Turning losing into winning (a Super Bowl lesson)

No one wins all the time. Winning is fun and feels good, but competitors look for the opportunity to lose because losing is maybe the best way to learn and get better. Such was the lesson of this year’s Super Bowl in which the losers of the 2023 Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles, led by quarterback Jalen Hurts and coach Nick Sirianni, returned to the “biggest game in sports” in 2025 and crushed the same team that beat them in 2023.

Learning from a loss can be hard. You have to change something if you expect to get a different result next time. Sirianni changed both his coaching and player personnel, including new coordinators for offense and defense and a new star running back to support his superstar running quarterback. I suspect they watched a ton of film and the new coaches, analysts we might say, found some ways to adapt. This time the Eagles brought a new defensive look for Mahomes and the Chiefs – no blitzing – that flummoxed the Chiefs’ offense. When you get a second chance you check the data and adapt.

Hurts was by far my favorite character in this “turn losing into winning story.” After the loss in 2023, he changed his phone background to a picture of himself walking off the field through a shower of red and gold Kansas City Chiefs confetti. I don’t know how many times a day he looks at his phone, but in my world that’s a lot of “nudging” to figure out how to do better next time. Motivating learning from a loss is a big part of changing the next outcome.

When I am asked what I like best about the Super Bowl – the game, the halftime, or the ads – I answer, the ads. But as I learn more about how the Eagles surprised the Chiefs (and most of the sports pundits), I find myself thinking about how important losing can be to winning.

Scott Nelson, president and CTO, Tamarack