Few Flash Like Former Gator, Super Bowl Champion Kadarius Toney
Blink and you would have missed it.
The phrase is true for each of the key plays former Florida Gator Kadarius Toney executed in stamping his Super Bowl impact Sunday night for the champion Kansas City Chiefs.
The Mobile, Ala. native's only catch was good for a go-ahead score in the fourth quarter from five yards out. It was typical Toney, known for his elusiveness and explosion more than most. He brought the defense inside with a motion before bolting back outside on the snap of the football, effectively easily winning the ensuing footrace to the pylon.
The Chiefs' defense would force an Eagles punt on the next possession and then the football world would be re-introduced to the former high school quarterback once he got his hands on the football once more.
Toney caught the low-lining kick while moving to his left before stopping on a dime to dodge the first threat — as he reversed field. The Kansas City blockers then created a wall along the far sideline and the speed took over all the way to the five-yard line.
It was a 65-yard return the football world won't soon forget.
Toney's splash on Super Bowl Sunday was a far cry from his typical spot duty with the Chiefs, and of course, an up-and-down run with the team that drafted him in the first round two years prior, the New York Giants.
"I’m just grateful man,” Toney told reporters postgame. “You know, thankful for the organization for really accepting me and letting me be the player I can be. . . .The environment is just life-changing."
KC gave up a third and sixth-round pick to pick up Toney in the middle of the season. Former Giants and current Chiefs alike had plenty to say of the matter, with Toney getting the last laugh in the end.
"I don't know what the Giants was doing with KT, but he's a dog," fellow receiver and 2022 pickup JuJu Smith-Schuster said late Sunday night. "[General manager] Brett Veach and [head coach] Andy Reid, they know how to pick and choose who to go get for this team."
Florida products beyond the shifty wideout made their presence felt throughout the game's biggest stage, from Chauncey Gardner-Johnson's big hits to Carlos Dunlap's quarterback pressures and beyond.
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