Current:Home > Contact'I blacked out': Even Mecole Hardman couldn't believe he won Super Bowl for Chiefs -TradeBridge
'I blacked out': Even Mecole Hardman couldn't believe he won Super Bowl for Chiefs
View
Date:2025-04-13 04:01:24
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! (64782)
Related
- Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
- Prepare for Hurricane Milton: with these tech tips for natural disasters
- Horoscopes Today, October 11, 2024
- Historic ocean liner could soon become the world’s largest artificial reef
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Walz tramps through tall grass on Minnesota’s pheasant hunting season opener but bags no birds
- Texas man drops lawsuit against women he accused of helping his wife get abortion pills
- Meet the California family whose house becomes a magical pumpkin palooza
- Have Dry, Sensitive Skin? You Need To Add These Gentle Skincare Products to Your Routine
- Penn State vs USC highlights: Catch up on all the top moments from Nittany Lions' comeback
Ranking
- Intel's stock did something it hasn't done since 2022
- Artur Beterbiev defeats Dmitry Bivol: Round-by-round analysis, highlights
- FACT FOCUS: A look at the false information around Hurricanes Helene and Milton
- Billy Ray Cyrus’ Ex-Wife Firerose Would Tell Her Younger Self to Run From Him
- The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
- Determination to rebuild follows Florida’s hurricanes with acceptance that storms will come again
- Top Celebrity Halloween Costume of 2024 Revealed
- Meet the California family whose house becomes a magical pumpkin palooza
Recommendation
Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
When is Tigers-Guardians Game 5 of American League Division Series?
1 person killed and at least 12 wounded in shooting at Oklahoma City party
Fisher-Price recalls over 2 million ‘Snuga Swings’ following the deaths of 5 infants
Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
Georgia election workers settle defamation lawsuit against conservative website
Floridians evacuated for Hurricane Milton after wake-up call from devastating Helene
Tennessee to launch $100M loan program to help with Hurricane Helene cleanup