Among the players who deserve credit from Kansas City Chiefs fans for helping the team win Super Bowl 57, James Bradberry ranks near the top of the list.
The only problem for Bradberry is he was wearing the other team’s uniform on Sunday in Arizona.
It’s a play that will go down in Super Bowl history — or infamy depending on who you are. Bradberry’s hold on JuJu Smith-Schuster negated an incomplete pass on a critical third-down with under two minutes left in the game and bailed the Chiefs out in a legendary way.
To be clear, anyone saying the holding penalty determined the outcome of the game or decided the Super Bowl in Kansas City’s favor is trying to hard or that lunatic who ranted on local Philadelphia television. There’s no doubt that the penalty gave the Chiefs a chance to close the game out, but it did not stop the Eagles from getting the ball back with time on the clock.
Bradberry even admitted after the game that he held Smith-Schuster but was hoping he’d get away with it. The man himself taking accountability for the penalty should put to rest any notion that the game was rigged, or that the Chiefs were beneficiaries of a soft call.
While it would be a bit too savage to send Bradberry a Super Bowl ring, so Smith-Schuster sent him a Valentine instead.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody ❤️ pic.twitter.com/skXuZVgrYR
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) February 14, 2023
If this were a movie, it’s at this point the control room goes absolutely silent while one of the characters slowly stood up while removing their glasses, mouth agape with horror and shock at the detestation they just witnessed.
That right there is the Jim Ross “He’s broken in half, damnit!! Bah gawd almighty, That man HAS A FAMILY!” in Tweet form.
To be honest, it’s almost a low blow by JuJu to do this. That man indeed does have a family and he’s by all accounts a decent guy. Bradberry admitted to the penalty after the game, owned it, and took accountability for making one of the biggest mistakes of his professional career — if not the biggest — on the biggest stage he’s ever been on.
Kansas City won the Super Bowl and Bradberry owned his mistake, there’s no real need to create bad blood.
It is, however, objectively hilarious and instantly a Hall of Fame burn. So if JuJu didn’t beat Bradberry on a route to score the first time, he certainly torched him this time around.