Chiefs’ Super Bowl win was a roller coaster — and we have heart rate data to prove it

The heart-stopping action of Super Bowl LVII was felt by fans of both the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, in a very literal way.

We partnered with The Philadelphia Inquirer to really see the impact of every touchdown and tackle on fans’ heart rates. Both news organizations asked fans to volunteer to monitor their heart rates throughout the big game using their Apple Watches, and then share their heart rate data with us to compare it with the action on the field.

Fans self-identified as die-hard, moderate or fair weather fans of each team. We analyzed each fans’ data and asked them to share a little bit about their game-watching experience. We’ve also included the information of a photojournalist for The Star who was in Glendale, Arizona, covering the Super Bowl.

The conclusions of this informal experiment?

The big game is an emotional roller-coaster, although each viewer’s ride looks a bit different.

The heart rates of all the participants went up and down throughout the game, with each hitting peaks and valleys at different moments of the gridiron action. Even Rihanna’s halftime show got pulses racing for these fans.

Chiefs fans certainly saw their heart rates rise as Kansas City won 38-35 in the final minutes of the game. And Eagles fans ended the night a bit heart broken.

Here’s what fans (and their heart rate data) had to say about their Super Bowl viewing experiences.

Fernando Valle, a Chiefs fan who also loves the Eagles, had a fluctuating heart rate

Fernando Valle, 43, of Kansas City was excited to see that both Kansas City and Philadelphia made it to the Super Bowl. He and his husband had moved from Kansas City to Philadelphia, where they lived for 10 years. They just moved back.

They fell in love with the Philadelphia Eagles because they were there, but were always cheering for the Chiefs from Philadelphia.

“We were always supportive of them because of our friends and family — there’s a connection there,” Valle said.

The couple watched the Super Bowl with friends and their kids and were hoping for a close game. They witnessed the victory parade when Philadelphia won the Super Bowl in 2018, and were looking forward to seeing one in Kansas City as well.

Headed into the game, Valle’s heart rates showed a lot of volatility. He said that because of the nice weather in Kansas City, they had played football with the children before the game.

He had a high heart rate at the kickoff, which he attributes to the excitement surrounding the start of the game. His heart rates decreased until jumping again when Kansas City kicker Harrison Butker missed a 42-yard field goal.

The last quarter was very stressful and unpredictable and he thinks that shows in his heart rate.

“I think it’s interesting to look into how emotions play, you know, in our heart,” he said.

Whenever recent Chiefs convert Norvel Johnson settled down, something else would get her heart racing again

Novel Johnson, 56, of Kansas City, considers herself a late-comer to being a Chiefs fan.

“I became a Chiefs fan because of Patrick Mahomes,” said Johnson, who is from and a fan of Detroit. But now, she sports Chiefs gear and has parties for almost every game. For the Super Bowl, she had around a dozen people over.

The game was very stressful, Johnson said, and she’s certain her heart rate shows that. Her heart rate showed it declined at the start of the game, but then shot up with Kansas City’s first touchdown. It stayed elevated for a while before it declined.

Then it jumped back up when the Eagles were in the middle of major back-to-back plays.

“It got kind of scary once we were down,” Johnson said.

At halftime, her heart rate jumped back up and stayed high while Rihanna performed. Johnson said she was probably up dancing, but she was also on edge because of the theatrics of Rihanna being so high in the air.

“I was like, ‘Wheh, they put her down. Thank you God,’” Johnson said when Rihanna got off the platform.

During the second half, Johnson’s heart rate spiked when the Eagles tied the game. It remained elevated.

“We wanted it to be close, but we expected to keep the lead,” said Johnson, who turned to playing solitaire to ease the tension.

“Once we got down to two minutes and we still had the ball, we were like this was our game,” Johnson said.

Lifelong Chiefs fan Stephanie Martin: ‘I’m sure my heart was going crazy.’

“Oh my gosh, it was so exciting,” said life-long Kansas City Chiefs fan Stephanie Martin of Liberty, Missouri. “A nail biter.”

The 35-year-old super fan, who watched the game at a friend’s home in Trimble, Missouri, knew the teams were evenly matched because she follows the podcast by Jason Kelce from the Eagles and Travis Kelce from the Chiefs.

“It could have gone either way, but I knew, I knew they were going to find a way,” Martin said of her Chiefs. She had seen it happen before this season, so she “had all the faith” even though the Chiefs had to fight back from behind.

Her heart rate spiked massively after the first Kansas City touchdown, and stayed volatile and spiky for a while. Part of that, she admitted, could have been because she was stair-stepping on the fireplace during commercials.

Her heart rate eventually started to decrease for a while and then shot back up again when Chiefs Nick Bolton returned Eagles Jalen Hurts fumble for a touchdown.

Around halftime her heart rate was elevated again. She believes that was because quarterback Patrick Mahomes was injured and limped off the field. She also danced and sang along with Rihanna during the halftime show.

“I’m sure my heart was going crazy,” she said. As the Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker lined up for the game-winning field goal, she was hoping he didn’t miss.

For her, a close game is ideal.

“But it doesn’t have to be so dang close all the way down to the end,” she said.

Star photojournalist Nick Wagner’s heart was pounding as he captured action from the sidelines

Nick Wagner, 28, was on the sidelines on Sunday covering his first Super Bowl for The Star, but after seeing his heart rate data in his Apple Watch he said he thinks he may need to start doing some cardio.

Wagner’s covered the 2019 Sugar Bowl between Texas and Georgia, playoff hockey games and chased tornadoes, but said that no assignment to date compares to the blood pumping spectacle of the Super Bowl.

While talking with friends after the game, he joked that he was afraid this experiment would show his heart rate was higher at halftime than during the game as he photographed Rihanna’s jaw-dropping performance.

“Turns out singing and dancing along with RiRi was cathartic and helped me settle in for the Chiefs’ 10-point comeback,” Wagner said.

His first big spike corresponds with the Chiefs’ first touchdown – a pass floated from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce – that unfolded right in front of him.

“Luckily my nerves didn’t get the best of me and I captured the moment, including the stanky leg,” he said.

But the biggest spike of the night, at 140 beats per minute, came as Jalen Hurts’ Hail Mary pass fell incomplete and Wagner sprinted across the field in a mad dash to get close to Patrick Mahomes.

“Luckily I avoided being laid out by Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie and I was able to keep close to Mahomes as he and Kelce celebrated their second championship victory together.”

Diehard Eagles fan Christal Watson’s heart rate stayed high — and volatile — during the whole game

Christal Watson wasn’t watching the game for the chips and dip and commercials.

She opted to stay in with a small group of fellow diehards who wouldn’t bother her with chit chat. “Like if you’re not talking about the game, and you’re not yelling at the TV then I can’t be around you.”

She recalls being excitable from the pregame performances — Nick Sirianni shedding a tear really got her — to the major plays. “When Jalen fumbled the ball, my heart broke.”But heart rate had its first extended spike during Rihanna’s performance, which she enjoyed while dancing with her best friend. And her highest spike was around 9:54, after the Eagles tied the game 35-35.

“That was the moment I’m like we might actually win. We can win this.” Which quickly became, “I hate football! Football’s dumb!”During the third quarter, she even removed herself from the group to watch in another room alone. “I’m one on one with the television trying to will my energy into Phoenix.”

After it was all over, her group turned the TV off and talked about season highlights. “It was probably one of the better games played in the Super Bowl, and I would have enjoyed the ending more if I wasn’t as fanatical of an Eagles fan.”

Moderate Eagles fan Carol Fritzsche’s heart rate rose toward the end of a ‘disappointing’ second half

For Carol Fritzsche, 35 of Cherry Hill, watching the game was “very stressful.” And the proof bears out in her heart rate data.

As she watched The Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs in her South Jersey home with a handful of friends, a lead at halftime gave way to a “disappointing” second half. The defense wasn’t the same she’s watched during the season, she said, but yet, she still maintained some “cautious” hope.

“Just growing up in Philadelphia, you’re just kind of used to the disappointment,” Fritzsche said.

Her heart rate was somewhat elevated throughout the game, and she could feel it rise during some of the game’s nail-biting key moments, like Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’ costly fumble, the false start penalty, and of course, the last five minutes of the game.

Her chart reflects as much — a slow but steadily climbing heart rate as the game went on.

At this point, knowing Phillies’ spring training is around the corner is helping her “move on.”

“You know, I guess there’s always next season,” she said.

Casual Eagles watcher Catherine Michini is calmer than the others — so calm she didn’t realize she was watching on a one-hour delay

Catherine Michini is not much of an Eagles fan.

The math teacher from Germantown doesn’t usually watch games, though her sister is a fan, so Michini tries to keep up by asking her smart speaker for the outcomes of games. She did start to feel some excitement and hometown pride heading into the Super Bowl, and she even watched one of the games leading up to it. (She’s not sure which one.)

“Even though I want them to win for many reasons,” she said Saturday, “the biggest reason is to have a day off for the parade.”

Come game time, Michini was paying attention, and her heart rate fluctuated somewhat but remained low. She enjoyed the game when the Eagles were ahead, but started to get nervous when they were behind.

As it turns out, she was behind the times — she and her husband had somehow ended up watching the game on a one-hour delay. She started to get suspicious when the texts from her sister and other friends didn’t line up with what she was seeing.

Then she received the alerts on her phone “and I thought, ‘Oh, something is definitely wrong here.’”

Her heart rate shows she was a lot calmer than the other fans — and it actually continued to decline during the course of the game.

“Maybe because I didn’t have any money riding on it,” she said. “Just that day off.”

When a racing heart is — and isn’t — a problem

When the heart rate is higher than 100 or lower than 60 beats per minute, medical providers look for a reason.

If someone’s heart rate is elevated for multiple hours because they’re running a marathon, that makes sense. But if they’re just sitting on the couch at home, it could signal trouble, said Neel Chokshi, the medical director of the sports cardiology and fitness program at Penn Medicine.

“Watching a game and [the heart rate] being elevated, if a person is asymptomatic, that in itself is not a concern,” Chokshi said. “That’s just a normal response of the heart.”

While a game-tying touchdown in the 4th quarter would make many fans’ hearts race, excitement is not the only reason for heart rate fluctuations throughout the game, Chokshi said. Dancing during Rihanna’s half time show and consuming alcohol (a diuretic) both could increase heart rate as well.

But for some with a history of heart disease, a sudden increase in heart rate due to excitement from a game could trigger a cardiac emergency. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the number of patients that arrived at Munich area hospitals with a heart problem more than doubled on days the German team played. Authors conclude that stress of viewing the match was the culprit.

But having a game trigger a heart problem is “not very common,” Chokshi said.

And just because some fans had a heart rate equivalent to that of players on the field, that doesn’t mean that they’ve done their workout for the week. Working out trains the heart to deliver more oxygen to muscles and generates a different hormonal response than stress. Yelling at the refs from home just doesn’t cut it.

“Watching the Super Bowl is different,” Chokshi said. “When you’re working out you are actually doing work.”