mahomes said. “I think he’d be like a giraffe. He’s kind of just out there grazing around the field, trying to make something happen. Finding different things he can run around and do stuff with anything. He’s always a good time.”
Kelce was taken aback by Mahomes’ choice, saying he always thought of himself as more of a tiger.
“What is a giraffe good for other than eating trees?” an exasperated Kelce said. “What does he do? Does he run away from danger? I guess they do have a nice head whip as a weapon. I’ve got to do my research on giraffes now so I don’t sound silly.”
When told that the quarterback chose a wolf for himself, the tight end had another suggestion.
“I think he’s got a little frog in him, man,” Kelce said, laughing. “He’s already got the voice of a frog. Who knows? Maybe he’ll get a kiss from a princess and turn into a knight. Who knows, man? That guy’s nuts.”
WHAT DO YOU MEME?
Leave it to Mom to get a big chuckle out of Rob Gronkowski.
Diane Gronkowski Walters recently sent her son — the star Buccaneers tight end — a meme that featured Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes sitting on Tom Brady’s shoulders like a baby. It was captioned: “Take Your Son to Work Day — Feb. 7.”
That, of course, is the date of the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Buccaneers.
“It was just classic because Mahomes could really be Tom’s son,” Gronkowski said with a laugh. “Tom’s just such a legend and been doing it for so long, and their age difference is where (Mahomes) could be his son. So, that meme, that was a pretty good one that she sent.”
Mahomes, by the way, is 25. Meanwhile, Brady is 43. This is Mahomes’ second straight Super Bowl appearance, while this year marks the NFL-record 10th for Brady — and first with Tampa Bay after going with New England in the others.
During a day off Sunday, Gronkowski traveled down Interstate-75 for some mother-son time. He spent the night and returned to the team facility Monday in time for his question-and-answer session with reporters conducted via Zoom.
“I’m leaving her house this morning, and she’s got a whole bag packed full of drinks for me. She’s got a breakfast sandwich for me. She’s just still on top of her game. Just the impact that she has made on my life has been pretty incredible, and it’s just still going to this day,” Gronkowski said.
SUPER STREAK CONTINUES
The matriarch of the Kansas City Chiefs will continue her streak of seeing every Super Bowl in person.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said Monday his 82-year-old mother, Norma Hunt, will make the trip to Tampa, Florida, to see Kansas City play the Buccaneers on Sunday. He added that she has been cautious all season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My mother’s very excited to be headed back to the Super Bowl,” said Clark Hunt, who serves as the face of the franchise’s ownership family. “Last year was a big one for her. It was her 54th but the first one she had been to in 50 years that the Chiefs were participating, so that was special.”
Norma Hunt was working as a schoolteacher and hostess for the Dallas Texans when she met Lamar Hunt in 1964, five years after he and other members of “The Foolish Club” founded the AFL. Hunt moved the Texans to Kansas City and renamed them the Chiefs and the upstart league eventually merged with the NFL.
Lamar Hunt, who died in 2006, also coined the term “Super Bowl” for the league’s championship game.
The Chiefs lost to the Packers in the first Super Bowl, then beat the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth one. That was their last Super Bowl appearance before last season, when the Chiefs rallied to beat the San Francisco 49ers.
HIT ‘EM, JOIN ’EM
Defensive end Frank Clark is glad Mahomes is his teammate and not his opponent, even though Clark hit the Chiefs QB three times in the Seattle Seahawks’ 38-31 win over Kansas City in a Week 16 matchup in 2018.
After the season, Kansas City sent its first-round pick in 2019 and a second-round pick in the 2020 draft to Seattle for Clark.
“It was almost like a ‘Thank you, God’ type of thing because I knew what was coming,” Clark said. “I knew I didn’t have to game plan against him anymore. So, I was kind of thankful, like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.”
While Clark has only had 14 sacks in two seasons in Kansas City after having 13 in Seattle in 2018 alone, he’s added seven sacks in the playoffs with the Chiefs, including two this postseason.
REFLECTIONS OF A PIRATE CHIEF
Kevin Ross spent the first 11 seasons of his 14-year NFL career in Kansas City, where the seventh-round draft pick made five playoff appearances, became a fan favorite and earned two trips to the Pro Bowl.
The standout cornerback never made it to the Super Bowl, though.
It took Ross joining Bruce Arians’ staff in Tampa Bay — he’s the team’s defensive backs coach — to finally make it to the final week of the playoffs.
“It’s unreal, really,” said Ross, whose name was added to the ring of honor inside Arrowhead Stadium in 2011. “To watch them last year winning, I was very happy for them, and now to play against them in the biggest game I’ve been involved with is special. I hate that someone has to lose.”
Ross has his hands full this week preparing for Mahomes, who had 462 yards passing and three touchdowns in their Week 12 matchup.
“If we had Mahomes back then,” Ross said of his playing days, “I’d probably have four rings at least. Our defense was very dominant back then, with a very solid running game. We just didn’t have the firepower they have at that position now.”
