25 things to know about Super Bowl LV
Both Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes have been Super Bowl MVPs. How uncommon is that? And what other ways is this game making QB history?
There will be 25,000 fans allowed inside Raymond James Stadium, including 7,500 health-care workers. There will be another 30,000 cardboard cutouts, which probably has a lot to do with the optics for TV.
Grab yourself some beer and wings but, please, stay six feet away. Here are 25 things to know about Super Bowl fitty-five.
1. The age difference between Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady is 18 years, 45 days. It’s the largest gap between starting Super Bowl QBs.
2. This is just the second matchup between quarterbacks who already have won a Super Bowl MVP. Eli Manning-Brady in Supe 46 is the other.
3. Who was the Super Bowl MVP the calendar year you were born? For Tom Brady (1977), it was Fred Biletnikoff. For Patrick Mahomes (1995), it was Steve Young.
4. This is Brady’s 10th Super Bowl, but only his second truly outdoors. Eagles fans, who were in rainy Jacksonville for Supe 39, know all about Brady’s other open-air Super Bowl. He played three games in retractable-roof stadiums, but the house was sealed up for those games, and five in domed facilities.
5. All four of the previous meetings between Mahomes and Brady were decided by one score. Brady won the first two, including the 2018 AFC championship. Mahomes has won the most recent two.
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6. Tyreek Hill caught three touchdowns and had 203 of his 269 receiving yards in the first quarter in the Chiefs’ 27-24 win over the Bucs in Week 12 this season. Tampa Bay scored a pair of fourth-quarter TDs to make the score a little more respectable and, more important, cover the 3.5-point spread.
7. The Chiefs are laying 3 points on Sunday, but there are some 3.5-point lines out there if you like the Buccaneers.
8. Tampa Bay running back LeSean McCoy used a basketball analogy when asked about the two quarterbacks. “You look at a guy like Brady and he’s like Jordan — established, older. He don’t Air Jordan dunk anymore, but he’s beating you with the fadeaway. I think of Pat as the young Kobe. Like, he’s coming. The league’s aware of him and he’s making plays.”
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9. Kansas City is trying to become the first team to repeat since the 2004 Patriots beat Andy Reid and the Eagles in Super Bowl 39. Reid is 4-7 against Tom Brady’s teams; he was 0-4 as the Eagles coach, is 4-3 as KC’s coach. Brady is 3-0 in their postseason meetings.
10. A number of Tampa Bay assistant coaches played at Temple in the 1980s for current Bucs coach Bruce Arians, including defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, special-teams coordinator Keith Armstrong, running-backs coach Todd McNair, and defensive-backs coach Kevin Ross.
11. Ross played 14 seasons in the NFL, including 11 with Kansas City (1984-93, 1997). His name is in the ring of honor at Arrowhead Stadium. “It’s unreal, really,” said Ross, a Camden native. “To watch [the Chiefs] last year winning, I was very happy for them. And now to play against them in the biggest game I’ve been involved with is special. I hate that someone has to lose.”
12. The big loser is the Tampa Bay-area economy, which will not see the influx of thousands of fans. The Buccaneers are at home, so that’s one less hotel needed. And the Chiefs aren’t getting in until Saturday.
13. Taproom trivia: The 13 coaches who have won multiple Super Bowls are Bill Belichick (6), Chuck Noll (4), Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs (3 each), Vince Lombardi, Tom Flores, Jimmy Johnson, George Seifert, Mike Shanahan, Tom Coughlin, Bill Parcells, Tom Landry, and Don Shula (2 each).
14. Chiefs defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon can become the first Villanova product to win multiple Super Bowls. Tampa Bay tackle Brad Seaton, another Villanova product, opted out prior to the season because of the pandemic.
15. Canadian music sensation The Weeknd is the halftime performer.
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16. Buccaneers cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting is the fourth player in the Super Bowl era to have an interception in his first three career playoff games. Hall of Famers Ed Reed and Aeneas Williams, and Jason Sehorn are the others.
17. Murphy-Bunting grew up in suburban Detroit and when he was in high school would message then-Lions, now-Eagles cornerback Darius Slay through social media for advice on how to improve.
18. Norma Hunt, the 82-year-old matriarch of the Chiefs and wife of the team’s late founder Lamar Hunt, will continue her streak of having seen every Super Bowl in person.
19. Rob Gronkowski, the Buccaneers’ 6-foot-6, 270-pound behemoth tight end, got to spend some time during the bye with his mom who lives not far from Tampa.
20. “I’m leaving her house this morning, and she’s got a whole bag packed full of drinks for me,” said Gronk, 31. “She’s got a breakfast sandwich for me. She’s just still on top of her game. The impact that she has made on my life has been pretty incredible, and it’s just still going to this day.”
21. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has caught at least one touchdown in six games in a row. His 11 TDs this season were a career high, and his 1,416 receiving yards broke George Kittles’ record for tight ends.
22. Kelce was the fifth tight end drafted in 2013. Tyler Eifert (21st overall), Zach Ertz (35th), Gavin Escobar (47th), and Vance McDonald (55th) went ahead of Kelce (63rd).
23. Justin Watson, a reserve wide receiver for the Buccaneers who mostly plays special teams, will be the first Penn alum to play in a Super Bowl. Plenty of former Quakers played in NFL championships, such as Chuck Bednarik, but none has ever played in the Supe. Fullback Jim Finn was close, but he was on injured reserve when the Giants won the Super Bowl after the 2007 season.
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24. Bucs defensive lineman Jason Pierre-Paul isn’t just grateful to be back in the Super Bowl, he’s lucky to be alive. JPP had his right hand disfigured in a 2015 fireworks mishap and in 2019 suffered a fractured neck in an automobile accident.
25. “I been through a lot and the things I go through, I just stick with happy thoughts,” said Pierre-Paul, who won a title with the Giants in 2011. “My father was blind at age of 30, 31, and me being born and him having to look after me when my mom was working. He never quit. To this day he’s still happy and joyful, and happy I am in another Super Bowl.”
Inquirer wire services contributed to this report.