Former Patriots guard Joe Thuney earns third Super Bowl ring

The New England Patriots did not have a lot of connections to Super Bowl LVII. Among the four men associated with the franchise to appear in this year’s NFL title game was Joe Thuney, the Kansas City Chiefs’ starting left guard.

Thanks to his team’s 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Thuney can now call himself a three-time world champion. The first of those, of course, came when he was still playing in New England.

Thuney originally joined the team as a third-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft out of N.C. State. Playing all over the offensive line in college, he settled on the interior with the Patriots and promptly earned the team’s left guard job. As such, he proved himself one of the most reliable players in all of football.

Thuney, after all, went on to appear in all 90 possible games over the next five years — including two victorious Super Bowls. He helped the Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons during his rookie season, and two years later celebrated his second championship in a win over the Los Angeles Rams.

As he did for virtually all of his career as a Patriot, Thuney went wire-to-wire in both games. In fact, only 10 games on his New England résumé did not see him play a full 100 percent of offensive snaps.

After the expiration of his rookie contract and a 2020 season spent under the franchise tag, Thuney left to join the Chiefs. He signed a five-year, $80 million contract with the team in free agency and has manned its left guard spot ever since.

Now, he has earned his first Super Bowl win with his new club — making it three titles in seven seasons for the 30-year-old.

Thuney is of course not the only ex-Patriot to win a championship on Sunday. Linebackers coach Brendan Daly, who was with New England from 2014 to 2018, earned his fifth total ring; two members of the club’s support staff — college scout Jonathan Howard and V.P. of sports medicine Rick Burkholder — also have ties to the organization.