Kansas City will face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. The Eagles opened as a 1 1/2-point favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
There’s no shortage of storylines for this Super Bowl. Kansas City coach Andy Reid goes against his old team, which he led to Super Bowl XXXIX. This game is also the first matchup of Black starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl with Mahomes and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts.
On top of that, there’s a brother-against-brother showdown between Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Philadelphia center Jason Kelce. Immediately after the Chiefs won, Jason Kelce tweeted, “ Officially done being a Chiefs fan this season!! ”
The Chiefs have been making regular deep postseason runs since Mahomes came to town as the franchise quarterback. This was their fifth straight trip to the AFC title game and will be their third Super Bowl appearance. They beat the 49ers for the NFL title in the 2019 season but lost to the Bucs the following season.
The Eagles destroyed the Niners 31-7 in the NFC title game. They looked dominant in the playoffs, beating the New York Giants 38-7 in the divisional round. Philadelphia is back in the Super Bowl five years after defeating the New England Patriots 41-33 on Feb. 4, 2018. A mostly new generation of Eagles, led by coach Nick Sirianni and Hurts, will come to Arizona to try and win another title.
Rihanna will take center stage as the headline act for this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. With sales of more than 250 million records worldwide, Rihanna ranks as one of the best-selling female artists ever. Her most recent album was 2016′s “Anti.” Rihanna last performed publicly at the Grammy Awards in 2018.
The singer said she turned down a similar opportunity for Super Bowl LIII that was ultimately headlined by Maroon 5. At the time, many artists voiced support for Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who protested police brutality against Black people and minorities by kneeling during the national anthem in 2016. Country music star Chris Stapleton will sing the national anthem, while R&B legend Babyface will perform “America the Beautiful.”
This year, the Pro Bowl got a major makeover after the NFL eliminated its full-contact all-star game and replaced it with weeklong skills competitions and a flag football game. The Pro Bowl debuted in January 1951 in Los Angeles and stayed there for 21 seasons before moving to different cities from 1972-80. Hawaii hosted from 1980-2009, and the game has had several homes in the years since, including Miami, Phoenix, Orlando and Las Vegas.