Crossing Broad
The only good thing about the Patriots winning a bunch of Super Bowls in recent years is that they had a local guy on the team. That was Montco native and Boyertown Bear James Develin, who retired in 2020 after collecting three rings with the Pats.
Develin is now back in the area and runs two smoothie and coffee shops at the shore, called Soulberri. He grew up an Eagles fan and never stopped being one, even while playing alongside Tom Brady for seven NFL seasons.
We checked in with him for a Super Bowl 59 preview, and talked about Jalen Hurts, the Eagles running game, and why we should all try to enjoy the ride.
Crossing Broad: Super Bowl, 59 Eagles vs. Chiefs, rematch of a couple years ago. When you look at this matchup, what’s the first thing that comes to your head? What’s top of your mind when you begin to analyze this thing?
James Develin: I think the Eagles have just about as much talent as I think I’ve ever seen on a football team. Offensively, at every position they have top five, top three or the top player at that respective position. From an outsider’s perspective, a high level overview, Philly’s got so much talent. But Kansas City, they do so much to help themselves win football games. They have Patrick Mahomes and his magic. They have Kelce. They have good, solid running backs in Pacheco and Hunt. Man, it’s tough to call it, but I feel like if Philly hangs their hat on what they’re really good at and they don’t try to get too cute or too fancy, and they slug it out and let the offensive line pave holes and slow the game down, I think Philly has a really good shot. This is coming from a guy who used that methodology in 2018 out in Kansas City (Pats vs. Chiefs AFC title game). So selfishly I want to see them do the same thing again (laughs). It should be a good one, for sure.
CB: When you have a team approaching dynasty status and they’ve played a lot of Super Bowls in recent years, things get blurry. It’s hard to separate one team from another, kind of how it was with your Patriot teams. Do you have a sense of how this Chiefs team compares to other Chiefs teams going back a few years now?
Develin: You’re right about (the blurry thing). As a Patriot who lived through that whole four Super Bowls in five years (stretch), I can delineate between the two, but now being on the outside and looking at Kansas City and what they’ve done over the last five years, it’s really hard. You just kind of assume that they’re showing up with the same team the year prior or even beyond that. But this team, it seems like they have a nice weapon in Xavier Worthy, and they’re still riding the Mahomes and Kelce connection. Getting Hunt...
