By The Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles face off in the Super Bowl. Follow for the latest live updates and news from The Associated Press. All times MST.
PLACE YOUR BETS
There will be plenty of action on the football field Sunday. And at the casinos.
The Super Bowl is one of the biggest sports betting days of the year, especially now that about two-thirds of the country can do so legally.
Some of the most popular bets are also the most straightforward: The Eagles are favored by 1 1/2 points, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The site’s over-under is currently set at 51 1/2 points.
Sportsbooks have also taken advantage of the increasing popularity of prop bets, which range from the team who wins the coin flip, to who scores the first touchdown, to whether the game goes to overtime.
You can even bet on the color of Gatorade used when the winning coach is given his postgame bath.
3:45 p.m.
Damar Hamlin is at the Super Bowl.
The Buffalo Bills safety made his third public appearance in Phoenix during Super Bowl week, this time on the field at State Farm Stadium prior to Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s another step in Hamlin’s remarkable recovery. It’s been a little more than a month since Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati.
He also appeared on stage at “NFL Honors” on Thursday night after the Bills and Cincinnati Bengals training and medical staffs, along with the staff at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, were recognized.
3:40 p.m.
This is not the moment for the cable to go out in Philly, but here we are.
Comcast spokesperson Jen Bilotta said physical damage that severed fiberoptic cable in the Kensington section of northeast Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon resulted in an outage affecting a few thousand households in the Kensington and Fishtown neighborhoods and some surrounding areas.
She said crews have been “working furiously” for several hours to resolve the problem and some customers have started to come back online — they are hoping to restore service to everyone by kickoff.
SUPER BOWL HISTORY
For the first time, young aspiring football players all over the world will get to watch two Black quarterbacks face each other in the Super Bowl.
AP NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes leads Kansas City against the MVP runner-up, Jalen Hurts. The significance isn’t lost on Mahomes.
“I think about it a lot,” Mahomes said. “The quarterbacks that came before me — Shack Harris, Doug Williams — that laid the foundation for me to be in this position. It goes across all sports. If you think about Jackie Robinson and the people who broke the color barrier in baseball, I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for them.
3:20 p.m.
Arryn Siposs is active for the Philadelphia Eagles and will handle punting duties against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Siposs went on injured reserve after injuring an ankle against the Giants in December. He was activated after the Eagles beat the 49ers for the NFC championship, raising expectations that he would play in the big game.
Brett Kern had been punting for the Eagles. He was inactive for the Super Bowl.
The other inactive players for Philadelphia: quarterback Ian Book, cornerback Josiah Scott, running back Trey Sermon, safety Anthony Harris, linebacker Kyron Johnson and wide receiver Greg Ward.
Inactive for the Chiefs: quarterback Shane Buechele, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, defensive ends Josh Kaindoh and Malik Herring, tight end Blake Bell and offensive linemen Austin Reiter and Darian Kinnard.
SUPER BROS
For the first time in Super Bowl history, a pair of siblings will play each other on the NFL’s grandest stage.
Travis Kelce helped the Kansas City Chiefs return to their third championship game in four seasons, while brother Jason has the Eagles back for the second time in six years.
“Cool scenario to be in, you know?” Travis Kelce said. “My mom can’t lose.”
Donna Kelce said on Thursday before the “NFL Honors” show that she did her best to keep up with her two sons’ voracious appetites, but it was easier said than done.
“The refrigerator was always packed, but it didn’t last more than a day or so,” she said. “Whole chickens, they would eat lots of pork, ribs. I’d have leftovers in the refrigerator and it never lasted past the day.
“When they left for college, I got a raise.”
IMPORTANT DELIVERIES
Tony Conigliaro’s Super Bowl started long before kickoff.
The owner of Tony’s Pizza in Brooklyn said he was taking orders Saturday, a day ahead of the big game, especially for the “family deal”: a large pie, 10 wings, garlic knots, soda and other extras for $32 — delivered.
“The Super Bowl is a little crazy,” said Conigliaro, who has been selling pizzas for more than 30 years. “Everybody wants to eat at the same time. That’s the problem. Everybody wants 5:30, quarter to six, six o’clock. It comes to a point that we don’t pick up the phones no more because everybody’s calling back — ‘Where’s my pizza?’”
Then the game starts and his ovens cool off a bit.
“Then we get busy again. What do you call it — halftime?” Conigliaro said. “The phone starts ringing.”
He estimates his staff would make 200 pizzas Sunday, but not after 8 p.m.
“We just clean up and go home,” Conigliaro said.
HALFTIME LOOKAHEAD
Rihanna has put in the work ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show, focusing so hard on what she promises will be “a jam-packed show” that her upcoming birthday and Valentine’s Day almost slipped her mind.
“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.
It’ll be her first live performance in seven years.
PHILLY GIRL
Jill Biden is expected to be among the fans at State Farm Stadium cheering on her beloved Philadelphia Eagles.
The first lady grew up in suburban Philadelphia and has never been shy about her allegiance to the hometown team. She and her grandson, Hunter, were at the stadium in Philadelphia on Jan. 29 when the Eagles won the NFC championship.
The 16-year-old will join her again on Sunday.
No sitting president has attended a Super Bowl, mainly because of the strict security requirements authorities would need to impose upon the tens of thousands of fans. President Biden will be at the White House on Sunday.
President Biden says he’s a Philadelphia sports fan, too, out of necessity, and often jokes that “I’d be sleeping alone” otherwise.
2:20 p.m.
The Kansas City Chiefs welcomed two new fans to the world on Super Bowl Sunday, with a third apparently on the way.
Chiefs offensive lineman Nick Allegretti’s wife, Christina, gave birth in the early hours to twin girls back home in Chicago, a team official confirmed to The Associated Press. Allegretti was able to watch everything unfold on FaceTime from the lobby of the team hotel while the rest of the Chiefs slept ahead of their game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Allegretti, who has started three games this season, will be available for the Chiefs in the big game.
About the same time his wife was giving birth, Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman tweeted that his girlfriend, Chariah Gordeon, had gone into labor. Hardman went on injured reserve this week and was not available to play in the game.
There are plenty of Eagles on baby watch, too.
Starting center Jason Kelce, whose brother Travis is a tight end for Kansas City, and his wife are expecting their third child at any moment. In fact, Kylie Kelce, who is 38 weeks pregnant, has said that her obstetricians would be on hand at State Farm Stadium on Sunday should the baby make a dramatic appearance during the game.
PHILLY FAITHFUL
Philadelphia native Dawn Staley donned an Eagles jersey during Sunday’s South Carolina-LSU SEC matchup of undefeated teams in women’s basketball ahead of the Super Bowl. And after her top-ranked Gamecocks rolled to an 88-64 victory, Staley was asked about the Chiefs-Eagles matchup.
“The Eagles have already won,” the coach beamed. “It’s divine order. Jalen Hurts, it’s divine order.”
AD TALK
Booze was a big buyer for Super Bowl ad space this year. Crypto, not so much.
Anheuser-Busch will again be the biggest advertiser during the Super Bowl, with three minutes of national airtime. But the beverage giant gave up its deal to be the game’s exclusive alcohol advertiser, so Heineken, Diageo, Remy Martin and Molson Coors are also in.
After last year’s “Crypto Bowl” featured four cryptocurrency companies running splashy ads, there won’t be any this year.
Several 30-second ad slots sold for more than $7 million this year, with most going for between $6 million and $7 million.
HEALTH WATCH
Patrick Mahomes says he’s “definitely in a better spot” when it comes to his ailing right ankle than he was for the AFC championship game, and the AP MVP doesn’t expect to be limited by it when he leads the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.
The quarterback said this week that he continues to get treatment on the ankle, which he hurt in the divisional round against Jacksonville, and that it will probably continue up until Sunday’s kickoff.
“You won’t know exactly how it is until you get to game day,” he said.
1:50 p.m.
Eagles fan Lauren Clark strolled around State Farm Stadium with a wide grin, snapping pictures on her phone and taking in the experience of her first Super Bowl.
The Philadelphia native said she’s waited 40 years for this moment. As a 10-year-old, Clark listened to her first Super Bowl in 1981 on the radio and she’s wanted to get a seat at the big game ever since.
Life achievement, unlocked.
“I was just tired of saying ‘Maybe next year,’” Clark said. “My Eagles are in the Super Bowl, my kids are grown, so I just said screw it, let’s go. You only live once. This is a dream come true.”
Clark was one of thousands of fans milling around the outside of State Farm Stadium at the NFL’s ‘Gameday Experience,’ which featured live music, food and drinks.
1:40 p.m.
The Valley of Fun is in full force on Super Bowl 57 Sunday.
Football fans descended by the thousands on Glendale, Arizona, for the NFL’s title game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. It was glorious weather for revelers, with partly cloudy skies and high temperatures in the 70s.
The Chiefs and Eagles are at the stadium, too, arriving more than three hours before the scheduled game time 4:30 p.m. local time. The NFL said it expects the retractable roof will be open at State Farm Stadium thanks to the nice weather, which was also the case for the previous two Super Bowls played at the stadium.
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