Chiefs WR Mecole Hardman catches Super Bowl game-winner
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman should not be a three-time Super Bowl champion.
Hardman should have spent the 2023 season with the New York Jets, watching his former team win their second straight Super Bowl like wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
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But after minimal playing time with the Jets and the Chiefs needing a boost from their receivers, they traded for Hardman in October. Hardman still was not used as much as he was in previous years with only 124 yards on 15 catches.
He got most of his stats in Week 18 where he was the leading receiver against the Los Angeles Chargers with a team full of backups.
In the playoffs, Hardman collected two catches on the Chiefs’ run to the Super Bowl. But even in Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers, Hardman recorded three catches.
His 52-yard reception early in the fourth quarter on a Mahomes deep shot was rubbed away by a running back Isiah Pacheco fumble.
But Hardman’s last catch was the most impactful of his career up to this point.
In overtime on the last drive of the game, quarterback Patrick Mahomes found Hardman wide-open for the game-winning touchdown.
“I blacked out when I caught the ball,” Hardman told FOX4 after the game. “I didn’t know what was going on.
“I’m like, ‘oh, what happened?’ I see Pat running to me like, ‘you a champion!'”
The play known as Corndog or Tom and Jerry (what Hardman called it) is a two-option play that saw Hardman go in motion from his receiver position closest to the sideline and run toward his end of the line of scrimmage on a fake jet sweep before turning and running back to his original spot once the ball is snapped.
The Chiefs used that play twice in Super Bowl LVII against the Philadelphia Eagles and they scored twice with it in the red zone.
The last time the Chiefs played the Niners in 2022, Hardman scored three touchdowns on jet sweeps, so they knew that the motion would work again a year later.
The longer halftime because of the Super Bowl halftime show helped the offense get their heads together after a first half that resulted in three points.
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“We weren’t playing our best football on the offensive side,” he said. “We put everything together that we needed to and made it count at the last minute.”
Hardman suffered an abdominal/groin injury last season called osteitis pubis that rendered him unable to walk for five days. It is inflammation in the joint between the left and right pubic bones (your pubic symphysis). It causes pain and swelling in the groin or lower abdomen.
Hardman missed 11 games battling the injury, but returned for the AFC Championship where he said he was 65% to 70% healthy and tore his groin in that game, watching the Chiefs win the Super Bowl from the sideline.
He ended this season on the field with his teammates healthy, and the last person to touch an NFL ball in the 2023 season as a three-time Super Bowl champion.
