Super Bowl: Kadarius Toney makes giant plays in Kansas City win

GLENDALE, Ariz. — All week long, the Kansas City special teams coaches challenged one of their units in particular. They kept telling the players that there had been only a handful of memorable punt returns in the Super Bowl, certainly none for a touchdown.

Kadarius Toney had an answer for that history lesson.

“I just tried to come out here and show them, like, I ain’t played in it yet,” he said after playing a huge role in the 38-35 victory over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday night.

Toney was everything the Giants dreamed he would be when they drafted him in the first round in April 2021. He was fast, twitchy, hard to cover, hard to catch. The only thing they didn’t picture 22 months ago is that he would be those things in a Kansas City uniform when he reached this biggest stage of his career.

Unable to see any production from him on the field because of a number of nagging injuries and other issues, the Giants traded him in October. It turned out to be one of the key pickups by Kansas City.

In the span of a little less than two minutes in the fourth quarter Sunday night, he caught a go-ahead 5-yard touchdown pass and ripped off a 65-yard punt return to the Eagles’ 5 that set the record for longest in the Super Bowl. It set up the touchdown that extended the KC lead to 35-27.

“Here comes KT into this thing late from the Giants and he has a couple of the biggest plays of the game,” coach Andy Reid said, putting Toney at the top of the list of newcomers either before or during the season who contributed to this team’s championship. “It’s been like that.”

“Coming here, the environment has just been life-changing,” Toney said. “You can just imagine the coaches and the entire organization, the energy you feel in the building day in and day out, it’s different. It makes you want to go out there and be the best player you can be. I’m surrounded by the MVP [Patrick Mahomes], the top tight end in the league [Travis Kelce]. I just tried to fit in and be the best player I can be.”

Toney said he has no hard feelings toward the Giants. If anything, he has apathy toward them and his year and a half with them.

“To me it’s been all ball,” he said. “I don’t really get into all of that. At the end of the day, I went to a different position and I had to put my best foot forward. I don’t really look at it as this or that. I’m a champion right now, so I don’t really care about nothing else.”

Never let it be said that Toney did not score a touchdown for the Giants; his play that reached the end zone to help beat the hated Eagles was the best contribution he ever made for the franchise. But it was Kansas City that figured out how best to utilize him and keep him healthy, not the Giants, and that play was a clear demonstration of it.

On his TD catch, Toney lined up far to the right and started sprinting in motion as if he were going to get a handoff on a jet sweep. As Darius Slay bit on that motion and was swallowed up in the middle of the field, Toney hit the brakes, took a step backward, caught an easy pass from Mahomes and strutted into the end zone.

“When I saw the ball coming toward me, I kinda knew it was over,” he said. “It means everything. I couldn’t have done it without Andy Reid and the guys. He’s the smartest coach in the game. He’s always a step ahead.”

When Kansas City practiced that play during the week, Toney was unable to keep his feet. Every time he tried to stop suddenly, he wound up falling on his back.The coaches eventually stopped rehearsing it, but that didn’t prevent them from turning to it when they needed a critical score.

Almost immediately after that, Toney fielded the punt from Arryn Siposs.

“On film he was lining up straight kicking right and on that he kicked it left and it kind of threw everybody off,” he said of the Eagles' coverage. “I saw a shanked kick.”

Once he reversed his field, though, he saw something else: a wall of white jerseys. Toney seemed to enjoy his run down the sideline, slowing down and speeding up as if toying with the Eagles. Eventually he was knocked out of bounds at the 5.

Told his punt return had set a Super Bowl record, Toney said: “It feels great right now.”

Then he paused as if stutter-stepping on the field.

“But I don’t think it’s gonna feel better than that ring, though.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.