NFL Midweek Update: Super Bowl LVII Special Edition

Kansas City and Philadelphia will lock horns on Sunday evening for the vaunted title of pro football world champion and a glittering Lombardi trophy.

The game provides some tantalising battles between the NFL’s two best teams, with MVP contenders Patrick Mahomes vs Jalen Hurts taking top billing.

Our Midweek Update is intended to keep you across all the major storylines in the US, and help you with your punting strategy for the biggest league of all.

NFL Injury Report

Kansas City Chiefs: A couple of weeks ago this might have seemed unthinkable as KC picked up a horrific slew of injuries heading into the AFC title game win over Cincinnati. Fast forward though and the Chiefs have something approaching a clean bill of health heading into the greatest show on turf. QB Patrick Mahomes (ankle), LB Willie Gay (shoulder), RG Trey Smith (ankle), RB Jerick McKinnon (ankles), RB Isiah Pacheco (wrist), WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee) were all full participants in practice on Wednesday. The lone Chief to be limited was WR Kadarius Toney (ankle/hamstring), though he has already told assembled media that he expects to suit up.

Philadelphia Eagles: Philly is also pretty healthy heading into its biggest game of the year, with a trio of injured players expected to line up against Kansas City. OT Lane Johnson (groin), C Cam Jurgens (hip) and CB Avonte Maddox (toe) have all been limited in practice so far, but with a ‘rest’ designation. That means the Eagles are being careful with them but they are expected to play. Johnson by the way will have surgery on his injured groin once the season is over.

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

Super Bowl stats and storylines

Super Bowl week might offer the biggest buzz in all of sports, and it provides a ton of fascinating and quirky narratives for reporters and fans alike. Here are just a few:

• Super Bowl ads are eagerly awaited every year with major brands spending big to hog 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 staggering $7million. That is a staggering $560million in ad revenue for one game alone. Mind-boggling stuff.
• The ad we are most looking forward to seeing? That would be Michelob with their 21st-Century take on iconic golf movie ‘Caddyshack’, starring none other than Tony Romo, Serena Williams and ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. We got a glimpse of what they have in store earlier in the playoffs with a Romo cameo, and this Sunday should be popcorn-worthy. Romo remember is a pretty good scratch golfer, who has come agonisingly close to US Open qualification on more than one occasion.

• Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes led the NFL in passing yards during the regular season with a stellar haul of 5250. Sadly this does not appear to bode particularly well for his chances of victory on Sunday. Six times in history a regular-season passing leader has suited up in a Super Bowl and the record is a miserable 0-6.
• Another stat which might haunt one of these two quarterbacks on Sunday is that around the record of NFL MVPs. Mahomes and Hurts are the two major contenders for that award, and the former is a red-hot favourite. The record of MVPs in Super Bowl combat since 1999 is another woeful one which stands at 0-9. The last league MVP to lift a Lombardi was Kurt Warner with the then St Louis Rams.
• For a bet that lasts a split second, has just two outcomes with both of them 50/50 shots, the coin toss does pretty well. Every year ridiculous amounts of dollars are wagered on the flip of a coin, and this year will be no different. If you do like this 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 betting heats come Sunday will centre 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 to date. Recent history though has been pretty 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.

Safer gambling

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