Pro Picks: Eagles will beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, preventing Kansas City from a three-peat

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs are undefeated this season when Taylor Swift is watching boyfriend Travis Kelce in person.

Patrick Mahomes has never lost to Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

All four Super Bowl rematches that have occurred within five years have been won by the winner of the first meeting.

The odds are stacked in Kansas City’s favor but the Chiefs are only 1 1/2-point favorites against Philadelphia on Sunday, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

That’s because the two-time defending champion Chiefs (17-2) haven’t faced a team quite like the Eagles (17-3) this season.

Led by Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown, the Eagles have one of the league’s most dynamic offenses. Under Fangio’s guidance, they also have the NFL’s No. 1 defense.

“They know how to play well together. I mean, that’s what makes Vic, Fangio’s defense so well, so great is that everybody has a part and they have to do their job in order for everybody to have success,” said Mahomes, who is 8-0 against Fangio defenses. “And that’s what they do. And it’ll be a great challenge. Gotta be patient. And when those opportunities come, you gotta go out there and execute on them because there are only going to be a few of them in the game."

No team has ever three-peated in the Super Bowl era. Only the Chiefs have even had that opportunity. None of the eight previous teams who won back-to-back Super Bowls made it back for a third, though the Green Bay Packers won an NFL championship in 1965 and captured the first two Super Bowls.

The Chiefs are 9-0 this season when Swift comes to their games. President Donald Trump will be in the Superdome, too. It’ll be the first time a sitting president attends a Super Bowl.

“That’s awesome. It’s a great honor,” Kelce said Wednesday. “I think no matter who the president is, I know I’m excited because it’s the biggest game of my life, and having the president there, it’s the best country in the world. So, that’d be pretty cool.”

Hurts, Barkley and the Eagles will be aiming to spoil Kansas City’s party.

Hurts nearly led the Eagles to a victory against the Chiefs two years ago in Arizona, but Mahomes led a comeback and Harrison Butker kicked the game-winning field goal in the final minute.

“I’ve learned so much,” Hurts said about his growth since that game. “It’s the same as any other game and, you know, I think the moments are the moments but ultimately, every game has its lesson — good, bad or indifferent. So, just being able to become wiser, grow and mature and take all these lessons in for the next season and the next games.”

The Eagles didn’t have Barkley when they faced the Chiefs two years ago. He joined them in free agency this season and is on the verge of history. Barkley has 2,447 yards rushing, 30 away from passing Terrell Davis’s 26-year-old record for most in a season, including playoffs.

Barkley will turn 28 on game day.

How does he plan to celebrate?

“Hopefully with green and white confetti falling down, and holding up a nice trophy,” Barkley said.

Pro Picks predicted the Eagles to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl before the season so we’re sticking with it.

EAGLES: 31-30

Last week: Straight up: 2-0. Against spread: 0-2.

Playoffs: Straight up: 9-3. Against spread: 6-5-1.

Overall: Straight up: 201-83. Against spread: 150-129-5.

Best Bet: Straight up: 12-7. Against spread: 10-8-1

Upset Special: Straight up: 10-9. Against spread: 10-9.

Pro Picks is a weekly column where AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi shares his picks for upcoming games. For all previous Pro Picks, head here.

AP NFL : https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Graphic predicts the winner of the Super Bowl.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) talks with teammates during an NFL football practice Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of Super Bowl 59 against the Philadelphia Eagles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) runs through drills during an NFL football practice Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of Super Bowl 59 against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) warms up during an NFL football practice Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of Super Bowl 59 against the Philadelphia Eagles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) runs through drills during an NFL football practice Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of Super Bowl 59 against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

ROME (AP) — When Italian skeleton competitor Mattia Gaspari became the first athlete to test the controversial sliding track for next year's Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, he did so in a sort of tunnel under a temporary roof built of wooden beams and white plastic paper.

That's because the sliding center in Cortina d'Ampezzo is still under construction and the only part that is really finished is the track structure.

Still, getting to this point little more than a year after construction began is a big achievement for the Italian government, which rebuilt the century-old track despite calls from the International Olympic Committee to hold bobsled, luge and skeleton athletes at a venue in nearby Austria or Switzerland instead.

“It's really been quite an adventure,” Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said Tuesday.

“I want to thank the construction firm, which was the first one to believe in this, and the journalists who motivated us,” said Salvini, who is also the deputy premier, citing articles claiming that the project would never be done. “Well, here we are.”

Olympic bronze medalist Dominik Fischnaller was the second athlete down the track on his luge before Simone Bertazzo and Eric Fantazzini made a two-man bobsled run.

Simico, the government agency in charge of the 118 million euro ($128 million) project, reported positive results for the test runs. But it will be officials from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, International Luge Federation and the IOC to determine whether to bestow preliminary certification — homologation is the technical word — for the track.

Preliminary approval would be a big step in avoiding a backup Plan B option that the IOC had demanded and which would require moving the three sliding sports all the way to Lake Placid, New York, if the track in Italy wasn’t finished in time. Lake Placid officials were hopeful that, if the sliding events were going to be awarded to the U.S., the official word would come by the end of March.

Construction on the Cortina track began in February last year. The pre-homologation plan calls for athletes to begin their initial runs from the junior start, well below the ramps from where they would begin to race for World Cup and Olympic competitions. Sliders would move up the track slowly throughout the coming days.

There are testing events at the Cortina track for all three sliding sports — bobsled, skeleton and luge — scheduled for throughout the fall. Those are important so that sliders can familiarize themselves with the track and feel safe there when competing at the Olympics. Safety has taken on more importance since the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training crash hours before the start of the opening ceremony for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Luge athletes are scheduled to have an international training period at the new track from Oct. 27 through Nov. 2, then return for a test event there in the final week of November. The bobsled and skeleton tours will hold their international training period from Nov. 7-16, followed by the season-opening World Cup races there from Nov. 17-23.

The 1.749-kilometer (1.09-mile) track features 16 curves with an estimated top speed of 145 kph (90 mph) with run times slated for 55-60 seconds.

Athletes from 12 nations are involved in the tests this week. It's about 60 athletes in all, about half of them being Italian sliders. Coaches representing at least 23 different sliding nations were also invited to view this week's events.

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

FILE - Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta, file)

FILE - Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta, file)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Construction work takes place at the Cortina Sliding Center, venue for the bob, luge and skeleton disciplines at the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)