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Chris barmanNFL Studio Host, SportsCenter Anchor, Baseball Commentator
Chris Burman is back on Sunday for his master sage NFL pick for the Super Bowl LV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Etiquette of the Kaiser Sportsbook by William Hill.
Kansas City Chiefs (-3, 56) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Needless to say the story is as juicy as this 55th edition of the Super Bowl. My favorite is that Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are trying to replicate as Champs and join that exclusive club, and guarding the castle to make sure they don’t do it. The last person is GOAT himself, Tom Brady 2003-04 with the New England Patriots.
Brady is coming here for the 10th time – we’ll probably never see it again, unless he happens to include the guy he’s playing against. The game is past and present standard-bearer against the current and possible future standard-bearer of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
When you look at the majors, this is a team in which talent is undeniable. In this year’s two playoff games, Travis Kelsey and Tyrick Hill have nearly 40 catches and 400 yards combined – that’s ridiculous. On top of the talent, this is a team that enjoys playing, which comes from their head coach Andy Reid. Sometimes this season, they enjoyed doing so much that they would set foot off the gas and, like the earlier victory over Tampa, could win by more than 20 points, but instead had to hit the clock with three.
Until the Buffalo game, the Chiefs had not played a full 60-minute game since early November. If they can do it again, playing all 60 minutes, then I believe it might be too much for Tampa Bay to handle – despite the magic of the legendary Tom Brady himself.
Tampa Bay, with a pass-catching core of Chris Godwin, Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski, is one of the few teams to have as many headliners as its head. Add to that, you have Leonard Fournette, who played the best in the NFC Championship Game every year vs. the Green Bay Packers, an added dynamic that gives the offense a sense that maybe – just maybe – it can give trade points With the heads, there are very few teams that say they can. Books can.
The Chiefs’ loss during the Thanksgiving weekend trailed the Bucs 7-5. It was right for an experienced team to come late in the season, and responded to it. I said it on primetime, it would be the most important buy of all 32 teams. Lo and behold, Swami found it right. The books have not lost since. The new parts jolted and the team put it together. You don’t usually get to rest in week 13, and it paid off. This cannot be ignored.
Casey’s Chris Jones, Frank Clarke and Honey Badger, Tyron Matthews, have three inter-producers on defense. Can they put enough pressure on Brady to make him feel a little uncomfortable? I am going to see if they play in the first quarter, which can set the tone for the game. If Brady is comfortable, the Bucs can trade with the majors. But don’t underestimate defensive coordinator Steve Spagnolo, whose time to send a lineback or cornerback may be the right time. He already defeated Brady once in the Super Bowl. He can keep you in balance.
Seven is very good in front of Tampa Bay. Jason Pierre-Paul had a cat of the year, and linebackers Devin White and Shake Barrett are going against a team without their two starting tackles. Nidamukong Suh and Lavonte David can also play big games. Will the Bucs be able to show the front seven games on their own? The majors have to realize that if the Mahomes get some time, they can beat the secondary, as they did in the first game.
Another season-long observation: Just as the Bucks’ late goodbye doctor ordered, the mains also got an unexpected break. Sure, they were president favorites to repeat and attract attention, but the early loss to the Las Vegas Raiders was a blessing in disguise. All of the talk of being undefeated went to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who started 11–0. Include Brady in another Super Bowl, and it is at least trying to replicate the heads as the big of the story. The spotlight never hurts less than expected.
In this first Super Bowl a conference was played at the champions’ home stadium, if Buche comes out of the locker room 30 minutes before kickoff in the crematory uniform, it’s all over … Tampa wins and Tom has to You get your seventh ring. But they are not allowed, even if they wanted to. Seeing that won’t happen, I’m going with Chambers to repeat, and Andy Reid and his team will join that elite repeat group. You know them: Packers, Dolphins, Steelers (twice), Niners, Cowboys, Broncos and Tom’s Petots. Every decade has at least one repeat shampoo – in the ’60s,’ 70s, ’80s,’ 90s, and 2000s. Then the Chiefs won it in 2019, so we will call it back-to-back even in that decade and the series continues.
Swami Ses: Chiefs 30, Books 20
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