Cal in the NFL: Mitchell Schwartz and the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV
The Golden Bears vie for their 14th Super Bowl win in the past 21 games and a bunch of other Cal–Super Bowl stats.
The Super Bowl is upon us, with the Kansas City Chiefs looking to repeat against the heinous Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Though OT Mitchell Schwartz is still injured and is unlikely to be play, a Chiefs win would ensure another Super Bowl ring for Schwartz and for the Bears—which we should all be hoping for.
The NFL Playoffs started very promising for the Golden Bears—with 12 of the 14 teams featuring California representation. That number was whittled down to six of eight in the Divisional Round and then three of four in the Championship Round. Unfortunately, that’s where dreams came to die as the only non-California team defeated the team with the most-prominent California representation, killing Aaron Rodgers’s Super Bowl aspirations. Schwartz and the Chiefs are the last line of defense to block those non-Cal scoundrels for winning it all.
Schwartz’s brother—Geoff—wrote a piece discussing the importance of a Super Bowl win when it comes to a player’s legacy and recounted the experiences he and his brother shared during Schwartz’s win last season. As an old man, I can’t think of anything less appealing than listening to Pitbull at 4 o’clock in the morning.
California has had some stellar representation in the Super Bowls1 of the past 20 years, so let’s break down how the Bears have shown up since Super Bowl XXXV:
Of the past 21 Super Bowls, this marks the 20th game to feature a Golden Bear on the roster or on the coaching staff
A Chiefs win would mark the 14th time a Golden Bear has been on the winning team
Five games have been Cal-vs.-Cal with the most recent being Super Bowl LIII
California’s performance only improves if we zoom in on the past eight games (Super Bowl XLVIII to present):
California has appeared in all eight of the last games
A Chiefs win would mean seven of the past eight Super Bowls featured California on the winning side
Half of the Super Bowls in this span pitted two teams with Golden Bears against one another
Here’s a look at the past 21 games:
Good luck, Mitchell—hopefully the Chiefs can pull off the win to add to California’s accolades and so you can get a nice, shiny ring to add to the collection!
And as much as we are all sick of the “You-See Berkeley” commercials, let’s just all be thankful that the California marketing team is better than that of Penn State, which released this misleading joke of a promotional image.
Maybe one day we’ll have a marketing team that is as willing to troll for California as Ole Miss’s, as they fired back with this beaut.