It’s Time to Answer Your Questions About Super Bowl LVII (Published 2023) (2024)

It’s Time to Answer Your Questions About

By Ben Shpigel Updated February 12, 2023

What time is the Super Bowl?

The official kickoff time is listed as 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, although the bonanza of pregame coverage begins at 1 p.m. on Fox and several eternities earlier in other corners of sports television.

The scheduled kickoff time translates to 5:30 p.m. Central time, 4:30 p.m. Mountain time, 3:30 p.m. Pacific time and 1:30 p.m. Hawaii time.

Where is the Super Bowl?

The game will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., northwest of downtown Phoenix. It looks like a spaceship in the middle of the desert and usually hosts Arizona Cardinals games.

The weather forecast for the Phoenix area — partly cloudy on Sunday — doesn’t really matter much. Even if a haboob strikes, the stadium’s roof can be closed.

What channel is the game on, and how can I stream it?

The game will be broadcast on Fox in English and Fox Deportes in Spanish. Streaming is available on the Fox Sports app, the Fox Sports website and Fubo. Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, a former N.F.L. tight end, will provide the commentary.

You can — and you should! — also follow along with New York Times reporters as we discuss the game, the ads and the halftime show. Join us now!

Among the broadcasters worldwide are Seven Network (Australia), CTV (Canada), L’Équipe (France), DAZN (Germany), A1 Max (Bulgaria) and ITV1 (Britain).

Who is playing?

KANSAS CITY VS. PHILLY

The Kansas City Chiefs, playing in their third Super Bowl in four seasons, went 14-3 in the regular season and slipped past the Cincinnati Bengals to win the A.F.C. championship. The Philadelphia Eagles, who also went 14-3, advanced to their second Super Bowl in six seasons by walloping the San Francisco 49ers in the N.F.C. championship game.

This is the first time in five years that the top seeds from both conferences have reached the Super Bowl.

The winner will have won more games at State Farm Stadium this season (two) than its main tenant, the Arizona Cardinals (one).

Who will perform at the Super Bowl halftime show?

The N.F.L. found its headliner in a hopeless place. Rihanna had rebuffed past invitations in support of Colin Kaepernick, the former 49ers quarterback who accused the league of blackballing him because he protested police brutality and racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.

Rihanna is scheduled to perform publicly for the first time since the 2018 Grammy Awards. Her presence is quite the coup for Apple Music, which has replaced Pepsi as the primary sponsor of the halftime show.

What time is the halftime show?

How much are tickets?

It’s not polite to talk about money! Haven’t we taught you anything?

Come on. How much?

OK. A lot of money. Like, a lot. Like, thousands of dollars. One ticket marketplace, Vivid Seats, is listing its cheapest seats at $3,863.

Has either team won a Super Bowl?

Kansas City won its first Super Bowl in 1970 and its second in 2020, when quarterback Patrick Mahomes became our benevolent overlord. The team has also lost two Super Bowls, the first one in 1967 and another in 2021.

Philadelphia has also lost in the Super Bowl twice, in 1981 and 2005. It won its lone Super Bowl in 2018, inspiring a victory parade that lasted approximately nine weeks and four days.

Will history be made?

We’re glad you asked. This is the first Super Bowl to feature two Black starting quarterbacks, a celebratory — and overdue — moment for a league that for decades teemed with inequities. Perceived in the past as lacking the leadership qualities or intelligence to excel at the position, Black football players were often discouraged from playing quarterback, and it took until the 22nd Super Bowl for a Black quarterback, Doug Williams of Washington, to start a Super Bowl and win.

But Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts — along with Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, Arizona’s Kyler Murray, Chicago’s Justin Fields and Denver’s Russell Wilson, who won a Super Bowl with Seattle — are among the quarterbacks, Black or otherwise, redefining how the position is played in 2023.

What should I know about Jalen Hurts?

Hurts is still rehabilitating a sprained right shoulder, sustained on Dec. 18, that cost him two regular-season games. But he has developed, in his second full season as Philadelphia’s starter, into the team’s franchise quarterback. Elusive and powerful, Hurts demands defenses account for his mobility, and he has blossomed as a pocket passer.

This season, he joined Cam Newton and Kyler Murray as the only players ever to have thrown for 3,700 yards and 20 touchdowns and also run for 10 scores. Had he stayed healthy for all 17 regular-season games, Hurts very well might have been selected as the league’s most valuable player. Instead, he finished second in the balloting, with the honor going to….

Patrick Mahomes, again?

Yeah. Mahomes was named the league’s most valuable player on Thursday night, becoming the first Black quarterback to win that prize twice.

Mahomes, just 27 and set to play in his third Super Bowl, is already one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. The dude is a cheat code. Even on a sprained ankle, as in Kansas City’s two playoff games, he routinely makes history when he touches the football. And will do so again on Sunday.

Does Kansas City have other good players?

Nope.

Just kidding! It has loads of them, but especially tight end Travis Kelce and the defensive linemen Chris Jones and Frank Clark. They crush souls and dreams on a regular basis.

Patrick Mahomes probably has inspired the most fan tattoos, though.

How about Philadelphia?

The Eagles’ roster is stacked, with receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, running back Miles Sanders, edge rusher Haason Reddick, right tackle Lane Johnson and the cornerbacks James Bradberry and Darius Slay.

But the team’s emotional compass is its beer-chugging, Christmas-song-crooning All-Pro center Jason Kelce, who — clad in a bedazzled costume worn by the city’s famed Mummers — commandeered the podium at the Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl victory parade and warbled, “We’re from Philly, [expletive] Philly. No one likes us, we don’t care.” He might be Philadelphia’s most beloved athlete.

Kelce, Kelce, Kelce … that name sounds familiar.

Yes, Jason’s younger brother, Travis, plays for Kansas City. They are the first brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl. But this is probably the first you’re hearing about that, right?

Well, in case you’ve missed the brother vs. brother stories in every news outlet, Travis is one of the best tight ends of this generation, as crafty a receiver as he is prolific. Plus, he fights for his right to party. In the gleeful aftermath of defeating the Bengals in the A.F.C. title game, he called Mayor Aftab Pureval of Cincinnati a jabroni (he deserved it). And he once had his own dating show, “Catching Kelce,” in which he dated women from all 50 states.

I’m feeling lucky. How can I bet on the Super Bowl?

If you live in one of the 36 states (or the District of Columbia) where betting on games is legal and underway, you’ve probably seen many ads for online sports books. (That’s thanks, in part, to the N.F.L. itself, which has had a tricky relationship with sports betting.) Of course, the wide availability of sports betting comes with significant risks.

If you are going to bet, the Eagles are a 1.5-point favorite. Here’s our pick against the spread.

You can also set up a box pool — also known as squares — and then rue the money you flushed away by drawing a 2 and a 2. If you want to know just how lousy your chances are on winning at squares, here’s a site that looks at the probability of each number combination coming up (0 and 7 is your best spot, at about 3.5 percent — have fun with all that).

Who will be coaching in the Super Bowl?

Two men who never played a down in the N.F.L.

Andy Reid joined Kansas City in 2013, four days after his 14-year tenure ended in — wait for it — Philadelphia. Nick Sirianni, in his second season with the Eagles, spent the first four years of his N.F.L. coaching career as an assistant in Kansas City but then wasn’t retained by — wait for it — Andy Reid.

Awk-ward.

What should we be watching for in the game on Sunday?

So very much:

Will Haason Reddick, Brandon Graham, Josh Sweat and the rest of Philadelphia’s ferocious defensive front be able to pressure Patrick Mahomes and contain him in the pocket? Where will Kansas City’s Chris Jones, probing for mismatches, line up? How will the Eagles defend Travis Kelce over the middle?

Can Kansas City’s cornerbacks hold up in coverage against A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith on the outside? Will the Eagles’ diversified running game torment Kansas City?

Will Mahomes account for eleventy touchdowns?

Will league officials grease any and all poles and columns at State Farm Stadium to deter rowdy Eagles fans from scaling them?

What’s this I hear about Eagles fans?

For the uninitiated, Philadelphia’s professional football team has a rather passionate following, one that tends to celebrate momentous sporting achievements by climbing objects that shouldn’t be climbed. The police tend to slather street poles and the like with Crisco (or similar substances) as a deterrent. Note: It doesn’t work.

Who has the best cheesesteak in Philly?

Team Dalessandro’s and Team Woodrow’s here.

And the best BBQ in K.C.?

Love you, Q39. You too, Joe’s.

What about the best recipes for food I can serve at my Super Bowl party?

What am I, NYT Cooking?

Back to the important stuff: Who’s singing the national anthem?

The honor of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” goes to the country star Chris Stapleton. “America the Beautiful” will be performed by the R&B singer Babyface.

How much did Super Bowl ads cost this year?

What’s with the Roman numerals?

Is Tom Brady playing?

He just retired (again), so no, he won’t be playing. But don’t worry, he’ll still win.