SUPER BOWL LVIII
Why do Super Bowl winners say, ‘We’re going to Disney World’?
Here’s why one of the great traditions in the NFL Super Bowl is related to Disney World, as Patrick Mahomes knows only too well.
“I’m going to Disney World” is a phrase you’ve probably heard many times after a team wins the Super Bowl. It is one of the great traditions that is related to the amusement park found in Orlando, and one that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has become used to uttering in recent years.
Which players normally go to Disney World after the Super Bowl?
Usually, the ‘MVP’ winner visits Disney World after the game, normally with a teammate and their families, which Mahomes has done in each of the last two years. In his seven seasons in NFL, the 28 year old has reached four Super Bowls and been named the game’s best player in three of them. Let’s hope he’s a fan of Mickey Mouse and friends, which we can only assume he is, given that he was in Florida on Monday having won the championship game in Nevada the day before.
The only time in recent years that the MVP winner did not attend the amusement park was in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, a situation that caused the park to be closed.
Unfortunately, this prevented Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski from celebrating at the theme park, as is tradition.
Where does the tradition of the MVP going to Disney World come from?
It all started when Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, and his wife, Jane Breckenridge, dined with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, a couple of aviators who traveled the world non-stop. Breckenridge asked the pilots what they would do next, and they replied, “We’re going to Disney World.”
That’s where the idea of promoting it for the Super Bowl came from. Walt Disney met with NFL organizers, and they reached an agreement for the most valuable player to say the phrase after the game. From there, players of the stature of Brady, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Mahomes, among others, have come to the theme park.
The first player to say he would visit the famous park and star in the company’s commercials was Phil Simms, quarterback who won Super Bowl XXI in 1987 with the New York Giants. According to reports, the MVP earns between 30 and 50 thousand dollars just for saying the iconic phrase.