Weekend Sport with Jason Pine •iHeart
Phil Murphy: All you need to know about Super Bowl LV - Weekend Sport with Jason Pine
Weekend Sport with Jason Pine
Super Bowl LV (that's 55 for the Roman numeral illiterate), kicks off in Tampa on Monday with the defending champions the Kansas City Chiefs taking on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Quarterback clash
There has never been a Super Bowl matchup of accomplished quarterbacks quite like the one between Tampa Bay's Brady and Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes.
This will be the sixth Super Bowl matchup between former AP NFL MVPs, the second between former Super Bowl MVP winning quarterbacks and the first between players who had previously won both awards.
Brady has won a record six Super Bowl titles, four Super MVPs and three league MVP awards since becoming starter in New England in 2001.
Mahomes is just getting started in his career and already has one league MVP and one Super Bowl MVP to his credit and is back in the title game for the second time.
Brady was also part of the only previous matchup of Super Bowl MVPs losing a rematch to Eli Manning and the New York Giants in 2011.
This will also be the second time in NFL history that the past two championship quarterbacks are facing off in the title game. The only other time it happened came in 1943 when Washington's Sammy Baugh faced Chicago's Sid Luckman. Baugh had won the title with Washington in 1942 and Luckman with the Bears in 1941.
Brady is also the fourth quarterback to start Super Bowls for two franchises, joining Peyton Manning (Indianapolis and Denver), Kurt Warner (Rams and Arizona) and Craig Morton (Dallas and Denver).
The other players
For the Chiefs, one of Mahomes main targets is tight end Travis Kelce who has 11 touchdowns to his name this season. Tyreek Hill leads the way with 15 receiving touchdowns along with two on the ground - he scored three touchdowns in the week 12 clash with Tampa Bay. Rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has impressed in his first season but didn't feature much in the previous win over the Bills.
On the defensive end of the ball Tyrann Mathieu has been one of the best cornerbacks in the game for a number of years and has hauled in six interceptions this season.
Wide receiver Mike Evans is the biggest threat for the Buccaneers with 13 touchdowns this season. Fellow wide receiver Chris Goodwin and Brady's old tight end teammate from New England Rob Gronkowski both have received seven touchdowns.
Tampa Bay running back Ronald Jones II has run in seven touchdowns this season with four games over 100 yards gained but suffered a chest injury in their last game. Veteran running back Leonard Fournette has done well in sharing the duties in the playoffs.
The Buccaneers have several defensive threats in linebackers Lavonte David, Shaquil Barrett, Devin White and Jason Pierre-Paul who will be tasked with stopping Mahomes.
Home advantage
The Bucs will be the first team to play the Super Bowl at their home stadium, although two others got to play for the title in their home markets.
In the 1979 season, the Los Angeles Rams went to the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where they lost 31-19 to the Steelers.
Five years later, the San Francisco 49ers won the title just a few miles south of their home at Candlestick Park with a 38-16 win over the Miami Dolphins at Stanford Stadium.
With a win on Monday, the Bucs will be the first team in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball to win it all at its home venue since the Golden State Warriors did it in the 2017 NBA Finals against Cleveland. Every title since then was clinched on the road or in a neutral site at the Super Bowl or in a coronavirus bubble.
The last time the NFL champion finished the season by winning a title at its own stadium came in the 1965 season when Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers beat the Cleveland Browns 23-12 at Lambeau Field in the final season before the Super Bowl.
Covid crowd
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the expected...
Quarterback clash
There has never been a Super Bowl matchup of accomplished quarterbacks quite like the one between Tampa Bay's Brady and Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes.
This will be the sixth Super Bowl matchup between former AP NFL MVPs, the second between former Super Bowl MVP winning quarterbacks and the first between players who had previously won both awards.
Brady has won a record six Super Bowl titles, four Super MVPs and three league MVP awards since becoming starter in New England in 2001.
Mahomes is just getting started in his career and already has one league MVP and one Super Bowl MVP to his credit and is back in the title game for the second time.
Brady was also part of the only previous matchup of Super Bowl MVPs losing a rematch to Eli Manning and the New York Giants in 2011.
This will also be the second time in NFL history that the past two championship quarterbacks are facing off in the title game. The only other time it happened came in 1943 when Washington's Sammy Baugh faced Chicago's Sid Luckman. Baugh had won the title with Washington in 1942 and Luckman with the Bears in 1941.
Brady is also the fourth quarterback to start Super Bowls for two franchises, joining Peyton Manning (Indianapolis and Denver), Kurt Warner (Rams and Arizona) and Craig Morton (Dallas and Denver).
The other players
For the Chiefs, one of Mahomes main targets is tight end Travis Kelce who has 11 touchdowns to his name this season. Tyreek Hill leads the way with 15 receiving touchdowns along with two on the ground - he scored three touchdowns in the week 12 clash with Tampa Bay. Rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has impressed in his first season but didn't feature much in the previous win over the Bills.
On the defensive end of the ball Tyrann Mathieu has been one of the best cornerbacks in the game for a number of years and has hauled in six interceptions this season.
Wide receiver Mike Evans is the biggest threat for the Buccaneers with 13 touchdowns this season. Fellow wide receiver Chris Goodwin and Brady's old tight end teammate from New England Rob Gronkowski both have received seven touchdowns.
Tampa Bay running back Ronald Jones II has run in seven touchdowns this season with four games over 100 yards gained but suffered a chest injury in their last game. Veteran running back Leonard Fournette has done well in sharing the duties in the playoffs.
The Buccaneers have several defensive threats in linebackers Lavonte David, Shaquil Barrett, Devin White and Jason Pierre-Paul who will be tasked with stopping Mahomes.
Home advantage
The Bucs will be the first team to play the Super Bowl at their home stadium, although two others got to play for the title in their home markets.
In the 1979 season, the Los Angeles Rams went to the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, where they lost 31-19 to the Steelers.
Five years later, the San Francisco 49ers won the title just a few miles south of their home at Candlestick Park with a 38-16 win over the Miami Dolphins at Stanford Stadium.
With a win on Monday, the Bucs will be the first team in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball to win it all at its home venue since the Golden State Warriors did it in the 2017 NBA Finals against Cleveland. Every title since then was clinched on the road or in a neutral site at the Super Bowl or in a coronavirus bubble.
The last time the NFL champion finished the season by winning a title at its own stadium came in the 1965 season when Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers beat the Cleveland Browns 23-12 at Lambeau Field in the final season before the Super Bowl.
Covid crowd
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the expected...
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:0000:00