PHOENIX — The Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs is rapidly approaching. Here are some things to know ahead of Sunday’s game:
The game begins at 5:30 p.m. CT on Sunday and can be viewed on Fox, Fox Deportes and the NFL+ app. It can also be streamed on multiple services, including YouTube TV. The national radio broadcast is on Westwood One.
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The Kansas City Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl for the third time in four years after winning another AFC Championship. The Chiefs won Super Bowl 54 against the 49ers after the 2019 season but lost to the Buccaneers after 2020.
The Chiefs are led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who claimed his second MVP award on Thursday night. They’ve also got several other stars, led by tight end Travis Kelce and defensive lineman Chris Jones.
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The Philadelphia Eagles won the NFC championship and are trying to win their second Super Bowl in six years. They’re led by quarterback and MVP finalist Jalen Hurts, receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and linebacker Haason Reddick.
The Super Bowl will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., which is home to the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Glendale is a suburb of Phoenix.
It’s the third Super Bowl the stadium has hosted.
The Phoenix area is no stranger to big events: In fact, two of them are happening right now. The Super Bowl is obviously attracting a lot of attention but the yearly WM Phoenix Open is also this week, drawing thousands of golf fans — and a steady stream of private planes — to the city to watch players like top-ranked Rory McElroy.
The NBA even made a brief cameo earlier this week: The Phoenix Suns acquired superstar Kevin Durant in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets that rocked the sport and galvanized the city’s fan base.
The Eagles are favored by 1½ points to beat the Chiefs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, and the line has stayed fairly constant over the past two weeks. The over-under is 50½ points.
Picking the game’s winner is one of the basic ways to bet, but there are many, many prop bets gamblers can also choose.
Sportsbooks have taken advantage of the increasing popularity of prop bets, which could range from whether there will be a safety to whether the Chiefs or Eagles will score more points than NBA stars LeBron James or Steph Curry when their teams meet the day before the big game.
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Professional sports bettors tend to make the more traditional wagers and look for value in the props if they believe they can find a betting number to exploit. For the most part, the props belong to the general public.
The league had its yearly “NFL Honors” show on Thursday night, with Mahomes receiving his second MVP and Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott earning the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year.
Another highlight: Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin made his second appearance of the week, paying tribute to those who had a hand in giving him a second chance at life.
Hamlin was on stage a little more than a month after he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati.
Nine-time Grammy Award winner Rihanna is the headline act of this year’s halftime show.
She’s had 14 No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.” She and rapper A$AP Rocky recently welcomed her first child.
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“The setlist was the biggest challenge. That was the hardest, hardest part. Deciding how to maximize 13 minutes but also celebrate — that’s what this show is going to be. It’s going to be a celebration of my catalog in the best way that we could have put it together,” Rihanna said.
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AP’s Mark Anderson, John Marshall, Jonathan Landrum Jr. and Terry Tang contributed.
