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Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff Writer
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Jerick McKinnon was just doing what his coaches asked of him in the final moments of Super Bowl LVII when he willingly took a knee short of the end zone to allow the Kansas City Chiefs to burn more time, rather than score an easy touchdown that the Philadelphia Eagles seemed willing to give him.
It was an easy call for McKinnon, a running back with seven seasons of NFL experience. The Chiefs, in a game that was tied at the time, were setting up for the potential game-winning field goal and wished to leave as little time as possible for a rebuttal from Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.
They were in the situation they refer to as “church mode,” a term they use when they want the ball carrier to give himself up by taking a knee before scoring — which is exactly what McKinnon did.
“I don’t think in the moment I understood the magnitude of it,” McKinnon said. “We were just running a play and I was just doing what I was supposed to.”
It was only after the game — which the Chiefs won, 38-35, on Harrison Butker’s 27-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining — that the consequences of his move dawned on McKinnon. His teammates congratulated him for the selfless play. His phone started blowing up as well with similar messages from players and friends from around the league.
“Afterward, after I had a chance to sit back, it really hit me,” McKinnon said. “It started to become bigger than I thought it was.”
In effect, McKinnon traded the ultimate in personal glory — scoring the potential winning touchdown in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl — for the greater good of his team, and for himself, a championship ring.
Back for a third season at Chiefs training camp, McKinnon said he is hoping for another Super Bowl chance, this time in a situation that doesn’t require personal sacrifice. But the play might wind up as the signature for his career, and if it is, he’s fine with that.
“It’s part of my legacy,” McKinnon said. “It’s a great picture of putting the team first. That’s what I’ve always been about. That play had a lot of significance to me.”
That’s why the Chiefs during the offseason signed McKinnon to a third straight one-year contract. They value him for his versatility and particularly for his pass-catching ability. McKinnon caught a touchdown pass in the final six regular season games last year.
McKinnon, 31, missed two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers earlier in his career after tearing an ACL, but otherwise he’s been durable and dependable.
“He’s like a dinosaur at that position,” coach Andy Reid said. “You’re playing [seven] years in the National Football League and as a running back, those are dog years. So he keeps himself in great shape.
He’s very smart. He’s pounded through the injuries that he’s had and really, the last couple of years here with us, he’s come out in a very positive way and shape for our team.
“He’s just a good guy to have around on your football team from a locker room standpoint. And then from a playing standpoint, there’s nothing that he can’t do. He does everything so well. He’s got the good hands, he can run well, he can run inside, outside, he’s a good blocker, picks up blitzes — the whole thing there.”
It’s no coincidence McKinnon was in the game for the Chiefs when they were in church mode. With their other option being rookie Isiah Pacheco, the Chiefs wanted McKinnon’s reliability.
“It’s a situation that we work and talk about throughout the entire year,” Eric Bieniemy, then the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator, said recently. “To have it come to fruition in that particular moment, for him to execute it with attention paid to detail because he knew how important it was for us as a team to make that moment happen . . . That’s why we had the success because guys are unselfish and they get it. They can see the big picture.”
McKinnon gave Bieniemy and the Chiefs an anxious moment on the play when it initially looked like he would head into the end zone. He did eventually tumble into the end zone, but his knee touched down first at the 2-yard line.
“He technically took a knee,” Bieniemy said. “Now his momentum carried him, but he declared himself down, which was good. We didn’t want one of those moments which we’ve seen where guys have kind of drifted into the end zone, but he clearly declared himself down.”
The Eagles would have had about a minute and half remaining to tie the score or win the game had McKinnon scored. Instead, the Chiefs killed more time on two plays by having quarterback Patrick Mahomes kneel with the ball. Butker then kicked his field goal and the Eagles had time for only one desperation play that failed.
“I’d do it again if it’s that situation,” he said. “Hopefully next time, we’re up and it’s not church mode and then I can score. Outside of that, I’m going to take a knee every time.”