‘Inner Excellence,’ a birthday to remember, and Serena Williams highlight the Super Bowl LIX broadcast

The Eagles are Super Bowl champions for the second time in franchise history. The Birds took down the Kansas City Chiefs — who’d been on the hunt for a three-peat — with a 40-22 win in New Orleans on Sunday. If you were among the Eagles faithful who watched live from the Caesars Superdome, or if you were at a crowded party unable to hear or see much, here’s what you missed during the Super Bowl broadcast:

» READ MORE: The Eagles left no doubt in Super Bowl LIX: They’re the best Philly team of all time

Once the clock ran out, the green and white confetti fell. But even before then, the Eagles let the tears fall, unafraid to hide their emotions surrounding the moment.

Head coach Nick Sirianni broke down into happy tears with his family following the game. His reaction likely was similar to ones in houses around Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.

Once Jalen Hurts was taken out for backup quarterback Kenny Pickett, the timing seemed right.

DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown drenched Sirianni with Gatorade with a little under three minutes to go in the game.

Love him or hate him, it’s hard not to respect Sirianni, who has led the Eagles to the postseason in each of his four seasons in charge. He’s reached two Super Bowls and now has a Super Bowl win.

And he soaked in the moment … while soaked in Gatorade.

And for anyone who had a wager on it, the Gatorade was yellow (lemon-lime).

Chants of “BG” filled the Superdome so loud throughout the broadcast that you would have thought they were coming from Lincoln Financial Field.

Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham returned Sunday after a triceps injury in Week 12 initially looked to have ended his season and possibly his career.

The Eagles veteran announced that it would be his last season before his injury, and the fans who found their way to the Big Easy let Graham feel the love, especially with the encouragement of Sirianni, who stood on the sidelines amping up the crowd. Now, we wait not see if Graham, with 15 seasons under his belt, will call it quits or come back for one more ride.

If Eagles rookie Cooper DeJean was to pick the perfect time for his first career interception, there likely wouldn’t be anything he’d prefer over a 38-yard pick-six in the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah, and it came on his 22nd birthday.

The cornerback became just the second player to score a touchdown on his birthday in the Super Bowl. The interception put the Eagles up, 17-0, and handed Mahomes his largest deficit in 54 games.

» READ MORE: Cooper DeJean’s Super Bowl TD could get him a street named in his tiny Iowa hometown

When football fans hear Tom Brady is at the Super Bowl, the safe assumption is that he’s playing in it. But Brady took on a new role in the big game and called his first Super Bowl from the broadcast booth with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt.

It was only fitting that it was in the same place where Brady won his first Super Bowl in 2002 with the New England Patriots.

While the setting brought back good memories for Brady, Burkhardt was quick to poke at some of the bad ones too, especially with the return of Graham.

When the Eagles hoisted the Lombardi Trophy for the first time in 2018, a strip-sack by Graham against Brady helped seal the victory. Still, Brady insisted there was no bad blood.

“He’s my fellow [Michigan] Wolverine and a great friend of mine,” Brady said. “All the respect to him.”

While Brady showed love for Graham, he was quick to criticize the officials after Brown was called for offensive pass interference on what would have been a 32-yard reception for a fourth-down conversion.

Brady was quick to say that he didn’t “like that one bit,” in what was “too critical of a game” for calls like that one.

The Chiefs then were called for unnecessary roughness by Trent McDuffie in another controversial call that Brady denounced.

“I always feel like these big games come down to one or two calls,” Brady said.

Brown’s sideline book of choice, Inner Excellence, has been a rallying symbol for Eagles fans throughout the playoffs.

So of course, after scoring a touchdown to give the Eagles the second-largest lead going into the half in Super Bowl history, Brown broke out the book.

But not before a “Cha-Cha Slide” touchdown dance as he promised to Jameis Winston on media night. Brown is a man of his word.

While Kendrick Lamar announced in advance that SZA would be joining him for his halftime performance, there still were some surprises during the performance.

Samuel L. Jackson opened the show dressed as Uncle Sam and served as a narrator throughout the performance.

But the biggest surprise was when Serena Williams made an appearance during Lamar’s Grammy-winning Song of the Year, “Not Like Us.”

The tennis star took the stage for a cameo of her dancing to the diss track about her ex-boyfriend, Drake.