“Isaiah Pacheco Rings in Another Year with a Joyous Birthday Bash!”

Opening Night acting as if they had arrived for a routine business meeting. They have, after all, reached the big game three times in the past four years, so the players have lived through the circus that starts the week. Weird questions? Crazy costumes?

Been there. Done that.

Then the team’s rookie running back came bounding up the stairs, an iPhone in one hand and a Gatorade cup in the other. Isiah Pacheco briefly turned that stage into his own personal dance floor, making his way around the entire perimeter with his arms in the air and his braids flapping under his baseball cap. If the AFC champs needed a little jolt to get through a long night of (mostly) nonsense, the formerafter the Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game, and danced in the end zone after scoring against the Chargers earlier in the season, and probably has danced dozens of times without the cameras running. Chances are, he’ll dance into a hundred million homes on Sunday, too, if he has a chance — and, given the storybook way his first NFL season has unfolded, don’t bet against it.

“I’m from Jersey! We love dancing in Jersey,” Pacheco said. “That’s something we’re always showing as part of our culture. That’s what we did at Rutgers, so for me to soak all those moments in and show the people the personality of who I really am, I don’t take that for granted.”

Pacheco is not the most important player for the Chiefs in this Super Bowl, not when the man handing him the ball has a chance to establish himself as one of the best big-game quarterbacks in NFL history this weekend. But even Patrick Mahomes would agree that Pacheco is the most joyful player in Phoenix, and that happy-to-be-here attitude is contagious.