Super Bowl 2023: Kansas City Chiefs beat Philadelphia Eagles as Australians Jordan Mailata and Arryn Siposs fall short
More than 100 million people were expected to tune into the Super Bowl broadcast, while the capacity crowd of 67,827 at the stadium drew the rich and famous, including Tesla chief Elon Musk and media magnate Rupert Murdoch, along with Paul McCartney and basketball star LeBron James.
Big brands spare no expense to cash in on the annual event, and adverts for the broadcast this year cost as much as $US7 million ($10 million) for 30 seconds and featured Hollywood actors and legendary musicians.
This year’s half-time entertainment featured pop and R&B superstar Rihanna who made a grand return to the stage, floating high above the Super Bowl field and dazzling the crowd with a fast-paced medley of her hits. Later she revealed that she is pregnant with her second child.
Dressed in a hot pink jumpsuit and baggy coat, Rihanna opened the biggest showcase in music by singing Bitch Better Have My Money as she stood, with a noticeably rounded belly, on a suspended platform. She was gradually lowered to the ground as she went through well-known songs from Only Girl (In the World) to Rude Boy and Work.
In the pre-game ceremony, country star Chris Stapleton sang the US national anthem while Oscar-winning CODA star Troy Kotsur performed the song in American Sign Language.
There could be no better end to the NFL season than a championship game featuring the two teams with the best records and two dynamic young leaders in Mahomes and the Eagles’ Hurts, the first two black quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl.
Hurts, another leading candidate for the NFL MVP award, turned in an almost equally dazzling performance, running for three touchdowns and a Super Bowl record 70 yards. He also threw for a touchdown.
No ring for Australians this time
Mailata and Siposs were the third and fourth Australians to feature in the NFL decider, after Ben Graham (Arizona, 2009) and Mitch Wishnowsky (San Francisco, 2020) both played on losing Super Bowl teams.
Mailata, 25, who grew up in western Sydney in a big family of Polynesian immigrants, once wagged school to watch the Super Bowl – but more for the half-time entertainment than the game.
He and Siposs had hoped to become the first Australians to play in a Super Bowl and win a championship ring.
The first Australian to win a ring was Jesse Williams as a member of the 2013 Seattle Seahawks roster, but the Indigenous Australian defensive tackle never played a down that season due to injury.
Both Mailata and Siposs found their way into American football after their sports careers never took off back home.
Mailata, who stands 2.03 metres and weighs more than 150 kilograms, played with Souths’ junior side but was unable to secure a professional contract.
A reel of his playing highlights pricked the interest of an NFL scout, however, and a successful workout led to a spot on the league’s international pathway program.
Only a few months after walking away from rugby league and with no American football experience, Mailata was selected as a seventh round pick by the Eagles in the 2018 NFL draft.
Siposs, who was cleared to play in the game only on Sunday when he was taken off the injured reserve list to make him eligible to play, followed a now well-beaten path to the NFL as a former Australian Rules player making the successful transition to punter.
The Melbourne man played 28 championship matches for St Kilda in AFL across five seasons but struggled for consistency and was cut from the roster in 2015.
After playing college football for Auburn University in Alabama, Siposs was drafted by Detroit in 2020 before being picked up by the Eagles the following year.
Siposs had been sidelined with an ankle injury since early December.
“It’s been a long grind over the last seven to eight weeks, and I’m very fortunate to be in this position to have a shot at it and see what happens,” the 30-year-old said before the game.
