54 things to know about Super Bowl LVII: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles
By Marc Bona, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Each year we take a look at the Super Bowl, combing stories and research about every aspect of the game so you can sound smart on Super Bowl Sunday. It’s Super Bowl 57, and there’s a lot to know from entertainment to wagers, coin toss to commercials, from A (the anthem) to Z (the zebras) and much more. As you settle in Sunday, here are 57 quick facts to impress your pals.
1. When is kickoff? 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. It’s Super Bowl LVII, or Super Bowl 57 for those who don’t know their Roman numerals.
2. Give me a primer so I can sound intelligent: The AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs (7-1 at home, 7-2 away) face the NFC champs Philadelphia Eagles (7-2 at home, 7-1 away). Both teams finished the regular season 14-3 in first place in their respective divisions – the AFC West for the Chiefs and NFC East for the Eagles. Neither team played each other this season.
3. Who is broadcasting the game on television? Fox Sports. In Northeast Ohio, it’s WJW.
4. Who are the TV announcers? Kevin Burkhardt (play-by-play), former NFL tight end Greg Olsen (analyst), Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi (sideline reporters). Former NFL official Mike Pereira is rules analyst.
5. I don’t have a TV. How can I listen to the game? Are you un-American? No television? Yes, you can listen via Westwood One. Kevin Harlan (play-by-play) and Kurt Warner (analyst) are on the call with Laura Okmin and Mike Golic (sideline reporters). Gene Steratore is the rules analyst. Trivia: Harlan lives outside of Kansas City. Golic is from Northeast Ohio and attended Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School. Steratore played quarterback at Kent State. And Okmin is a graduate of the University of Kansas.
6. Who’s favored to win? This one is close and bobbing up and down like the stock market: It opened as a pick-’em, moved to Eagles -2, -2.5 and dropped to -1. Note: Point spreads are like temperatures in Northeast Ohio; they fluctuate quite a bit, so check daily closer to kickoff.
7. What are the other main wagers? Moneyline is Eagles -125 and Chiefs +105. This means if you think the Eagles will win outright by any score you have to risk $125 to win $100. If you think the Chiefs are going to win outright, you must pony up $100 to win $105. The over-under – the predetermined number of points both teams combine to score – is set at 50.5. If they score more and you bet the “over,” you win. If they score fewer and you bet the “under,” you win.
8. How many people watched last year’s game? 99.18 million viewers saw the game in the United States. That is about one in three people in the country, or one in 80 people in the world. A year earlier, in 2021, more than 91 million people watched. It had a 36.9 rating. A rating is the percentage of TV households tuned into a program at a certain time.
9. Is Tom Brady playing? No, he just retired. Again.
10. Quarterbacks are important, right? Tell me about them. Interesting question this year, because both starting QBs are Black. It wasn’t that long ago – 1988 - when Doug Williams made news as the first Black quarterback to start a Super Bowl. Williams led Washington to a 42-10 win over Denver and was named MVP. Now, two Black quarterbacks are facing each other in the game for the first time – Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes vs. Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts. Both are Texas natives.
11. Who will sing America the Beautiful? Rhythm and blues singer Babyface.
12. What about the National Anthem? Country singer Chris Stapleton. Oscar winner Troy Kotsur will perform the song in American Sign Language. By the way, the over-under on how long the song will be is 2 minutes, 5 seconds. Seriously, you can bet on whether Stapleton will sing it in less than or more than that duration.
13. Who will sing Lift Every Voice and Sing? Actor-singer Sheryl Lee Ralph will sing the song that is known as the Black National Anthem.
14. Who is the halftime performer? Rihanna. Halftime performers do not get paid, but it doesn’t matter in this case: She is reportedly the youngest female billionaire in the United States, with a net worth hitting $1.4 billion. The Barbados-born singer turns 35 on Monday, Feb. 20.
15. Hey, I heard the Black Keys will be performing! You heard right. The Akron-bred rock band is slated to co-headline the NFL TikTok Tailgate Party with R&B star Jason Derulo from the stadium. The performance of the duo (drummer Pat Carney and singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach) will be available to fans worldwide via @NFL on TikTok, and parts of both Derulo’s and The Black Keys’ performances will be broadcast during the “FOX Super Bowl LVII Pregame Show.” Here’s more from Cleveland.com’s music writer Malcolm X. Abram.
16. How much are commercials? Advertisers are looking at 7 million for a 30-second spot. Forbes, citing NBC, says some 30-second ads hit $7.1 million. That’s $233,333.33 per second. It takes about five seconds just to say “DeShaun Watson’s contract is worth $230 million for the Cleveland Browns.”
17. How many commercials are we going to sit through? Let’s just say you will have plenty of time to grab a drink, hit the bathroom or read a short novel. Forbes says last year’s game, excluding NBC and Peacock promos, included 68 total ads covering 44 minutes of national ad time.
18. How has the coin toss turned out? The pregame toss has landed on tails 29 times and heads 27. Super Bowl winners have won the toss 24 of 56 times. It has landed on heads the past two years. Odd phenomenon considering it always has a 50% chance that it comes up either. Its longest streak was landing on heads five consecutive times, 2009 to 2013.
19. What are the local connections? Kansas City defensive end Frank Clark went to Glenville High School and Michigan. Jason Kelce plays center for the Eagles. His brother Travis is tight end for Kansas City. The Kelces went to Cleveland Heights High School and the University of Cincinnati. Since they play on offense, one of them will be on the field for almost every play of the game.
20. Don’t slam me with statistics, but compare the teams: During the regular season, Kansas City scored 496 points while Philadelphia tallied 477. The Chiefs allowed 369 points while the Eagles let up 344.
21. What is the bonus for players? Last year, players on the winning team banked $150,000. Losers – if you can call them that – received $75,000.
22. So they get the cash, but what about the trophy? The famed silver football sits on a three-sided elongated kicking tee. Made by Tiffany, it’s 22 inches tall and weighs 7 pounds. Official name: Vince Lombardi Trophy after the coaching legend. Fun fact: Women’s Wear Daily says it was “designed by former Tiffany & Co. vice president Oscar Riedner, who drew an early version of the design on a napkin during a meeting with the NFL in 1966.” It takes about four months to make in a Rhode Island workshop.
23. How much are those rings? Value of rings for one team is about $5 million, with each costing $30,000 to $50,000. They are tailored to the winning team and therefore are made after the game.
24. Who’s wearing what? Philadelphia is the designated home team and will wear green. Like a bride on her wedding day, the Chiefs will wear white. (Home-team designations alternate based on the conference, not proximity to the stadium. This year the NFC is home team, so next year the AFC will be.)
25. Is the color of the jersey important? You decide: Teams with white jerseys have won 36 Super Bowls.
26. How have the teams done in past Super Bowls? Seven Super Bowls have featured one of these teams. Kansas City is 2-2, winning in 1970 and 2020 and losing in 1967 and 2021. Philadelphia is 1-2, winning in 2018 and losing in 1981 and 2005. Neither has played in a Super Bowl in Arizona.
27. Who are some famous Eagles fans? Actor Bradley Cooper, comedians Tina Fey and Kevin Hart, rapper Meek Mill, baseball player Mike Trout, musician Questlove.
28. Who are some famous Chiefs fans? British actor Henry Cavill (go figure), singer Melissa Etheridge, Heidi Gardner of “Saturday Night Live,” actors Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis, former NBA player Rasheed Wallace. (Wallace grew up in Philadelphia.)
29. Give me a brief history of the teams. The Eagles were founded in 1933 while the Kansas City Chiefs relocated from Dallas in 1963. The Chiefs have a couple of key connections to the Super Bowl. Former Chiefs QB Len Dawson, who was born in Alliance and died in August, played in the inaugural Super Bowl in a loss in 1967 and a win in 1970 when he was named MVP. Former Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt is credited with giving the game its name. Newsweek once quoted Hunt as saying: “My own feeling is that it probably registered in my head because my daughter, Sharron, and my son Lamar Jr. had a children’s toy called a Super Ball. And I probably interchanged the phonetics of ‘bowl’ and ‘ball.’ "
30. Did the Chiefs and Eagles play in the regular season? Not this season. Fansided reports they have played nine times in the regular season, with Kansas City winning five times. We checked out their most recent game, Oct. 3, 2021, in Philadelphia. It was a barnburner, with the Chiefs winning 42-30. Mahomes was 24 of 30 for 278 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. Hurts was 32 of 48 for 387 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a combined 656 yards passing and seven touchdowns. History holds limited relevance here, considering that personnel around both QBs will be a little different this Sunday. But still …
31. A friend keeps telling me this year’s game is the ‘Sack Bowl’. Why? In the regular season, Philadelphia led the NFL with 70 sacks. Who was second? The Chiefs, with 55. So expect some serious pressure on both quarterbacks. (For inquiring minds, the Browns had 34.)
32. Who are the mascots? Swoop for the Eagles, KC Wolf for the Chiefs.
33. Who’s cheering? The Chiefsettes and the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders, who used to be called the Liberty Belles, which we find a much better name. Though the best name for NFL cheerleaders is the Cincinnati Ben-Gals.
34. What’s the other big game this Sunday? Animal Planet has the Puppy Bowl, featuring Team Ruff and Team Fluff battling it out for the Lombarky trophy. Kickoff, if you can call it that, is 2 p.m.
35. What position wins the MVP award? Quarterbacks have been named Most Valuable Player in 30 of 56 Super Bowls.
36. What can you bet on? Man, this is America, and sports wagering became legal last month in Ohio, so it’s really more of a question of what can’t you bet on. Will Travis Kelce have over-under 6.5 receptions? Mahomes is 20-1 to score the game’s first touchdown. Will the first scoring play be a safety? Each team is -6,600 on that. Will there be overtime? That’s happened only once in a Super Bowl. On and on it goes.
37. I’ve got a few extra bucks and want to go to the game. What’s it going to cost me? An eBay.com listing for four tickets in section 129, lower level near the 40- to 50-yard line, is available for $44,999. Yup – only $11,249.75 per ticket.
38. Never mind. Out of my price range. It’s out of the price range for most people and average fans. Face value, for the few who can gain access, is around $5,000.
39. How is the Super Bowl ticket pie divided? It’s broken like this:
• Philadelphia Eagles: 17.5%
• Kansas City Chiefs: 17.5%
• Host team, Arizona Cardinals: 5%
• Remaining teams: 34.8%
• NFL: 25.2%
40. Pretty late in the year for the game, isn’t it? Including this year, this is the 21st time in the past 22 years the game has been played in February. It is the second latest in the year it has been played (last year’s was on Feb. 13.)
41. I only care about the Gatorade odds: Well then, you my friend have a gambling problem. Betting on which color of Gatorade will be the choice to douse the winning team’s coach has become a thing. Here’s the past four colors and winning teams (check your favorite betting site to see the odds on colors this year):
• 2022: Los Angeles Rams, blue
• 2021: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, blue
• 2020: Kansas City Chiefs, orange
• 2019: New England Patriots, blue
42. Whose jerseys sell better, Mahomes or Hurts? Both are in the top 10 when it comes to sales. Mahomes is No. 3; Hurts is No. 8.
43. OK, tell me who the officials are so I can know who I am yelling at: First of all, they can’t hear you. Second, they are chosen based on ratings with the league, so they are at the top of their game. Here’s who will be in zebra stripes Sunday along with their day jobs, so to speak:
• Line judge Jeff Bergman (medical-services executive)
• Replay official Mark Butterworth (non-profit manager)
• Referee Carl Cheffers (sales manager)
• Umpire Roy Ellison (IT engineer)
• Side judge Eugene Hall (federal agent)
• Down judge Jerrod Phillips (elementary-school teacher)
• Field judge John Jenkins (sales executive)
• Back judge Dino Paganelli (educator)
• Replay assistant Frank Szczepanik (NFL senior coordinator, officiating special projects, replay command center)
44. Any big wagers being dropped? Yes, always. Yahoo is reporting that someone has bet $1 million on Philadelphia to win at -125 via BetMGM moneyline. That means if the Eagles win no matter what the score, he or she will earn $800,000, Mike Florio writing for Yahoo finance reports. (Last year, Houston furniture salesman Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale risked $4,534,000 on the Bengals via Caesars. He stood to take home $7.7 million if Cincinnati won but – alas – he did not. Got to sell a lot of mattresses to make up for that.
45. Who’s chicken? I ain’t chicken! Settle down. The National Chicken Council says 1.45 billion wings will be chomped on for Super Bowl Sunday. Another survey says 75% of those who plan to watch the game will be eating wings. The 1.45 billion wings works out to about one wing per 5.4 people on the planet.
46. I’m more of a pizza person. Good for you. Know this: Orders go up about 40% on Super Bowl Sunday compared to other Sundays so agree on the toppings and order early. And tip.
47. How big of a day is it? Monday, a national survey released by Siena College Research Institute and St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication says 75% of Americans plan to watch the game.
48. Is it the biggest food-consumption day in the United States? It’s No. 2. Thanksgiving is tops.
49. At least the Super Bowl is a break from politics, right? Wrong. Last week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One as they flew to Philadelphia: “As you know, we are enroute to the home of the future Super Bowl champion, Philadelphia Eagles,” she said. “As the First Lady would say, ‘Go Birds.’ "
50. What’s the baseball connection? This is actually the second time teams from these two cities have met for a championship. In the 1980 World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in six games, Forbes reminds us. Also, Pat Mahomes – the QB’s father – played 11 years in the Majors, retiring 20 years ago, in 2003.
51. What’s on after the game? Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef” will kick off its second season in the coveted postgame timeslot.
52. How often has Glendale, Arizona, hosted the game? Twice, in 2008 and 2015, when State Farm Stadium was known as the University of Phoenix Stadium. Arizona also hosted the 1996 game in Tempe.
53. What’s the temperature supposed to be like in Glendale? Early forecast calls for a high of 65 in Glendale and a low of 42 – which is what Cleveland’s high temperature is supposed to be. State Farm Stadium has a retractable roof.
54. Where are the next Super Bowls?
February 11, 2024: Allegiant Stadium, Paradise, Nevada – Super Bowl LVIII.
February 9, 2025: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans – Super Bowl LVIX.
2026: Undetermined, though London is mulling a bid. Yes, the biggest day in American sports might be played in another country.
