Month: February 2021

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers leaned on Tom Brady and his familiarity with a pair of pass catchers, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown, to score their first 21 points of Super Bowl 55. When the second half got underway, though, Tampa decided to turn to its ground game, handing the ball off to Leonard Fournette and giving him room to run for six.

The Kansas City Chiefs came out of the locker room following the break and had to settle for a field goal. On the ensuing drive, Brady and Fournette took turns moving Tampa Bay down the field, and on the sixth play of the drive, Fournette followed one of his big offensive linemen, Ali Marpet, who cleared a path and let him run for six without a single Chiefs defender laying a hand on him.

Fournette, the former LSU standout and No. 4 overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars, has come on strong for Tampa this postseason, entering the Super Bowl with 48 carries for 211 carries and a pair of scores. He has also turned into a reliable checkdown option for Brady, catching 14 balls for 102 yards and a score in the postseason.

With this run, Tampa Bay was able to extend its lead to 28-9.

The lead up to Abel Tesfaye taking one of the biggest stages in the world has certainly been a dramatic one. When it was announced last fall that The Weeknd would be performing at the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show, fans were excited that his After Hours era was going to get another moment in the spotlight. But then, when the Grammys strangely snubbed the record — despite it being one of his most successful and critically-acclaimed projects — rumors began to swirl that it had something to do with his halftime slot.

Most of that turbulence has settled down in the weeks since the Grammy nominations were announced though, and Toronto’s mayor even dedicated today’s date, Feb 7th, to The Weeknd. For his show today, the R&B star did not disappoint, launching into a medley of hits against an old world Las Vegas backdrop. He began with a well-known older song, launching directly into “Starboy,” accompanied by a choir, and transitioning from there into another older jam, “The Hills,” one of the biggest songs in his oeuvre.

Following that pair of songs up with another radio banger, “I Can’t Feel My Face,” he was joined in a dizzying golden maze by a number of Abel lookalikes, all of whom sported the same red blazer and plastic surgery bandages that have defined the After Hours aesthetic. Next, he hit the roof for a joyful take on “I Feel It Coming,” a track that features Daft Punk — who weren’t able to make it to Tampa — and finally dipped into “Save Your Tears,” the most recent song in the set so far. “Earned It” came next followed by a “House Of Balloons” interlude, and then the grand finale, “Blinding Lights.”

We already knew no guests were set to join him onstage, likely due to COVID-19 precautions, but Abel was more than… able to carry the show on his own. Watch the show above.

The first half of Super Bowl 55 featured three things that caught everyone’s attention. First, Tom Brady threw for a trio of touchdowns as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers scored 21 points. Second, the Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs scored six points and generally looked like a shell of themselves on both sides of the ball.

But the big thing that got people talking was the sheer number of penalties that got called against the Chiefs that benefitted the Bucs, with a handful of them seeming awfully suspect. Kansas City got dinked for eight first half penalties that gave Tampa 95 total yards, with the Bucs’ second and third scoring drives coming after ticky tacky calls benefitted them — Charvarius Ward got called for holding on a third-and-4 on the former that negated a Tyrann Mathieu pick on the former, while pass interference calls against Bashaud Breeland and Mathieu handed Tampa 42 combined yards on the latter.

Brady has made opponents pay for their mistakes numerous times over the years, but detractors would absolutely say that the officials have been awfully kind to him in his career. As such, the myriad of calls against the Chiefs led to Twitter exploding and claiming that something is afoot.

https://twitter.com/MarkJonesESPN/status/1358586272915152898

There is, of course, plenty of time for Kansas City to try and pull off a comeback. Then again, the Chiefs sure would like it if the referees let some more stuff go over the game’s final 30 minutes.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got on the scoreboard in the Super Bowl 55 thanks to the dynamic duo of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, who linked up for the 13th time in their postseason careers, setting an NFL record. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and in the second quarter, Brady and Gronkowski once again relied on their preternatural bond with one another for yet another score.

Thanks to a series of penalties by the Kansas City Chiefs that extended Tampa’s drive on a few different occasions, including an offsides flag on a fourth-and-5 field goal attempt, Brady was able to get Tampa within striking distance of the end zone. While Kansas City was able to keep them out on the previous drive thanks to an admirable goal-line stand, Brady decided to go to his tight end for a simple throw in the back of the end zone.

Brady stood tall in the pocket, completely unbothered by KC’s pass rush, and fired a dart to Gronk for six.

The score, a 17-yard pitch-and-catch between the greatest quarterback to ever do it and the man who redefined the tight end position during their tenures with the New England Patriots, put the Bucs up, 14-3.

Drake is due to drop his new album Certified Lover Boy any minute now, after delaying it due to healing issues with an ACL injury, which can be a pretty severe one without proper rest and recovery. His main producer, 40, has let fans know that they’ve been working on the record virtually, but in the meantime, Drizzy made a cameo in a Super Bowl commercial today to tide fans over until new music arrives. In the clip, Aaron Rodgers and Paul Rudd mull over stand-ins who don’t quite seem to make sense, while Jake from State Farm realizes that his stand-in is none other than Drake himself.

While Drake and Jake fumble back and forth over State Farm’s signature sign off, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” fans loved getting a glimpse of the R&B superstar in an understated red polo. Have we all been in lockdown for too long, or is Drake simply looking better than ever with the heart razored into his hairline? Let’s just say the end of lockdown can’t come quickly enough, and neither can the official drop of Certified Lover Boy. Check out the new ad above and some reactions from fans below.

The Kansas City Chiefs kicked off the scoring in the first quarter of Super Bowl LV, marching down the field on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense on their second drive of the game and settling for three. Tampa’s offense was stuck in the mud as it started the game, but right before the end of the first quarter, their Hall of Fame quarterback and tight end duo put them on top.

The Bucs marched down the field against the Kansas City defense, finding themselves in the red zone with less than a minute remaining in the frame. While there, Tom Brady dropped back and found perhaps his all-time favorite target, dumping it off to Rob Gronkowski. The big man did the rest, rumbling into the end zone and putting Tampa Bay up, 7-3.

Somewhere watching the game, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice saw one of their records go down in flames. That’s because this eight-yard link up was the 13th time that Brady found Gronkowski for a score in the postseason in their careers, the most all-time for a quarterback and pass catcher duo.

As an added bonus, this score was a new one for Brady, as he had never found the end zone in the first quarter of a Super Bowl in his career. Seeing as how he’s made it to 10 of them, that’s certainly eyebrow-raising.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has only just begun its run of Disney+ shows, and it kicked off with a doozy: WandaVision, which is by far the strangest and most ambitious thing the brand has yet unleashed, and in a way that has entranced, not angered, the fan base. From the looks of its Super Bowl teaser, it looks like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is more typically Marvel-esque, with its action scenes and mispaired duo and even an old enemy we haven’t seen in five years.

That pair is Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, and the last time we saw them they were bidding farewell to their shared buddy: an old Steve Rogers. The two never had much interaction previously, but the show forces them to team up anyway, much like Hobbs and Shaw. Their mission: to take down Baron Helmut Zemo, Daniel Brühl’s Captain America: Civil War baddie, who’s been laying low in prison, awaiting his fearsome return.

This is a TV show but it looks extraordinarily expensive, with the kinds of special effects and camerawork you see in any of the MCU. And it is expensive: The whole six episodes reportedly cost $150 million. And if you have Disney+, you won’t even have to fork over any extra dough to see it.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts its first episode on March 19 and you can watch the trailer in the video above.

For fans of the 30 other teams beyond the Chiefs and Buccaneers, the main focal point for Sunday’s Super Bowl is going to be from a gambling perspective. For some that’s a straight bet on the side or total, while others have side bets and squares games working with family and friends. There are also millions of dollars that have been wagered on various prop bets, many of which have already cashed in the first quarter.

Working off of the Westgate SuperBook prop sheet, we’re going to keep a running tally of the results of all of the on-field prop bets in the Super Bowl so that, in case you have a lot of exposure, you can find them easily.

Coin Toss: HEADS (-102)
First kickoff by Harrison Butker a touchback: YES (-280)
Will either team score in the first 6.5 minutes of the game: NO (+135)
First pass by Tom Brady: COMPLETE (-200)
First reception by Chris Godwin: UNDER 10.5 (-110)
First rush by Leonard Fournette: UNDER 3.5 (-110)
Bucs convert first 3rd down attempt: NO (-150)
What will happen first: Bucs Punt (-160)
First gross punt by Bradley Pinion: UNDER 44.5 (-110)
First pass by Patrick Mahomes: COMPLETE (-200)
First reception by Byron Pringle: UNDER 6.5 (-110)
First rush by Patrick Mahomes: OVER 5.5 (-110)
Chiefs convert first 3rd down attempt: YES (+110)
What will happen first: Chiefs Punt (-140)
First punt by Tommy Townsend: OVER 44.5 (-110)
Will Tommy Townsend punt a touchback: YES (+330)
First rush by Ronald Jones: OVER 3.5 (-110)
Longest rush by Ronald Jones: OVER 12.5 (-110)
First reception by Cameron Brate: UNDER 8.5 (-110)
First rush by Tyreek Hill: OVER 4.5 (-110)
First rush by Clyde Edwards-Helaire: OVER 3.5 (+150)
First penalty: Bucs (+100)
Team to score first: Chiefs (-125)
Longest made field goal: OVER 46.5 (-110)
First made field goal: OVER 37.5 (-110)
First score: Any non-TD (+180)
Will any team make a FG in the first quarter: YES (-110)
Will Harrison Butker make a 1Q FG: YES (+200)
First reception by Antonio Brown: OVER 9.5 (-110)
First reception by Rob Gronkowski: UNDER 9.5 (-110)
First TD: Rob Gronkowski (+1600)
First TD: UNDER 9.5 yards (-110)
First TD: Passing (-170)
Will Tom Brady throw a 1Q TD: YES (+170)
Distance of first Tom Brady TD pass: UNDER 10.5 (-110)
Which will Tom Brady throw first: TD (-320)
Will Rob Gronkowski score a TD: YES (+220)
Jersey number of the first player to score a TD: OVER 17.5 (-110)
First kickoff from Bradley Pinion a touchback: NO (+375)
Will the Bucs score a 1Q TD: Yes (+100)
Will the Chiefs score a 1Q TD: No (-110)
First Quarter: Bucs ML (+125)
First Quarter: Bucs +0.5 (-125)
First Quarter: PUSH 10
Chiefs 1Q Points: UNDER 3.5 (+120)
Bucs 1Q Points: OVER 3.5 (-120)
Will Patrick Mahomes throw a 1Q TD: No (-170)
Shortest gross punt by Tommy Townsend: UNDER 38.5 (-110)
First reception by Travis Kelce: UNDER 10.5 (-110)
First reception by Mike Evans: OVER 10.5 (-110)
Longest reception by Mike Evans: OVER 27.5 (-110)
Longest reception by Cameron Brate: OVER 14.5 (-110)
First reception by Tyreek Hill: OVER 11.5 (-110)
First rush by Darrel Williams: UNDER 3.5 (-140)
Will the Bucs score a 2Q TD: YES (-190)
Will Tom Brady throw a 2Q TD: YES (-140)
Longest reception by Rob Gronkowski: OVER 15.5 (-110)
Total receptions by Rob Gronkowski: OVER 2.5 (-110)
Shortest gross punt by Bradley Pinion: UNDER 38.5 (-110)

After returning to the Unbreakable-verse with Split and Glass (and drowning Bruce Willis in a puddle in the process), M. Night Shyamalan is back to stand-alone thrillers with his new movie. Based on the French graphic novel by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters, Old is about a family spending its vacation on an idyllic beach. Pretty normal so far! The M. Night twist: everyone begins to age rapidly. “You were six years old this morning,” a worried mom (played by Phantom Thread standout Vicky Krieps) says about her 20-something son (Alex Wolff). Gael García Bernal, Eliza Scanlen, and Thomasin McKenzie round out the fantastic cast. Old looks pretty good, even if it’s rude to premiere a trailer for a movie with that title during a Super Bowl with Tom Brady.

Here’s the official plot synopsis.

This summer, visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan unveils a chilling, mysterious new thriller about a family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly … reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Old is scheduled to be released in July. But if you need to get your Shyamalan fix before then, season two of Servant recently premiered on Apple TV+.

The honor of performing the National Anthem before a major sporting or political event usually goes to one person, but this year the duties are being split. Both Jazmine Sullivan, whose excellent new album Heaux Tales is on its way to instant-classic status, and country star Eric Church, will be performing the patriotic staple before today’s big game. Church also has new music on the way for fans, with his triple album Heart & Soul slated for release this April. And this isn’t the only unexpected collaboration before the game began, Miley Cyrus was joined by Billy Idol and Joan Jett for a pre-show concert.

During their performance on Sunday afternoon, the pair alternated verses before joining together in harmony on the final high notes. Eric kicked things off by taking the first few phrases of the song, accompanied only by strumming his guitar, Jazmine came in for the second verse, flexing her substantial vocal skills with runs and held notes. Most impressive though was when they took the most famous passage together.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off in Super Bowl LV today, check out more coverage here and watch the video of the anthem performance above.