LAS VEGAS — Every year, most of the sports world watches the Super Bowl.
In the case of Super Bowl 2024, played three weeks ago at Allegiant Stadium, there was a foreign faction that took particularly keen interest in the NFL’s marquee game, won by the Kansas City Chiefs over the San Francisco 49ers.
Those involved in Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) were glued to their respective TVs and streaming devices because their product was going to be showcased on the very grass where Patrick Mahomes performed his magic for the Chiefs in 21 days.
The NRL is featuring the Manly Sea Eagles against the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Brisbane Broncos against the Sydney Roosters Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium.
And it’s hardly been lost on the players from the four teams that they will be showcasing their talents on the same turf as where one of the biggest sporting spectacles in the world was just played.
“Being able to play on the same field as the Super Bowl a couple weeks ago is amazing,’’ Damien Cook from the Rabbitohs told The Post. “We all watched the game together as a team. We have a lot of NFL fans across the (NRL) league as well. As an athlete, to play on the same grounds is special.’’
Cook said he’s been an Eagles fan since he was young and has only seen one NFL game live, a 49ers game at the old Candlestick Park.
“To be playing in the same stadium as where the Super Bowl was just played is unbelievable, man,’’ Manly’s Aaron Woods told The Post. “I never would have thought in my lifetime — and this is my 14th year playing in Rugby League — that I’d be able to promote the game I love in another country. It just shows that anything’s possible in the world.’’
James Tedesco, the captain of the Roosters and also Australia’s national team, the Kangaroos, revealed to The Post that he’s a Chiefs fan, but it’s not what you think, which is a front-runner.
“In 2018 when I got to the Roosters, I didn’t know much about the NFL but a lot of the boys there loved it and they all wore NFL jerseys for the ‘captains runs’ before games,’’ Tedesco said. “So, they said, ‘You’ve got to get a jersey.’ One of my teammates said, ‘You got to get a Kareem Hunt jersey; he’s a great running back who plays for the Chiefs.’
“So, I got a Kareem Hunt jersey and after that year, he left the Chiefs and that’s when Mahomes came on. So, I really got lucky. Liked the colors and from then on, was the start of their dynasty. Great timing. People might think of it as a bit of a bandwagon thing, but it was coincidence and timing.
“Since then, I’ve just loved watching Patrick Mahomes go about his work and Travis Kelce as well and now (running back Isiah) Pacheco and guys like (receiver) Rashee Rice. I’m also a big Christian McCaffrey fan as well, watching him play and how he runs the ball.’’
Tedesco said he watched the Super Bowl last month thinking, “Wow, we’re going to be sharing the same field as those guys.’’
“We were all watching the Super Bowl together as a team, so seeing the moments that were made on that pitch with Mahomes and those guys, it will be pretty cool for us to make some memories as well,’’ Tedesco said.
From a media standpoint, Yvonne Sampson, a Fox media personality who broadcasts NRL, said she watched this year’s Super Bowl “through a different lens’’ knowing she was going to be doing shows from the same sets as Fox’s NFL broadcast teams were last month.
“Watching the Super Bowl and seeing Allegiant Stadium under the brightest lights sport can offer really brought the whole thing into focus and into reality for us and our humble little Rugby League to be on the same turf,’’ Sampson told The Post. “For us to be able to take our game, which really began as a bit of a working-class offshoot from Rugby Union in England and for us to bring Rugby League to America and to play for Premiership points with four of our box-office teams there with some of the biggest stars in the game, hopefully Americans will fall in love with it just as we have.’’
Sampson sounded in awe of the way American TV produces and broadcasts the NFL product.
“I think American sports broadcast is the epitome,’’ she said. “It’s box office. The way that American sports fans are delivered the game is such a beautiful and polished product. I watched it as a broadcaster and am in awe of the bells and whistles and tricks and movement and the color and the entertainment value that’s injected in and the way you make it appealing for people to sit in the comfort of their own homes and feel like they’re very close to the game.
“I watched the Super Bowl from a different lens and imagined our little Rugby League teams running onto that same field and thought, ‘My gosh, the actual turf at Allegiant Stadium, we’re going to be standing on that same patch of grass under those same bright lights.’
“And, because of our relationship with Fox Sports U.S., we’re going to be using those Super Bowl sets,’’ she went on. “We’re going to be able to deliver our game of Rugby League in a very elevated way that we’ve never seen before.’’
Tickets for the NRL matches are available and can be purchased through Ticketmaster, with the prices starting as low as $19 — a far cry from the lowest face-value price of a Super Bowl ticket last month ($950). Seats in the lower tier start from $39 and go up to $189 for club seats.
The first of the two matches begins at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen on “Watch NRL,’’ a streaming app.
The doubleheader will be shown in the U.S. on FS1.
