NEW ORLEANS — The Kansas City Chiefs are chasing history in their pursuit of a third straight championship when they face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday (Monday, Manila time), but they are neither fixated on the challenge nor intimidated by it.

After defeating the Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII and the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in Super Bowl LVIII, the Chiefs could become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.

At Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday, no player or coach shied away from the moment, while also sticking to the company line about focusing on the matter at hand.

“I don’t think I understand truly the weight that this has, what this moment means,” Kansas City cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “I’m trying to live in the moment, take each day as I can, and making sure I’m thankful for having this opportunity.”

How rare is that opportunity? No major US/Canada professional sports franchise (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, WNBA, MLS) has managed three straight league championships in two decades. The last team to achieve it was the Los Angeles Lakers juggernaut spearheaded by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and coached by Phil Jackson, which won three straight from 2000-02.

Before that, the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000 as the Houston Comets were also winning four in a row (1997-2000) in the WNBA.

Jackson coached Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to a pair of three-peats (1991-93, 1996-98) earlier in the 1990s. The most recent NHL three-peaters were the New York Islanders, who won four in a row from 1980-83.

If you’re counting along, that’s just six teams to do it since 1980, a span of 45 years.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who have been doing this a long time,” Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton said. “We know we’ve got the opportunity. If you get to this point of the year… just put your faith where it belongs and put your best foot forward.”

The Chiefs are already further along in that pursuit than any NFL team has been in the Super Bowl era. No other back-to-back Super Bowl winner has advanced to a third straight Super Bowl since the inception of the game in 1966.

The Green Bay Packers were technically the NFL’s first three winners of straight, from 1929-31 (predating a championship game of any sort), and they repeated the feat from 1965-67, with the first of those championships coming before the advent of the Super Bowl (with no AFL representation). Those legendary Packers, helmed by Vince Lombardi, won the first two Super Bowls against AFL foes to cement the NFL’s second-ever three-peat.

The Canton Bulldogs won two straight championships from 1922-23, but the organization had merged with another franchise to become the Cleveland Bulldogs when it won a third in 1924.

Even in the pre-Super Bowl era, only two other teams made it to the same position as these Chiefs: the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions. The Bears won NFL championships in 1940-41 before getting knocked off by Washington in 1942. The Lions earned titles in 1952-53 before losing in the championship game to the Cleveland Browns in ‘54.

The Chiefs may soon be mentioned alongside Lombardi’s Packers, but they know it would take a collective effort, just as it has to get to this point.

“It’s been everybody,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “Blocking field goals, defensive guys getting big stops, scoring touchdowns: That’s what makes a football team special, when everybody has an impact on the final result of the game.” — Reuters

DONALD J. TRUMP will become the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl, according to a statement from the US Secret Service on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump will travel to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX and watch the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Extensive planning and coordination have been in place to ensure the safety of all attendees, players and staff,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. “Security measures have been further enhanced this year, given that this will be the first time a sitting President of the United States will attend the event.”

The city’s safety and security have been a critical topic this week after a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in an act of terror early on the morning of Jan. 1. The Department of Homeland Security said it is working with the NFL to make the Caesars Superdome the “safest place to be” on Sunday, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has 450 personnel in New Orleans to investigate threats and crimes this week.

Trump, whose second presidential term began Jan. 20, also agreed to tape a sit-down interview with Fox, which has the broadcast rights to the game this year. Fox News anchor Brett Baier will interview Trump in Florida sometime before he departs for New Orleans, and it will air during the pregame run-up.

Trump also attended the College Football Playoff national championship game last month in Atlanta. — Reuters

LUKA DONCIC said on Tuesday he was as shocked as anyone by the blockbuster trade over the weekend that brought him to the Los Angeles Lakers but is excited to join forces with LeBron James in a move that could shape the franchise for years to come.

The 25-year-old Slovenian guard and perennial MVP contender admitted he figured he would spend his entire NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, which made the news of his trade late on Saturday all the more surprising.

“I was almost asleep when I got the call, I had to check (if) it was April 1^st. I didn’t really believe it at first. It was a big shock. It was hard a moment for me,” said Doncic.

“(Dallas) was home so it was a really hard moment for me, especially the first day, but as I said I get to play in the greatest club in the world and I am excited about this new journey.”

Doncic, who has not played since Christmas Day because of a calf strain but is considered close to returning, had been with Dallas ever since a draft-night trade with the Atlanta Hawks, who took him with the third overall pick in 2018.

Last year, the five-times All-Star reached the NBA Finals for the first time in his career but the Mavericks lost 4-1 to the Boston Celtics in the best-of-seven championship series.

Now Doncic, who was wildly popular in Dallas, will chase a title alongside the NBA’s all-time top scorer in James, who he said was quick to reach out when the trade was announced.

“He called me right away,” Doncic said of his new teammate. “We didn’t talk much because he said I understand what you are feeling, but that was really nice of him just to call me right away and welcome me to LA.”

During his press conference, Doncic recounted a memorable encounter he had in 2019 when Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who was sitting courtside with his daughter Gianna for a game in Los Angeles, playfully heckled him in Slovenian.

“Well, first of all, I remember the exact moment that happened. It will always stay, you know, in my mind. It was an amazing moment,” said Doncic.

“Just for Kobe to know my name was amazing for me. You know, I just wish Kobe and (his daughter Gianna nicknamed) Gigi were here to see this moment. And, you know, I’m excited about this new journey and happy to be here.”

Bryant, an 18-times All Star and five-times NBA champion, died in a January 2020 helicopter crash that also killed his daughter and seven others. — Reuters

FORMER world number one and two-time Grand Slam winner Simona Halep announced her retirement from professional tennis on Tuesday after losing in the first round at her home event in Cluj.

Halep, whose career stalled due to a doping ban that was reduced on appeal last year, lost 6-1 6-1 to Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in her first match this year before announcing her decision.

The 33-year-old Romanian had delayed the start of her season due to pain in her knee and shoulder.

“I don’t know if it’s with sadness or joy, I think I feel both, but I make this decision with my soul at peace, I have always been realistic with myself,” Halep told the crowd at the BT Arena.

“My body cannot take as much so as to get back where I once was, it is very difficult to get there and I know what it means to get there. That is why I wanted to come to Cluj today to play before you and to say goodbye on the tennis court.

“Who knows whether I will return but at the moment it is for the last time that I play here. I don’t want to cry, it is a beautiful thing, I became world number one, I won Grand Slams, it is everything I ever wanted. Life moves on, there is life after tennis too.”

Halep lost in three Grand Slam finals before finally clinching her first major at the French Open in 2018 and went on to win Wimbledon the following year.

She was provisionally suspended in October 2022 after she tested positive for roxadustat – a banned drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells – at the US Open that year.

She was later banned for four years, a period which was cut to nine months last March following an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Halep denied knowingly taking roxadustat, blaming contaminated supplements for her positive test. — Reuters