On Thursday evening (local time) a large number of stars walked the red carpet in downtown Phoenix. On the occasion of the “NFL Honors”, the annual award by the league, football celebrities crowded past the cameras and microphones for a good two hours. The NFL invited a total of 112 players, legends, officials and guests of honor to the event.
Clark Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, came to the NFL Gala with his wife (right) and daughter
What: AP/Matt York
At the beginning of the evening, the fans of the year from all 32 teams caused a stir. In some very idiosyncratic outfits, the passionate followers were allowed to feel like stars for a few moments. Then their role models walked the red carpet.
Players like “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy (San Francisco 49ers), CeeDee Lamb (Dallas Cowboys), Tyler Lockett (Seattle Seahwaks), JJ Watt (Arizona Cardinals), Jared Goff (Detroit Lions), Joey Bosa (Los Angeles Chargers) or Stefon Diggs (Buffalo). Bills) patiently answered questions and took souvenir photos. Damar Hamlin, who suffered cardiac arrest during the Bills game against the Cincinnati Bengals a few weeks ago, was also celebrated by the fans.
Among them were legends like Kurt Warner, Emmitt Smith, Terry Bradshaw, Deion Sanders and Andrew Whitworth. Model Cara Delevigne was also there. Singer Kelly Clarkson then moderated the award ceremony. Awards were given to the best players and coaches of the season.
Rihanna makes comeback at halftime show
The Phoenix Convention Center suddenly went quiet on Thursday morning. Tension was in the air. After all, a world star was about to take a seat on the big white sofa on the stage. Then Rihanna appeared, dressed in an extravagant fur and leather outfit, behind the large wooden backdrop and the cameras started clicking. Around 500 members of the media showed up to see the music star at her official pre-Super Bowl press conference (Monday at 12:30 a.m.).
“We worked all night and hardly slept,” said Rihanna in front of the 80 or so TV cameras in the huge hall. “I’m honored to be doing the show this year.” In the halftime show on Sunday, the 34-year-old will perform a best-of of her hits. “The set list was the hardest part of the preparations. Squeezing 17 years of music into 13 minutes is not easy. There were 39 versions of my program in the end,” she confessed. For Rihanna, her 2190-day break from the stage ends with her performance at the Super Bowl. She also gave birth to a son last year.
Rihanna spoke about her appearance on the halftime show in Phoenix on Thursday
Quelle: USA TODAY Sports/Michael Chow
“When I got the call I was like, ‘Are you sure?'” the Barbadian musician said. “Whether the show flops or takes off, my name is tied to it. That’s why I want to see everything and it’s very exhausting. ”The superstar did not reveal on Thursday whether and which other artists support Rihanna in her show. According to betting sites, rapper Jay-Z has the best odds of appearing as a co-star.
Who sings the anthem at the Super Bowl?
Rihanna performs at the halftime show. But who sings the important songs on Sunday? Country singer Chris Stapleton, 44, and musician Babyface, 64, are slated to perform ahead of the finale. Stapleton will sing the American national anthem and Babyface will sing “America the Beautiful”. Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, 66, will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn often referred to as the national anthem of African Americans in the United States.
NFL boss Goodell raves about Germany
Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL), can well imagine further games of the season in Germany. “We are confident that we will be there beyond the agreement that we reached just a year ago. I think you’re going to see more than fewer games than the ones we’ve already committed to,” Goodell said in Phoenix at his annual pre-Super Bowl press conference.
According to information from WELT and BILD, two NFL games will take place in Germany this year. The game will be played in Frankfurt/Main on November 12th and 19th. The hosts are the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots.
In 2022, the NFL announced that four main round games would be played in Frankfurt and Munich within four years. The first game took place in FC Bayern’s stadium last November. “I don’t think anyone anticipated the kind of reactions we got there. It was very worthwhile,” Goodell said with satisfaction.
Numbers and more numbers for the Super Bowl
American sports love statistics. Every number counts, especially at the Super Bowl. For example, 15 of the past 18 winners in the game wore white jerseys. The final lasts three hours and twelve minutes on average, but the net playing time is only eleven minutes. The Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills have reached the Super Bowl four times – they failed to win. Record.
Jerry Rice is the oldest player to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl. The wide receiver was 40 years and 105 days old when he lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the Los Angeles Raiders in 2003. Tickets for the first Super Bowl in 1967 cost an average of twelve dollars. Nevertheless, around 30,000 and thus half of the seats in the Los Angeles stadium remained empty at the time when the Green Bay Packers played against the Kansas City Chiefs.
German NFL professionals find Super Bowl premiere “remarkable”
The fact that both quarterbacks are black for the first time in a Super Bowl is also remarkable according to the two German NFL professionals Jakob Johnson and Amon-Ra St. Brown. “It’s very cool for the sport. 10, 20 years ago there weren’t many black quarterbacks. Up until a few years ago, black quarterbacks were retrained to be receivers,” St. Brown said. “That stigma that black quarterbacks just aren’t as good as whites is gone. There are now two black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl. In English they say: Milestone,” said St. Brown, who himself plays as a receiver for the Detroit Lions.
St. Brown has a German mother and a father from the USA and, like Johnson from Stuttgart, is also black. The Las Vegas Raiders pro also finds the premiere with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Eagles playmaker Jalen Hurts forward-looking. Black quarterbacks were often assumed to be at too great a risk of injury because of their qualities on their own runs and were not believed to be able to lead a team over a long period of time, said Johnson. “Although you noticed years ago at college that the trend was going in that direction. That era has definitely started in the NFL now. Definitely going to be an exciting Super Bowl with two fierce quarterbacks in a matchup.”
NFL boss Goodell praises referees
Speaking to the media, NFL boss Goodell was also asked about the officials’ performance this season. Most recently, the referee team made several mistakes in the championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals. But Goodell didn’t want to know anything about the recent criticism of the referees.
“If you look at the performance of the referees, it has actually never been as good as it is today,” says the 63-year-old. “Our referees are doing a great job. Are there any errors in this context? Yes. They’re not perfect and refereeing will never be perfect.”
Philadelphia is a slight favorite
The bookmakers see the Philadelphia Eagles just ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs. The German football pros Jakob Johnson and Amon-Ra St. Brown also bet on the Eagles in conversation. “Mahomes is a little better than Jalen Hurts, but the whole team is better with the Eagles. That’s why they’re my favorites,” said St. Brown. The Philadelphia Eagles, who compete in their dark green jerseys, have home advantage in the game. The visiting Chiefs had to adapt and play in white.
7:15 a.m.: What are the tickets for the Super Bowl?
If you were lucky and won the NFL ticket lottery, you were in the cheapest category for around 600 dollars (almost 558 euros). On the secondary market, on the other hand, significantly more is due, and it becomes difficult under $5,000. For the very noble VIP tickets, on the other hand, the prices are more likely to be upwards of 50,000 dollars.