Super Bowl LVII Special Edition

Kansas City and Philadelphia will battle for the much-vaunted title of World Pro Soccer Champion and a glittering Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night.

The game features some tantalizing battles between the two best teams in the NFL MVP contender Patrick Mahomes vs. Jalen Hurts with top billing.

Our midweek update is designed to walk you through every major storyline in the US and help you with your punting strategy for the biggest league of them all.

NFL Injury Report

Kansas City chiefs: That seemed unthinkable a few weeks ago when KC suffered a horrific series of injuries ahead of their AFC title win against Cincinnati. Fast forward and the Chiefs have something approaching a clean bill of health and head into the biggest show on turf. QB Patrick Mahomes (ankle), LB Willie Gay (shoulder), RG Trey Smith (ankle), RB Jerick McKinnon (ankle), RB Isiah Pacheco (wrist), WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee) were all full participants in Wednesday’s practice . The only boss to be restricted was WR Kadarius Toney (ankle/thigh), although he has already told the assembled media he expects to arm himself.

Philly Eagles: Philly is also in pretty good shape going into its biggest game of the year with a trio of injured players expected to face Kansas City. OT Lane Johnson (groin), C Cam Jurgens (hip) and CB Avonte Maddox (toe) have all been restricted in practice so far, but labeled ‘rest’. That means the Eagles are wary of them, but are expected to play. By the way, Johnson will have surgery on his groin injury after the end of the season.

Two Eagles ready to go and full participants in training are OG Landon Dickerson (elbow) and DE Robert Quinn (foot).

Super Bowl Stats and Storylines

Possibly the greatest buzz in all sports, Super Bowl week offers a slew of intriguing and whimsical narratives for reporters and fans alike. Here are just a few:

• Super Bowl advertising is highly anticipated each year as big brands spend big to catch the world’s attention during the ultimate primetime game. This week, FOX announced that it has sold all 80 30-second ad slots for Sunday’s game, each priced at a whopping $7 million. That’s a whopping $560 million in ad revenue for just one game. Stunning stuff.
• The ad we’re most looking forward to? That would be Michelob with her interpretation of the legendary 21st century golf film “Caddyshack” starring none other than Tony Romo, Serena Williams and “Canelo” Alvarez. We got a taste of what they have in store with a romo cameo earlier in the playoffs, and this Sunday should be popcorn-worthy. Romo recalls being a pretty good scratch golfer, having come agonizingly close to qualifying for the US Open on more than one occasion.

• Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes led the NFL in passing yards during the regular season with a stellar tally of 5,250. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to bode well for his chances of winning on Sunday. Six times in history has a regular-season passing leader qualified for a Super Bowl, and the record is a miserable 0-6.
• Another statistic that could haunt either of these quarterbacks Sunday is the NFL MVP record. Mahomes and Hurts are the two main contenders for this award and the former is a hot favorite. The Super Bowl fight MVP record since 1999 is another sad one, standing at 0-9. The last league MVP to pick up a Lombardi was Kurt Warner with the then-St. Louis Rams.
• For a bet that lasts a split second and only has two outcomes, each with 50/50 shots, the coin toss performs pretty well. Ridiculous dollar amounts are wagered on a coin toss every year, and this year will be no different. If you like that sort of thing (we’ll pass), the stats for the 56 previous Super Bowls are 27 heads and 29 tails.
• One of the most hotly contested rounds of betting this coming Sunday will focus on the actual Super Bowl game MVP. Perceived wisdom suggests a quarterback will win this award — signal callers have done so 31 times in 56 Super Bowls so far. However, recent history has been fairly kind to players in other positions two. Four times in the last nine Super Bowls, a non-QB has taken home the award. Most recently Rams WR Cooper Kupp last February.

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