Patrick Mahomes went to Disneyland in a post-Super Bowl tradition that began more than 36 years ago in Southern California.
The Super Bowl LVII MVP quarterback the Kansas City Chiefs to a dramatic 38-35 victory Sunday over the Philadelphia Eagles. Keeping with tradition, he appeared in the annual "what's next" Disney commercial, shot on the field after each Super Bowl, before visiting the Anaheim theme park and making an appearance in the Main Street USA parade with his family on Monday afternoon.
Here's what to know about the Happiest Commercial on Earth and how it all started.
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Who is in the 2023 'I’m going to Disneyland' commercial?
It appears Mahomes had a crystal ball.
As a 17-year-old junior at Whitehouse High School in Texas, Mahomes tweeted, "I bet it feels amazing to be the quarterback who says 'I'm going to Disney World' after winning the Super Bowl #Qbs."
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You tell us, Patrick.
Monday's visit will mark the second time the Chief's 27-year-old quarterback has visited a Disney theme park as the Super Bowl MVP. Mahomes appeared at Walt Disney World Resort in 2020 after Kansas City's 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV in Miami.
Mahomes connected on 21 of 27 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions Sunday against a fearsome Eagles defense. He made several big plays to help the Chiefs overcome a 10-point halftime deficit in Glendale, Arizona. It was the fourth time a team has overcome a second-half deficit of at least 10 points to win a Super Bowl.
Mahomes is the sixth player to win multiple Super Bowl MVP awards. He's also, the second-youngest to do so, behind Tom Brady, who was 26 years and 182 days old when he won the second of his record five MVP awards in 2004.
Who first said, ‘I’m going to Disneyland/Disney World?'
The “what's next'' commercial began in 1987 and featured New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms after he was chosen the MVP of Super Bowl XXI. After defeating the Denver Broncos 39-20 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, an ecstatic Simms shouted into the camera, “I’m going to go to Disney World.”
“I was approached about it maybe the Tuesday before the Super Bowl,” Simms, now an in-studio TV analyst, told the Los Angeles Times. “My agent, David Fishof, told me and I said, ‘No chance. Don’t even talk to me about it. Not going to do it.’ I stood my ground until Friday night when I finally said, ‘Oh my God, fine. I’ll do it.’ He wore me down.”
The commercial, shot and produced by NFL Films to air after the game ends, also features several Make-A-Wish children who made a wish to attend the game and cheer on the Rams.
In the ads, the song “When You Wish Upon a Star" plays over shots of the player -- or in this case, players. At the end, an announcer mentions the Super Bowl win and asks, “What are you going to do next?"
Cut to a shot of happy player/s shouting and you have the format for a nearly four-decade-long tradition.
Who starred in the 2022 Disneyland ad?
Last year marked the first time three players -- Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald and Matthew Stafford -- appeared in the commercial. All three played pivotal roles in the Los Angeles Rams' win over the Bengals.
Kupp caught the game-winning 1-yard touchdown pass from Stafford with one minute, 25 seconds to play and was selected as the MVP for catching eight passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns, all game highs.
Stafford completed 26 of 40 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions and was sacked twice. He had a 89.9 passer rating on a scale from 0 to 158.3 with a rating over 100 considered superior. Stafford became the third quarterback to win a Super Bowl in his first year with a team, joining Trent Dilfer of the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV in 2001 and Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV in 2021.
Donald made two of the Rams' record-tying seven sacks and pressured Bengals' quarterback Joe Burrow into throwing an incomplete pass on fourth-and-1 from the Rams' 49-yard line with 39 seconds left to seal the victory which gave Los Angeles its first NFL championship since the 1983 season and third all-time.
Donald was the third defensive player to be in the commercial, joining Seattle Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith, the MVP of Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 and New England cornerback Malcolm Butler who made a goal line interception in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 to preserve the Patriots' lead.
