Super Bowl 54 is in the books, and the Kansas City Chiefs came out victorious. They defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in a rewarding, drama-filled contest. The Super Bowl, advertised as “offense vs defense,” scored its first ratings increase in five years, with just under 100 million viewers on average watching Fox’s broadcast on Sunday.

The Chiefs and 49ers finished their warmups before the Super Bowl and lined up at their respective 24-yard lines — a tribute to Kobe Bryant, the five-time NBA champion who died along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson handled the pregame introductions, and Demi Lovato sung the national anthem. U.S. soldiers currently serving in Qatar were shown on the stadium screens and a performance punctuated by a flyover of a military fighter jet. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams, assisted by the Children’s Voice Chorus of Miami, preceded Lovato by performing “God Bless America.”

Kansas City took the game’s opening kickoff and went three-and-out, with Patrick Mahomes throwing a pair of incompletions. On the other end, 49ers kicker Robbie Gould kicked a 38-yard field goal with 7:57 left in the opening quarter, and San Francisco took a quick 3-0 lead over Kansas City. The game remained close for the rest of the half, and by halftime both teams tied at 10-10. 

As suspected Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s halftime performance did not disappoint. Shakira kicked off the performance with her hit songs, then Latino artists Bad Bunny and J Balvin made an appearance. Lopez performed next, singing hit songs and then bringing out daughter Emmie Lopez to sing “Let’s Get Loud.” Towards the end of the show Shakira and Lopez collaborated on their talents and put on a show, although it was considered too sexual and not appropriate for children by some parents. 

The second half, however, was more offensively entertaining. San Francisco started the half off with a field goal, then Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ first career playoff interception led to a Raheem Mostert touchdown run that put the 49ers at their biggest lead of the game, 20-10. Patrick Mahomes one more interception that the 49ers could not convert points from, and from there on it was all Chiefs. At the halfway mark of the fourth quarter, Kansas City drove down the length of the field and scored on a Travis Kelce touchdown. With 2:50 left in the game, and the season, Mahomes threw a 5 yard pass to running back Damien Williams and retook the lead 24-20. The 49ers failed to convert their last drive, and Williams put the icing on the cake with a rushing touchdown to seal the game, 31-20. 

This game contained a lot of drama, and brought a football title to Kansas City for the first time since 1969. This certainly proved Mahomes’ worth, as well as the balance of the Chiefs team. Many say the Super Bowl also proved that 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo does not deserve the expensive contract he received from San Francisco, although very few expected this 49ers team to get this far. As for football fans, the countdown to September starts now.