Plenty of conversation starters for those who prefer the commercials and halftime over the game when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the defending Super Bowl Champ Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
We’re there with you,
The Last Night’s Game Team
1. Three familiar brands you won’t see paying $5.5 M for a 30 second Super Bowl commercial this year are Coke, Pepsi and Budweiser. The three big brands join Audi and Avocados from Mexico in skipping the big game advertising altogether. Budweiser is reallocating the media investment to raise vaccine awareness. Pepsi (Mountain Dew and Frito-Lay) and Anheuser-Busch (Bud Light, Michelob Ultra and their seltzers) will still promote other products. As a side note, because of COVID, there will be no viewing parties, and people are hungry for something to watch, so experts expect this Super Bowl to be one of the biggest viewing audiences in history. THE RIGHT MOVE?
2. Two women making history this Sunday are youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman and Referee Sarah Thomas. Gorman will recite an original poem that will honor three pandemic heroes who are the game's honorary captains. It will be the first time a poet participates in the Super Bowl pregame festivities. Thomas will be the first woman to ever officiate at the Super Bowl. JUST THE BEGINNING
3. Let’s talk quarterbacks. There’s quite the age difference between the two starting quarterbacks - Tom Brady, 43, the oldest quarterback in the league and Patrick Mahomes, 25, one of the youngest. Mahomes was six-years-old when Brady played in his first Super Bowl. In fact, Brady is seven years younger than Mahomes’ professional baseball player father. THAT STINGS A BIT
4. The Bucs will be wearing their white jerseys when they play at home. They reportedly chose the white jerseys because Tom Brady is 4-1 in Super Bowls while wearing white. In 13 of the last 16 Super Bowl games, the winning team was wearing white jerseys. WINTER WHITE
5. Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan will be singing the national anthem and H.E.R. will sing “America the Beautiful.” Be prepared to be blinded by the lights of The Weeknd as he performs at halftime. He spent $7 million of his own money to make the halftime show more “cinematic,” so you’re in for a treat. Spoiler alert: None of the performers are paid for their appearance at the Super Bowl, but the NFL does pay for the production costs (minus the above and beyond that The Weeknd is paying for). MUSIC TO OUR EARS
There’s more where that came from in our Guide to Super Bowl LV. Sunday’s game will air at 6:30 pm EST on CBS.
