The 55th installment of the pinnacle of American sports finally has its matchup.
Super Bowl LV is set. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs look to become the first repeat Super Bowl champion in 16 years when they meet Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from the Bucs home of Raymond James Stadium on February 7, 2021.
The Bucs will become the first team in NFL history to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium, but how much of an advantage that will be remains to be seen as the COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a thing in the United States, and as such we will see far less theatrics leading up to the game than we typically find from the greatest sporting event in North America.
For the next two weeks, we will make this our hub of sorts, filled with the latest information up until we have our next Super Bowl champion two weeks from today.
Super Bowl LV Facts to Know
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2021
Venue: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL
Kickoff: 6:30 PM ET
TV/Radio: CBS, Westwood One
Streaming: CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App
National Anthem Singers: Eric Church, Jazmine Sullivan
Halftime Performance: The Weeknd
Super Bowl LV Opening Odds
Spread: Chiefs -3.5
Moneyline: Chiefs -170 / Buccaneers +150
Total: O/U 57.5
Tampa Bay’s Path to Super Bowl LV
Regular Season Record & Result: 11-5 overall, NFC Wild Card
Wild Card Round: Def. Washington (7-10), 31-23
Divisional Round: Def. New Orleans (13-5), 30-20
Championship Round: Def. Green Bay (14-4), 31-26
If you had amazing intuition and foresaw Tom Brady jettisoning the place he played for 20-years to play in Tampa Bay, and then would lure the likes of Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, and more to play alongside him, well you could have jumped on the Bucs after the conclusion of the Chiefs’ victory in Super Bowl LIV at the nice price of 50/1 to win Super Bowl LV.
After the Brady signing in free agency, Tampa’s odds skyrocketed up to 20/1 to win Super Bowl LV, before settling in at 14/1 before the 2020 NFL season kicked off.
And what a rollercoaster season it was for Bruce Arians’ new-look Buccaneers.
With a lot of preseason expectations, the Bucs came out flat in an opening-game loss to New Orleans before they would run off wins in six of their next seven games to sit at 6-2 at the halfway part of the season. The Bucs would hit their biggest losing skid of the season shortly after, dropping three of their next four games to slide to 7-5 and flirt with the disaster of falling out of Wild Card contention entirely.
Fortunately for Tampa, a soft ending to their schedule allowed for the Bucs to get their bearings correct again and the team would end the season on a four-game winning streak that they would carry into the playoffs to the run we are currently witnessing take place.
Kansas City’s Path to Super Bowl LV
Regular Season Record & Result: 14-2 overall, AFC Best Record
Divisional Round: Def. Cleveland (12-6), 22-17
Championship Round: Def. Buffalo (15-4), 38-24
Unlike their counterparts on Super Sunday, the Chiefs were the odds-on favorite to get back to the Super Bowl immediately after securing their first Lombardi trophy in 50 years. The Chiefs’ odds to repeat as Super Bowl champions opened up at +600 and would never get any higher than that.
For all but one week this season (Week 5 loss to Las Vegas), the Chiefs very much looked the part of a would-be repeat Super Bowl Champion.
Kansas City would get out to a torrid 4-0 start to the season before that fateful loss to their hated division rivals, and would not lose another regular-season game of meaning the rest of the way as their only other defeat came at the hands of Justin Herbert and the Chargers in a Week 17 game that meant absolutely nothing to the Chiefs.
After surviving a near-disaster against the Browns in the divisional playoff round, the Chiefs made quick work of a 15-win Buffalo Bills team in the AFC Championship and now find themselves on the brink of a second Lombardi Trophy.
