New Orleans (AFP) – The Kansas City Chiefs aim for a historic hat-trick of Super Bowl titles on Sunday when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in front of a star-studded crowd in New Orleans headed by US President Donald Trump. Trump will become the first sitting president ever to attend the NFL showpiece when he takes his seat among a sell-out crowd of around 74,000 fans at the Superdome for the biggest annual event in the American sporting calendar, which kicks off at 5:30pm local time (2330 GMT).
Pop superstar Taylor Swift will also be in the VIP seats to watch as her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his fellow Chiefs bid to become the first team in history to lift three consecutive Vince Lombardi Trophies. Trump’s presence at the NFL showpiece will mean even tighter security than normal around an event which was already bolstered by a heavy police presence following a New Year’s Day attack that left 14 people dead and many more injured on the Big Easy’s famous Bourbon Street.
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Trump has had a strained relationship with the NFL stretching back several decades and triggered uproar during his first time in 2017 when he attacked the patriotism of players who kneeled during the playing of the US national anthem in a protest against racial injustice. Speaking in a pre-game interview aired on Fox News, Trump said his decision to attend this year’s Super Bowl was for the good of the country.
“I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the President be at the game,” Trump told Fox. “It’s an iconic day. It’s going to be a great game, two great teams, and let’s see what happens,” Trump added, revealing that he was tipping Kansas City for victory, citing the record of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is eyeing his fourth Super Bowl win. “When a quarterback wins as much as he’s won, I have to go with Kansas City,” Trump said. “I have to go with Kansas City.”
Trump was due to fly into New Orleans from Florida, where he reportedly played a round of golf with Tiger Woods earlier Sunday. A schedule released by the White House said he is expected to leave the Superdome at around 8:05pm local time, well before the game reaches its conclusion. Super Bowl fans on Sunday welcomed Trump’s attendance at the game. “I think it is awesome, congratulations to him for being the first President to make it,” Bob Benderovich, a Philadelphia Eagles fan from Fort Myers, Florida, told AFP.
As always, the Super Bowl crosses over into popular culture and the half-time show this year will feature hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, who had a clean sweep at last Sunday’s Grammys, winning in all five categories for which he received nominations. Bookmakers and casinos meanwhile are taking odds on whether Chiefs star Kelce will propose to pop icon Swift after what might be his final game in the NFL.
For the more serious punters, the oddsmakers have the Chiefs as slight favorites for the game, a rematch of the Super Bowl from two years ago which the Chiefs won by three points. They defended their title last year, beating the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas and putting them one win away from an unprecedented “three-peat.” The 29-year-old Mahomes will become one of just four quarterbacks in National Football League history to have won more than three Super Bowls should he triumph again, having first led the Chiefs to Super Bowl glory in 2020.
But the Eagles have added serious offensive firepower since their defeat two years ago, with mobile quarterback Jalen Hurts joined by the game-changing speed and power of running back Saquon Barkley. The Chiefs put the finishing touches to their game preparations Saturday with a 30-minute walkthrough of a mock game. Chiefs coach Andy Reid saluted his team’s attitude to training over the whole week since arriving in Louisiana. “I thought the guys worked hard, they got done what they needed to get done,” Reid said.
The Eagles had a similarly relaxed final session before going to the Superdome on Saturday for a team photo. Head coach Nick Sirianni said his Eagles were “hungry” and “ready to roll.” “We’re ready for the challenge against a really good team,” Sirianni said.
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