Super Bowl 59 is set with the Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans. This is the first time the big game has been back to the Big Easy since Super Bowl 47 when the Harbaugh brothers battled in a classic that included a 34-minute power outage delay.
New Orleans has a rich Super Bowl history, having hosted the game 11 times, including this season. The Superdome has hosted eight, and the old Tulane Stadium hosted three in the first nine years of the big game. The Chiefs played in the first Super Bowl in New Orleans and will look to recreate the outcome from that day 55 years ago.
Kansas City Won Super Bowl 4 in New Orleans at Tulane Stadium
The professional football world looked very different in the late ’60s as the NFL and AFL still operated as separate entities, with a world championship game between the two leagues at the end of the season.
The rival AFL began in 1960 and quickly became a legitimate threat to the established NFL with its high-flying offensive play. The AFL-NFL World Championship Game was created for the 1966 season and was designed to prove which league was better. Many expected the NFL to dominate these matchups, and they did for the first two years, with Green Bay decimating the Chiefs and Raiders to win back-to-back championships.
Fans thought the AFL would never be on the same level as the NFL, but the next year, Joe Namath and the New York Jets shocked the world by knocking off the Baltimore Colts. The AFL solidified itself as a competitive league with the NFL, and merger talks began.
The 1969 season would be the last in which the two leagues operated separately, and Super Bowl 4 was to be the final game before the merger. Kansas City returned to the big game, which was played in New Orleans, and defeated Minnesota 23-7.
We have history in New Orleans! pic.twitter.com/rCrXLc23I6
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 6, 2025
55 years ago, the Chiefs won the final AFL-NFL World Championship Game behind a stellar performance from quarterback Len Dawson. Dawson threw for 142 yards on 12 completions, one touchdown, and an interception. Kansas City rushed for 151 yards with six different ball carriers. However, none gained more than 39 yards. It was a different world of football.
11 years later, Philadelphia would make its first Super Bowl appearance, which happened to be in New Orleans. The culmination of the 1980 season saw the Eagles face off against the Raiders in Super Bowl 15 from the Superdome. They’ll be hoping for a better result this time around, as the Birds fell 27-10 that day.
Both franchises have experience culminating their season in New Orleans. Still, these iterations of the Chiefs and Eagles will rely on their experience of playing each other in the big game two years ago.