Current:Home > Scams'I blacked out': Even Mecole Hardman couldn't believe he won Super Bowl for Chiefs-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
'I blacked out': Even Mecole Hardman couldn't believe he won Super Bowl for Chiefs
View Date:2025-01-11 07:25:16
LAS VEGAS – Mecole Hardman scored the game-winning touchdown of Super Bowl 58. It took some time before that registered.
On the game’s final play, the fifth-year receiver of the Kansas City Chiefs motioned toward the offensive line before pirouetting back to the right, looking back at quarterback Patrick Mahomes at the snap. The three-time Super Bowl MVP delivered a quick pass to the receiver, Hardman gathering the ball in and heading toward the pylon for a short 3-yard score that will be long remembered as the play that cemented K.C. as the NFL’s newest dynasty.
Not that Hardman knew.
“I knew I was going to get the ball, caught the football, and I blacked out,” said Hardman after the game. “I’m not going to lie, I blacked out. I (saw) Pat running towards me, and I'm thinking, ‘We just won.’ I understand now and after that.
“The rest is history.”
SUPER BOWL CENTRAL: Latest Super Bowl 58 news, stats, odds, matchups and more.
Hardman can be forgiven for the lapse after a season that must have seemed like a fever dream.
After spending his first four seasons in Kansas City, he signed a one-year deal with the New York Jets last March. He appeared on “Hard Knocks,” fawning over new teammate Aaron Rodgers and giddy at the prospect of playing with the legendary quarterback. Yet Hardman’s impact with the Jets turned out to be on par with injured Rodgers, the wideout catching one pass in six games before being traded back to the Chiefs in October. Yet even reunited with his former team and an even better QB1, injuries kept Hardman off the field for much of the season.
“This was a roller coaster,” he said. “It was a lot of ups and downs. I was going through a lot, especially with the injury, trying to start over with a new team and didn't really play. Kansas City welcomed me back with open arms.”
Did they ever.
When healthy, Hardman adds speed to the passing game – an attribute that both makes him a deep threat and opens up room for players like tight end Travis Kelce to operate underneath the coverage. Hardman’s 52-yard catch in the second quarter seemed destined to set up Kansas City’s first touchdown, but a fumble on the next play nullified that opportunity.
Still, it’s not how you start.
“Man, I couldn’t be happier for my guy,” Kelce said of Hardman after the game. “It brought me to tears seeing that he was the man that got us there.
“Mecole, he’s one of my favorite teammates ever, because he just keeps showing up. … Found a way to win the game for us – when everybody counted him out, even the Jets counted him out. Man, we were so excited when we got him back in the building, because he’s the kind of guy that brings everybody together.”
Said Mahomes: “I've played with Mecole for a long time. He's always ready for the moment … and he was he was ready for that moment in a couple (of) big plays.”
Even if Hardman didn’t necessarily process those moments in the moments, he was fully self-aware by night’s end.
“(T)o get here to the Super Bowl, and the end, and got to end how it ended," he ended. "I don’t think I want it any other way.”
***Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis.
veryGood! (92488)
Related
- Will Reeve, son of Christopher Reeve, gets engaged to girlfriend Amanda Dubin
- Attorney for ex-student charged in California stabbing deaths says he’s not mentally fit for trial
- Sarah Jessica Parker Shares Rare Insight Into Family Life With Her and Matthew Broderick's Kids
- How artificial intelligence can be used to help the environment
- Isiah Pacheco injury updates: When will Chiefs RB return?
- Alaska board to weigh barring transgender girls from girls’ high school sports teams
- Man suspected of shooting and injuring Dallas-area doctor was then shot and injured by police
- Colorado students at private career school that lost accreditation get federal loan relief
- RHOBH's Kyle Richards Shares Reaction to BFF Teddi Mellencamp's Divorce
- Trump ally Bernard Kerik turned over documents to special counsel investigating events surrounding Jan. 6
Ranking
- Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico
- Trump’s Former Head of the EPA Has Been a Quiet Contributor to Virginia’s Exit From RGGI
- Elise Finch, CBS meteorologist who died at 51, remembered by family during funeral
- 'Jeopardy!' champs to boycott in solidarity with WGA strike: 'I can't be a part of that'
- Where is 'College GameDay' for Week 12? Location, what to know for ESPN show
- 'Jeopardy!' champs to boycott in solidarity with WGA strike: 'I can't be a part of that'
- Breakups are hard, but 'It's Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake' will make you believe in love again
- Traps removed after no sign of the grizzly that killed a woman near Yellowstone
Recommendation
-
Footage shows Oklahoma officer throwing 70-year-old to the ground after traffic ticket
-
49ers' Nick Bosa holding out for new contract. Could new deal set record for pass rusher?
-
Trans man's violent arrest under investigation by Los Angeles sheriff's department
-
Volunteers working to save nearly 100 beached whales in Australia, but more than half have died
-
Judith Jamison, a dancer both eloquent and elegant, led Ailey troupe to success over two decades
-
US heat wave eyes Northeast amid severe storms: Latest forecast
-
Authorities scramble to carry out largest fire evacuations in Greece's history: We are at war
-
Kansas football lineman charged in connection with alleged bomb threat