Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes will battle it out in Super Bowl LV. Photos / AP
Super Bowl LV (that's 55 for the Roman numeral illiterate), kicks off today at 12.30 pm NZT with defending champions the Kansas City Chiefs taking on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The game will be played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Both Sky Sport and Spark Sport are airing the Super Bowl from midday, and you can live stream the Super Bowl online with their respective streaming services.
Head-to-head - Chiefs $1.56, Buccaneers $2.30
Super Bowl MVP - Mahomes $1.91, Brady $2.90, Tyreek Hill $13, Travis Kelce $14, Chris Godwin $26, Leonard Fournette $26.
Total points - Over 55.5 $1.85, Under 55.5 $1.90
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 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).
For the Chiefs, one of Mahomes main targets is tight end Travis Kelce who has 11 touchdowns 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 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.
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.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the expected attendance is 25,000. Raymond James Stadium was set to hold an expanded crowd of 75,000. That means the game is going to be the least-attended Super Bowl in the game's history.
The previous lowest attendance was the 61,946 in the first Super Bowl in 1967.
The Chiefs (14-2) finished top of the AFC West with their second defeat of the season coming in their final regular-season game with players rested.
After earning a bye in the first round of the playoffs they defeated the Cleveland Browns 22-17 in the divisional playoffs before cruising to a 38-24 win over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship game.
Tampa Bay (11-5) was the first team in 10 years to make it to the Super Bowl despite not winning the division.
They beat Washington (31-23), New Orleans (30-20) and Green Bay (31-26) all on the road to reach the Super Bowl.
The Bucs are hoping to follow the path the Green Bay Packers took in the 2010 season when they finished second in the NFC North but went on to win the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.
The Packers were the sixth wild-card team to win it all, joining the Oakland Raiders (1980 season), Denver (1997), Baltimore (2000), Pittsburgh (2005) and the New York Giants (2007).
No team has even made it to the Super Bowl after playing in the wild-card round since 2012 when Baltimore and San Francisco did it. The Ravens won that game 34-31.
The Chiefs are the defending champions after coming back to beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 last February after trialling 20-10 at the start of the final quarter. The Chiefs only other Super Bowl title came at Super Bowl IV in 1970 when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7. The Chiefs' only defeat in a Super Bowl was in Super Bowl I against the Packers.
The Buccaneers won their only previous Super Bowl appearance in 2002 (Super Bowl XXXVII). Jon Gruden coached Tampa Bay to a 48-21 win over the Oakland Raiders, the team he coached the previous season before joining Tampa Bay.
No one has been able to blow out Mahomes since he took over as Chiefs starter in 2018. Mahomes has lost just nine games as a starter with the most lopsided being a 40-32 defeat to the Raiders this past October for his only loss in his past 26 starts.
He has also lost twice by seven points, twice by six, three times by three and once by one point. The last time Mahomes lost by more than one possession in a game came in his final year in college at Texas Tech, when the Red Raiders fell 66-10 to Iowa State on November 19, 2016.
The two teams have met previously this season with the Chiefs winning 27-24 after leading 27-10 going into the final quarter.
The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, will play the halftime show and joins a list of celebrated musicians to have performed including Madonna, Beyoncé, Coldplay, Katy Perry, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and last year's duo of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
The national anthem will be sung by country singer Eric Church and R&B artist Jazmine Sullivan who have never performed together.
Chiefs 31 Buccaneers 24
- With AP
