Cooper DeJean has been playfully mentioned by observers as an example of a diverse hire for the NFL champions. However, they have achieved success by questioning antiquated notions.
The house advertising encouraging racial and cultural cooperation has probably been forgotten by many who watched Sunday’s Super Bowl. That’s without a doubt that Philadelphia’s Cooper DeJean intercepted a ball from the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and returned it for a score halfway through the second quarter, making a far bigger statement.
The league’s ultimate DEI hire, according to media personalities like Bomani Jones, is DeJean, the first white player to start at cornerback in a Super Bowl in 24 years. Even if those remarks were made with their tongues firmly in their cheeks, there is some truth to calling the Eagles’ triumph a victory for diversity, equity, and inclusion—all of which are now under attack in America.
After all, with the cultural uproar surrounding the game—not to mention Kendrick Lamar’s politically charged halftime show—Super Bowl LIX was never going to be simply a game. However, heading into Sunday, no force had greater momentum than the Chiefs. They weren’t only vying for the third straight title. In the second period of Donald Trump, who became the first US president to attend a Super Bowl while in office, they were representing America’s team. At the same time, the NFL took down their iconic antiracism chants from the field, maybe out of concern that Trump, who left the game early, would turn it into another DEI rallying cry.
On garbage trucks, individuals wearing football jerseys stand.
Following their Super Bowl victory, Philadelphia Eagles supporters celebrate in style, as shown in these photos.
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Which team the president visited in New Orleans was obvious. Trump was seen meeting Mahomes’ brother and mother. Although Trump previously wrote in all caps that he detested the player’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, when she threw her support behind Kamala Harris in the presidential race, the Chiefs’ top tight end, Travis Kelce, bragged about playing in front of the president the week before the game. (He posted a video of Swift being jeered throughout the game.) Trump correctly described his wife as a “Maga fan,” dubbed Mahomes “a winner,” and selected Kansas City to win three straight titles. Even though polling data indicates Harris earned many more votes in Kansas City’s more populated Missouri counties, Trump complimented Chiefs supporters for voting for him “in record numbers.” However, the Chiefs couldn’t look more in sync with a Maga movement that is determined to undo 60 years of DEI advances, from their wantonly offensive tomahawk chop chant to the kicker who is best friends with Maga senator Josh Hawley to the fact that the team plays in red. Given that Philadelphia hasn’t supported a Republican for president since 1932, it makes sense that the city would reject this new political normal the most forcefully.
Sports fans in Philadelphia don’t submit to authorities. They reject it. They allegedly threw batteries at players they disliked, whether they were on their team or the other, and jeered Santa Claus. They are devoted to their freedom of speech and are morally upright in their allegiance. After the Eagles secured their Super Bowl ticket, they clogged downtown streets and scaled light poles that the city had previously oiled to discourage them. On Sunday, tens of thousands of Eagles supporters, all decked out in their greenest finery, flocked to downtown New Orleans to jeer at the president, jeer at Mahomes, and see a football revolution. Their shock was made the more bittersweet by the fact that the Eagles are one of the most inclusive, equal, and diverse teams in sports.
The Eagles, an equal opportunity dynasty killer, rely heavily on DEI. Seven years ago, they prevented the New England Patriots from winning a second straight title in part by using a trick play with a backup quarterback who caught the game-winning pass. They like to do things differently. Jeffrey Lurie, the team’s owner, recently created a movie about an undocumented immigrant artist, a tale he claimed to be “proud” to depict. Lurie took the time to thank the more than 200 Eagles “support staff you’ll never hear about” after hoisting the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday. One of them is Autumn Lockwood, a performance expert for the Eagles who joined the club in 2023 and became the first Black woman to serve on a coaching staff that won a Super Bowl.
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