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    Don’t Be Fooled by the Playful, Merry-Making Travis Kelce

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Chiefs Fans’ Generational DivideReconsidering Tom BradySuper Bowl Party TipsThe N.F.L.’s ‘First’ Women Want CompanyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDon’t Be Fooled by the Playful, Merry-Making Travis KelceThe Kansas City Chiefs tight end spent his formative football years playing quarterback. In his mind’s eye, he can both throw the ball and catch it.Tight end Travis Kelce plays his position with an understanding of the quarterback’s job.Credit…Doug Murray/Associated PressFeb. 5, 2021, 9:00 a.m. ETOff the field, Travis Kelce’s life is unscripted.Yes, sometimes it may seem as if the always playful Kelce is reading prepared lines so he can play the role of a goofy frat-party boy — the N.F.L.’s Midwestern version of Rob Gronkowski. But Kelce, the five-time All-Pro tight end for the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, insists that is not true.For example, after last season’s A.F.C. championship game, he stole the postgame show by leaning into a CBS microphone to shout: “You’ve got to fight, for your right … to … parrr-tay!”It was a line that might have appeared in character, delivered right on cue.“Nah, it was all instincts,” Kelce said this week.Then, after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, there was Kelce making a memorable appearance at the end of a celebratory parade through downtown Kansas City. Kelce, a bit wobbly and with a World Wrestling Entertainment championship belt thrown over his shoulder, blurted to the crowd: “I’m wearing about half the beers I’ve been trying to drink.”Fun-loving football players carving out a niche in the public consciousness is nothing new. But in Kelce’s case, there is a twist: His cavalier attitude when out of uniform belies a cunning, resourceful and almost scholarly approach to his work on the football field.The frat boy goes to every class and gets straight A’s. He stays on script.After the A.F.C. championship game last year, Kelce let Chiefs fans know they had to fight for their right to party.Credit…Jeff Roberson/Associated PressTake it from the modern tight end archetype. “Travis has transformed our position,” said Gronkowski, whose Tampa Bay Buccaneers will meet the Chiefs in the Super Bowl on Sunday. “Crafty, smart guy.”The defensive coaches who face the Chiefs know as much. They devise illusions in their coverages meant to hoodwink Kelce. Then the opponents line up against him and discover they have been duped.“He’s sneaky and he’s got a lot of tricks,” Kevin Ross, Tampa Bay’s cornerbacks coach, said. “And he uses them very well.”The Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles, who has been in the N.F.L. for two decades, noted that even when the perfect pass coverage has been called, Kelce immediately sniffs it out and already has prepared an ingenious counterattack.“You marvel at watching him play, because if there’s a big play to be had, somehow he finds a way to get open,” Bowles said.He added that while Kelce clearly spends many hours studying opponents, it is more important that he knows what to look for. “He’s savvy,” Bowles said, “probably one of the best I’ve seen.”The evolution of Kelce’s aptitude as a tight end, a position that calls for both blocking and receiving skills, goes back to his days as a high school quarterback in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.Kelce, who had yet to fill out his 6-foot-5 frame, chose to attend the University of Cincinnati because it was the rare place that would let him play quarterback and because his older brother, Jason, now a center with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a starter at Cincinnati. Travis remained a quarterback, albeit often one in the wildcat formation, for much of his time at Cincinnati, but tight end was clearly where he belonged, especially as his body matured. By his senior year, that was where he lined up, leading the team in receptions.Selected by Kansas City in the 2013 N.F.L. draft, Kelce was the fifth tight end taken that year, but the Chiefs coaches soon learned that his time spent in quarterback meeting rooms would be vital. “It gave me perspective of what’s going on with the quarterback, the head man on the field — the guy who’s got the keys to the car,” Kelce said this week. “It helped me go from just being an athletic guy running routes to being a playmaker accountable on every single play.“I tell young guys that if you want to be great, you have to be able to play that chess match with the defensive coordinator out there. You can’t be a one-trick pony.”Kelce’s advanced understanding of how to attack defenses, plus his adaptability, has allowed the Chiefs’ brain trust to move him all over the offensive formation and to run precise, but dicey, timing plays. One example: the underhand toss that Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw to Kelce that resulted in a crucial touchdown in the Chiefs’ A.F.C. championship game victory over Buffalo last month.Travis Kelce making a move against Buffalo Bills linebacker Matt Milano in the A.F.C. championship game.Credit…Jeff Roberson/Associated PressMahomes appreciates that Kelce still thinks like the quarterback he once was.“The quarterbacking in his history definitely gives him that understanding of how to run routes,” Mahomes said. “He’s able to read coverages on the move and knows how to get himself, and others, open. It’s what makes him so special.”Kelce and Mahomes have enriched their rich kinship off the field as well, going on couples vacations and double dates that include Kelce’s girlfriend, Kayla Nicole, and Mahomes’s fiancée, Brittany Matthews.This week, however, the two sparred a bit at the Super Bowl media gathering, after Mahomes was asked to choose animals that would best represent himself and Kelce. Mahomes said he would like to be a wolf. “Kind of run around with my pack and being able to be a leader,” he said.For Kelce, Mahomes said the animal would have to be “something funny,” then decided on a giraffe.“He’s kind of just out there, grazing around the field, trying to make something happen,” Mahomes said.Told of Mahomes’s choice, Kelce looked a little wounded but laughed.“He threw me to the wolves,” Kelce said. Then, perhaps recalling that Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill once said that Mahomes talked like Kermit the Frog, Kelce suggested a different animal for his quarterback.“He’s already got the voice of a frog,” Kelce said.A little repartee in the frat house.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Valencia Welcomed Peter Lim. Now It Wants Him Out.

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThey Hailed the New Owner as a Savior. Then They Got to Know Him.Deep pockets, new management and a Cup trophy seemed to herald better days at Valencia. It hasn’t worked out that way.Valencia fans once filled the streets to welcome Peter Lim. Now they do the same, chanting for him to go.Credit…Ana Escobar/EPA, via ShutterstockFeb. 5, 2021, 8:35 a.m. ETValencia fans had waited 11 years for this kind of celebration.A generation earlier, their soccer team, Valencia C.F., had been one of the best clubs in Spain, a two-time Champions League finalist and a domestic champion. That was before financial crises and mismanagement had sent it into a yearslong tailspin.Now, in the spring of 2019, the fans could start to believe again. Victory in the Copa del Rey, Spain’s domestic cup competition, had ended a decade-long trophy drought. A deep-pocketed billionaire with powerful soccer connections now owned the club. The trophy, and the money, would herald the start of a journey back to the top, back to relevance in La Liga, back to closing the gap with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid.So as thousands of fans lined the streets to salute the team’s conquering heroes, Valencia’s beaming chief executive, Anil Murthy, spoke excitedly as he surveyed the scene from the deck of an open-top bus.“I have never seen anything like this in my life: It’s incredible,” Murthy told a live television interviewer as players took turns with the trophy. “Practically the entire city is in the streets supporting this great club.”It did not take long for the mood to sour. Within months, the coach and the sporting director who had built Valencia’s cup-winning team had both been fired. Within a year, the team was offloading players to save money during the pandemic. Fans shut out from attending games because of coronavirus restrictions now protest the club’s ownership from outside it. Board members are heckled in the street.Valencia has won only two league games since November, and currently sits 14th in the 20-team table.Credit…Jose Jordan/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLess than two years after Valencia paraded a trophy through its city, its new dawn has been replaced by disillusion, anger and cynicism.“This is Valencia’s worst time,” said Gaspard Romero, who was born into a Valencia-obsessed family and whose grandfather once served as the club’s accountant. “My nightmare will be to see Valencia in this state for a long period of time, with no purpose, like a zombie club.”Valencia’s new reality is a hollowed-out roster, weakened by the sale of top players in the off-season, and a team that struggles to win even once or twice a month. After a positive start to the new season last fall, which included a 4-1 destruction of Real Madrid, Valencia has cratered, tumbling down the table. That has put a renewed focus on the club’s one-time savior, the Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, a reclusive figure who prefers to stay out of the spotlight but — in Valencia, at least — can no longer avoid it.It was not always this way. Romero, 32, recalled how when he was a boy, the team was one of the most feared squads in Europe. How fans in the steep-banked stands at its Mestalla stadium roared as talented players brought joy and pride to the city. There were consecutive trips to the Champions League final in 2000 and 2001 and a league title in 2004, when Valencia’s team brushed aside Barcelona and Real Madrid teams containing the likes of Ronaldinho and Zinedine Zidane.By the time Lim entered the scene in 2014, though, a financial crisis had engulfed the club. Top talents like David Silva, David Villa and Juan Mata had been sold off to make ends meet, and a combination of bad management and mounting had only made things worse.Lim’s interest in soccer predated his investment in Valencia. Earlier in his career as an investor, he had parlayed his love of the English club Manchester United into a business operating United-themed cafes and restaurants across Asia. That allowed Lim, now 67, to build relationships with a generation of United’s stars, players like Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham. Those relationships spawned joint business ventures in the hospitality sector and, since 2014, a co-ownership of Salford City, a team that plays in English soccer’s fourth tier.Lim’s affection for Valencia, the fallen Spanish giant, did not run nearly as deep.“He planned to buy a football club and the opportunity of Valencia came along,” Murthy said. Lim provided the money to acquire the team; loyal lieutenants like Murthy and others were installed to run it.To many Valencia fans, Lim’s management style has been part of the problem. They noticed, for example, that he spent the 2019 cup final in a private box with his friend Beckham but did not visit the locker room to congratulate the team.Though they once chanted his name in the streets, believing him to be their club’s rescuer, many now believe he never understood what the team represents in its city.“It is our essence, what we have loved for so long, what our parents told us about,” Romero said. “It’s like they stole our memories, our traditions, our history, our pride.”Midfielder Dani Parejo lifted the trophy after the 2019 Copa del Rey victory over Barcelona.Credit…Pau Barrena/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesParejo’s move to rival Villarreal in August sparked new anger at the owner Peter Lim.Credit…Domenech Castello/EPA, via ShutterstockLim’s critics also point to the clout of another figure in his soccer network, Jorge Mendes, the soccer agent considered to be among the most influential power brokers in soccer.Even before he bought Valencia, Lim, with Mendes acting as an adviser, had been an active player in soccer’s multibillion-dollar player trading market.By placing speculative bets on players just as he had once invested in small companies, Lim had hoped to profit from their future sales. The practice was banned by soccer’s governing body FIFA in 2015, a year after Lim bought his majority stake in Valencia. But a feature of Lim’s tenure has been the revolving door of talent, with Mendes often pulling the strings.For desperate Valencia fans, though, whatever their concerns, Lim still offered a chance of salvation. The 2007 financial crisis had left the club in a bind, caught with two stadiums — its longtime home, the Mestalla, and the half-built shell of a new one that could only be completed with the proceeds from selling the old arena to property developers. Fear of bankruptcy felt real.Excited by the prospect of restoring the team’s fortunes and completing the Nou Mestalla, fans picketed for the team to be sold to Lim. When his purchase was approved, fans greeted his arrival with the kind of reception usually reserved for a prized signing.The flurry of bold promises and predictions made by the officials he installed to run the club, though, failed to materialize. Fans now bemoan not only the state of the first-team squad but also the seemingly whimsical decision-making that has seen a succession of players, coaches and sporting directors come and go, some replaced by questionable appointments seemingly guided by Lim’s personal relationships with Mendes or his connections to the former Manchester United cohort.Lim appointed Phil Neville as a coach at Valencia in 2015, for example, and then hired his brother, Gary, who had never led a professional team and did not speak Spanish, as the team’s manager. The experiment lasted less than four months, with the team winning only three of Neville’s 16 Liga games.Front-office appointments were just as curious. Figures with longstanding ties to the team and the city were replaced by executives close to Lim. Newcomers sometimes had little or no prior experience in European soccer.Lim has at times seemed more interested in his projects with former Manchester United stars like David Beckham than with repairing problems at Valencia.Credit…Peter Cziborra/Reuters“If you want to remove the coach and sports director, sign another coach and sports director to build a project,” Gaizka Mendieta, who captained the team in both of its Champions League final appearances, told the Valencia newspaper Las Provincias in December. “But no, what Peter Lim has done is take a step back and return to the model of the beginning, when they arrived.”Few are predicting a bright future. Valencia still plays at the Mestalla, and its new stadium is no closer to completion. When the team’s leadership sold or released some of the club’s most established talent last summer — including Dani Parejo, the popular captain who had lifted the Copa del Rey only a year earlier — Valencia’s coach, Javi Gracia, threatened to quit.Murthy said the player sales — more than 70 million euros (about $85 million) came in — were needed to rebalance the club’s books after revenues had been halved by the pandemic. The team remains mired in debt, even after the sales, with more than 400 million euros (nearly $500 million) owed to creditors. And the team’s transfer market dealings under Lim are drawing new scrutiny.Valencia remains in its longtime home, the famed Mestalla stadium, because it cannot finish construction on its new one.Credit…Manuel Bruque/EPA, via ShutterstockMurthy, the former Singaporean diplomat installed by Lim as chief executive in 2017, recently told journalists that there was now a new plan, one focused on producing a stream of players from the club’s youth academy who will instill a Valencian core in the squad and return it to greatness.Murthy predicted a championship within 10 years, a lofty ideal but, to most Valencia fans, an unrealistic one under Lim’s continued ownership. The team, they know, is currently far closer to relegation from La Liga — and another brush with financial ruin — than to its next trophy celebration.Six years after thousands of fans chanted Peter Lim’s name in the streets, many now clamor just as loudly for his exit.“The feeling among fans is Peter Lim doesn’t understand where he is,” said Paco Polit, a journalist and contributor to a book about Lim’s stewardship of Valencia. “He never understood how big Valencia was before he came, and now it feels he has left Valencia to die.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    How the Seattle Seahawks Stayed Covid-Free

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe N.F.L. Had Over 700 Coronavirus Positives. The Seahawks Had None.The only team to play the entire season without any confirmed positive cases did so with innovative thinking, vigilance to protocols and some Pete Carroll-style competition.The N.F.L. rolled out a grand experiment to play a not-at-all socially distanced sport in a pandemic. The Times went behind the scenes with the Seattle Seahawks and the Cleveland Browns to understand how the science and the upheaval played out.CreditCredit…Pool photo by Ted S. WarrenFeb. 5, 2021Updated 6:00 a.m. ETOn the N.F.L.’s march to complete a 269-game schedule amid a pandemic, more than 700 players, coaches and other team personnel tested positive for the coronavirus. It upended rosters, with the Denver Broncos starting a game without any of their three quarterbacks and the Cleveland Browns once fielding a team with nearly all of their receivers out, and it postponed games, with some outbreaks pushing them into midweek or to a bye week.Through it all, only one of the league’s 32 teams remained untouched by the virus: the Seattle Seahawks. And how they made it through the long season virus-free, in Washington State, where the United States’ first positive case was reported, is a testament to innovative thinking and procedures. The team’s devotion to following health guidelines became a guidepost for the N.F.L. and other leagues grappling with how to proceed as the deadly virus continued to grip the country.“They invented a playbook for a safe practice environment at a time when the future was deeply uncertain and people were questioning the wisdom of pro sports starting up,” said Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist who has helped organizations respond to the coronavirus and informally advised the Seahawks. “You have to be willing to absorb some costs, and you need leaders who can communicate in a crisis.”In late July, the league and its players’ union rolled the dice by deciding to play a full season without creating a closed community, or a bubble, which the N.B.A., the W.N.B.A. and the N.H.L. used in 2020. That meant thousands of team and staff members would go their separate ways each night, vastly increasing their potential exposure to the virus.The Seahawks faced perhaps the most arduous circumstances in the N.F.L. Their 2020 schedule included five cross-country flights, which meant they would log more miles than any other N.F.L. team. And when they were home, the Seahawks trained not far from Kirkland, Wash., the nation’s first coronavirus “hot spot.”This made the Seahawks witnesses to the pandemic well before the season kicked off, and its grim toll made them question whether football could be played safely. Sam Ramsden, the team’s director of player health and performance, cared for his wife, Lisa, in March, when, doctors believe, she had Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.Sam Ramsden, the Seahawks’ director of player health and performance, became the team’s point person for infection control.Credit…Nicole Boliaux for The New York Times“I didn’t really imagine the N.F.L. being able to have a full season,” Ramsden said. “I wasn’t a Debbie Downer about it, I was just trying to be realistic.”Starting in late spring, after the N.F.L. began plowing ahead with plans for the 2020 season, Ramsden, Coach Pete Carroll and other team leaders used a combination of pragmatism, flexibility and gamesmanship to duck, bob and weave through the pandemic.With training camps, the first in-person football activities of the season, set to open in late July, each team appointed an infection control officer to coordinate efforts to reopen its facilities. Ramsden, who has worked for the Seahawks for 22 years, took on the role rather than giving it to the head athletic trainer, who he felt would be too busy handling injuries.Ramsden has an easygoing patter that belies his attention to detail, and his quiet intensity is a counterpoint to that of Carroll, a hands-on coach known for out-of-the-box ideas. Throughout the pandemic, Carroll pushed Ramsden for answers to problems. At other times, he deferred to his expertise. Carroll also did his own research, and floated ideas to Ramsden and others about minimizing exposure.Like other teams, the Seahawks installed dividers in the showers and between lockers. To avoid crowding, two auxiliary locker rooms were added, and large rooms and practice fields were turned into meeting spaces. Ventilation systems were upgraded. Tents were set up outside for safer dining. Carroll had windows that could open installed in his office to increase air flow.People in the organization took on extra tasks. The team’s football operations department created a schedule for who would be tested and when. (Almost 36,000 tests were ultimately given.) Each morning, trainers and others handed out sensors made by a German company, Kinexon, that tracked how close players, coaches and staff members were to one another and for how long. The hospitality staff members who usually managed corporate and internal events collected health questionnaires from people arriving at the facility. The travel coordinator made sure the team’s drivers were tested and buses were disinfected. On the road, a total of 139 players, coaches and staff rode to and from games and airports in seven buses instead of the usual four.“It was like a band of brothers,” said Ramsden, who wore a T-shirt a few days each week that read, “Stay Negative or Stay Home.”To keep people moving when they were inside the team facility, Ramsden had the building’s intercom chime every 12 minutes as a reminder.Credit…Nicole Boliaux for The New York TimesWhen they were at their team facility, the Seahawks ordered food with the Notemeal app on their phones, rather than stand in line in the cafeteria (where congregating unmasked led to transmissions on other teams). On road trips, the team asked hotel kitchens to use the app as well, something other teams adopted.Ramsden expected to be replaced in his new role by a medical professional. Instead, his bosses asked him to remain in charge because of his ability to genially cajole players, who needed to be prodded to consistently wear their masks and tracking devices. The players were accustomed to spending hours together in weight rooms and hot tubs, but Ramsden reminded them to keep it moving.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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    Super Bowl Means Snacking, Even Without Parties

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Chiefs Fans’ Generational DivideReconsidering Tom BradySuper Bowl Party TipsThe N.F.L.’s ‘First’ Women Want CompanyA Super Bowl party means an all-out spread. A Super Bowl in a pandemic means chips and takeout. Snack companies and delivery apps are ready.Credit…Justin J Wee for The New York TimesSuper Bowl Means Snacking, Even Without PartiesThe likes of Frito-Lay and food delivery services are expecting a busy Sunday, as more viewers stay home rather than gather in large groups.A Super Bowl party means an all-out spread. A Super Bowl in a pandemic means chips and takeout. Snack companies and delivery apps are ready.Credit…Justin J Wee for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 5, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETCarolyn Blocka does not mess around with her annual Super Bowl party.Last year, as 15 of her friends crowded into her Toronto apartment, she assembled a spread that included chili, pulled pork, Hawaiian meatballs, chips and guacamole, pizza, chicken wings and the obligatory “healthy” salad. For dessert, Ms. Blocka made cookies and bought doughnuts decorated with the logos for the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.The pandemic has canceled this year’s party, however. Instead, Ms. Blocka, a rabid Los Angeles Chargers fan, will watch Sunday’s Super Bowl with one friend, sitting on fold-up chairs in her garage, with the door open and the temperature outside expected to be around 20 degrees Fahrenheit at kickoff.“It’s weird, but I miss making all of the preparations for the party,” said Ms. Blocka, a law clerk. She and her friend are going to order a restaurant’s takeout package — a Chicago-style pizza, wings and some craft beers for $50. “I’m still going to get some doughnuts, though.”In the interest of preventing the Super Bowl from turning into a superspreader event, public health authorities are pleading for viewers to be like Ms. Blocka and watch this year’s game with family or only a small group of friends. And while Sunday may be a little less lively at home without a raucous crowd, snack companies and delivery services are expecting the socially distanced circumstances to be a boon for sales.Snack companies, whose sales have soared as consumers nibble their way through the pandemic, know that Americans traditionally load up on guilty pleasures for the Super Bowl. But PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division, for instance, was making slightly more snacks than it did in last year’s run-up — nearly 70 million pounds this week, enough to fill 7,000 trucks — based on the expectation that smaller gatherings will result in increased purchases of chips.“We saw that play out in the holidays, which is why we’re investing in more capacity and more delivery around the Super Bowl in retail,” said Mike Del Pozzo, the chief customer officer for Frito-Lay North America. “We anticipate that week will be massive.”Restaurants that specialize in football-friendly foods like pizza, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and tacos are also bracing for a busy night.Carolyn Blocka, host to 15 friends a year ago, plans to watch the game on Sunday with just one. In a garage. In subfreezing Toronto.Credit…Angela Lewis for The New York Times“The Super Bowl is a huge night for us,” said Lyle Tick, the president of Buffalo Wild Wings. “It’s one of our biggest nights of the year.”Last year, the restaurant chain sold more than 11 million wings on Super Bowl Sunday. This year, Mr. Tick said, he expects to meet or exceed that number even with his 1,200 restaurants around the country facing varying dine-in restrictions.“We expect to see similar total demand, but an increase in off-premise ordering and, if I was a betting person, more parties of smaller size, so smaller order size as well,” he said.For millions of people, whether football fans or not, the Super Bowl has long been an excuse to gather at a bar or restaurant or in someone’s living room to party, eat food that is not remotely healthy, throw back some beer or cocktails and laugh at the commercials. Some even pay attention to the game.“It’s somebody’s job to bring the wings,” said Krista Millard, a self-described football fanatic who is an office manager at an architectural firm in Pittsboro, N.C. “Somebody else brings the beer. Somebody brings the kids’ food. Somebody is grilling out. There’s some North Carolina barbecue, of course, and a lot of people hanging out, but really, only four or five of us are actually watching the game.”The pandemic has upended that ritual. David Jenkins, a pastor in Los Angeles who goes by D.J., is heeding the advice of health professionals this year. The watch party he attended the past few years, which typically draws 50 people, has been canceled. Instead he’ll watch the game from his couch, with his wife and 6-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.“We’ll make some sort of Velveeta cheese dip thing — a splurge food I don’t normally have — and then I’ll balance it with some celery sticks,” he said.Mark Ridley-Thomas, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, planned on ordering his food well in advance. For the last five years, he hosted a Super Bowl viewing party for about 300 people as a fund-raiser for homelessness and emancipated foster children. This year, he’ll watch the game from his living room couch and order wings from Hotville Chicken.“If the pre-order doesn’t work, I will show up at the restaurant at 6 in the morning and camp out until someone hands me some wings,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said with a laugh.Snack companies and restaurants with takeout menus aren’t the only ones girding for a rush of orders just ahead of kickoff.Photos from Ms. Blocka’s Super Bowl parties over the last six years, featuring friends, a buffet and team-logo doughnuts from a local bakery. Credit…Carolyn BlockaFor weeks, a group of analytics and finance teams inside DoorDash have been creating algorithmic models to predict hour-by-hour demand on game day. The forecasts are based partly on past Super Bowls, but also on data that has been collected and analyzed for holidays during the pandemic, including New Year’s Eve, Cinco de Mayo and Father’s Day, said Jessica Lachs, a vice president of analytics at DoorDash.Figuring out when orders for nachos and ribs are going to skyrocket, and when the company needs to offer peak pay or other incentives for “Dashers” to hit the roads and make deliveries, involves a complex calculus.Viewers on the East Coast, for instance, will begin putting in their orders in the late afternoon and through the first quarter of the game, which has a 6:30 start time. On the West Coast, a wave of orders will come in toward the end of the game and after it’s over. Then, the East Coast may see a second ordering wave — fueled by that “I’ve had four beers and now I’m hungry” feeling — that will again require an army of delivery personnel.Although the Super Bowl ends the football season, it is just one of several big events for the snack companies and takeout restaurants, including one coming up next week.Turns out Valentine’s Day is one of the five biggest sales days for the aviation-themed chicken-wing chain Wingstop. As Charlie Morrison, its chief executive, said in an email, with people planning to stay in this Valentine’s Day, “Wingstop will be the romantic meal they’re looking for.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Why the Chiefs Will Beat the Buccaneers: Super Bowl 2021 Prediction

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Chiefs Fans’ Generational DivideReconsidering Tom BradySuper Bowl Party TipsThe N.F.L.’s ‘First’ Women Want CompanyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySuper Bowl LV Prediction: Why the Chiefs Will Beat the BuccaneersNo one has won more Super Bowls than Tom Brady, but in a high-scoring game, Patrick Mahomes has a slight advantage.In his four-year N.F.L. career, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs is 38-8 in the regular season — including a 27-24 win over Tampa Bay in Week 12 of this season — and 6-1 in the postseason.Credit…Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFeb. 5, 2021, 12:01 a.m. ETAfter last season’s magical run, nearly everyone expected the Kansas City Chiefs to be back in the Super Bowl this year. An appearance by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, coming off a 7-9 season in 2019 but given new life by a 43-year-old quarterback, came as more of a surprise.Florida turned out to be a fountain of youth for Tom Brady, and his team’s late-season surge has continued into the postseason, setting up a clash of quarterbacks some people call the GOAT (Brady) and the Baby GOAT (Patrick Mahomes), as in “greatest of all time.”The quarterbacks did not get to the championship game on Sunday by themselves. Both teams finished in the N.F.L.’s top 10 in most points scored and fewest points allowed, and while this game may end up having a high score, there are likely to be big defensive plays along the way.Here is a look at how the game should play out.Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay BuccaneersSunday at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, CBS | Line: Chiefs -3 | Total: 56What to Expect:When Tampa Bay Has the BallWhen Kansas City Has the BallHow It Will Play OutWhen Tampa Bay Has the BallAfter a few years of making things work in New England with a mediocre group of wide receivers, Tom Brady is surrounded by talent at Tampa Bay.Credit…Doug Murray/Associated PressIt is not hard to figure out why Tom Brady wanted to play with the Buccaneers.After struggling to get anything going with a mediocre group of wide receivers in his last few seasons with New England, Brady saw limitless opportunities in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. But if he was going to roll the dice with a new team, Brady didn’t want to stop with two Pro Bowl wide receivers, so he persuaded his old pal Rob Gronkowski, a tight end, to come out of retirement as well.When Tampa Bay’s season began with inconsistency and injuries, Brady lobbied the team to add wide receiver Antonio Brown, vouching for him as someone whose productivity would outweigh his troubles.There were flashes of brilliance and moments of frustration for the first three-quarters of the season. But after a loss to Kansas City in Week 12, the Buccaneers came out of their Week 13 bye looking like a new team. Over the next four weeks, Tampa Bay was 4-0 and averaged 37 points a game.That barrage has kept up in the postseason, with the Buccaneers scoring at least 30 points in each of their three road wins. They have a chance on Sunday to become the first N.F.L. team to have four 30-point games in a single postseason.While Tampa Bay can run effectively behind Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette, the expectation on Sunday is for Brady to move the ball downfield with short and medium throws to his four elite pass catchers, relying on them to gain yardage after the catch.The Chiefs will counter with a pass rush spearheaded by defensive tackle Chris Jones and a secondary largely controlled by safety Tyrann Mathieu, a run stopper and takeaway machine. Bashaud Breeland, the Chiefs’ top defensive back in terms of pass coverage, will have his hands full trying to stop Evans, Godwin and Brown.Brady is likely to put up quite a few passing yards, but Kansas City has a bend-don’t-break defense. It may not be as intimidating as some units — Tampa Bay’s included — but it has allowed the 10th fewest points in the N.F.L. this season. So while a 300-yard game from Brady may be expected, a continuation of Tampa Bay’s 30-point streak, which is at seven games over all, is less likely.When Kansas City Has the BallTight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill make sensational plays seem routine.Credit…Jack Dempsey/Associated PressMahomes isn’t fair. He uses speed and footwork to avoid sacks the way Aaron Rodgers does. He turns busted plays into huge runs the way Russell Wilson does, and he can zip an accurate pass to a receiver with a flick of the wrist the way Dan Marino used to. While it all plays out like a tightrope act, with Mahomes frequently drawing defenders in close before releasing the ball, he almost never panics, showing a precision in everything he does that belies the apparent improvisation.While it’s easy enough to explain his effectiveness by pointing to his 4,740 yards passing or his 38 touchdown passes this season, the two most significant statistics for Mahomes are probably his N.F.L.-best 1 percent interception rate and his 3.6 percent sack rate. You can let your eyes convince you that he is being reckless, but you would be emphatically wrong — as so many defenses have been.The Chiefs’ challenge was making sure they put players around Mahomes who could capitalize on his greatness, and they have two of the best in tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Kelce set a record for receiving yards by a tight end this season (1,416), and would probably have topped 1,500 had Kansas City not rested its starters in Week 17. Hill is a touchdown threat on every play, with his speed sometimes overshadowing his elusiveness, strength and ability to make difficult catches and break tackles.Speed is everywhere on Kansas City’s offense — Mahomes, Kelce and Hill have it, too — and the rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire added a threat to the running game that had been expected to be missing when Damien Williams opted out of the season.Considering Kansas City’s tendency to play its best when it is challenged most, this game seems to tilt in the Chiefs’ favor, with the biggest caveat being the team’s poor health on its offensive line. Kansas City is expected to be without its two starting tackles and multiple guards, leaving it short-handed against a Tampa Bay pass rush that has an extreme interior push from defensive tackles Vita Vea and Ndamukong Suh and elite edge rushing from Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul.If Kansas City’s offensive line turns into a sieve — a possibility because it is essentially playing a backup at every spot — Mahomes will face a lot of pressure and his scrambling ability will be extremely tested. That, theoretically, could lead to a mistake or two on throws downfield — though relying on Mahomes to make mistakes is typically a fool’s errand.How It Will Play OutMahomes is in a place in his career where it is almost impossible to doubt him — something that should be familiar for Brady, who was once at the same peak with New England. It is easy to see the Buccaneers having a good day offensively, but even if they were to run up a significant lead, they should never feel safe, as the Chiefs have fallen behind by at least 9 points in four of their last five playoff games — including last year’s Super Bowl — and have won anyway.Mahomes has years of accomplishments ahead of him before his career can accurately be stacked up against Brady’s, but it seems like a safe bet that he will do something on Sunday that no quarterback has done since Brady: win back-to-back Super Bowls.Predicted Score: Chiefs 31, Buccaneers 26AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Staging the Super Bowl During a Big Crisis

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Chiefs Fans’ Generational DivideReconsidering Tom BradySuper Bowl Party TipsThe N.F.L.’s ‘First’ Women Want CompanyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyStaging the Big Game During a Big CrisisWith the whole world watching, the N.F.L. and CBS face the challenge of presenting a uniquely American spectacle in a time of misery.On Tampa’s Riverwalk, the festivities surrounding Super Bowl LV were tempered by reminders of the coronavirus pandemic.Credit…Eve Edelheit for The New York TimesFeb. 4, 2021Updated 4:21 p.m. ETSince the last Super Bowl 12 months ago, a pandemic has killed at least two million people around the world, including about 450,000 Americans. January was the deadliest month, and last week roughly one American died every 30 seconds from Covid-19.The toll will grow through the Super Bowl on Sunday — during the big plays, among the slow-motion replays, amid the commercials, while the national anthem is sung and the halftime show is performed.That alone makes Super Bowl LV different than the 54 that have come before it. And it presents a unique challenge for the N.F.L. and its broadcast partner this year, CBS Sports.The practical question is no longer if they should play Super Bowl LV — it is the last of 269 N.F.L. games this season — but how to play it, and how it will be presented.Players will certainly hit, run and tackle as usual. But will the game be packaged as the usual spectacle of violence, commercialism and bombast? Should it be?“We’re trying to strike that right tone and be reflective on the year that has been while also providing a bit of hope for, you know, what’s on the other side,” said Peter O’Reilly, N.F.L. executive vice president of events, including the Super Bowl. “A lot goes into that.”The league promises a blend of cold reality and championship football. There may be a softer touch and more reflection, especially during the pregame programming.“The role of the broadcast is to certainly acknowledge the landscape around it, what’s happening around it, and then let’s get on with the game,” said Jim Bell, a former longtime executive producer at NBC for the Olympics and the Today show. “We’re hopefully all going to get a nice three-and-a-half-hour rest from Covid and politics, which I think we can all use.”The Super Bowl is the most American of sports events, beamed around the world, a proxy for how the United States sees itself, culturally. It is perennially the most-watched television broadcast in the United States, with an audience of about 100 million in the country last year, plus an estimated global audience of at least 50 million more.People in the United States and around the world will gauge the American state of affairs by what they see during Sunday’s broadcast.The past year, especially, has been one of political upheaval and sharp battles over race and social justice, on top of the pandemic.The United States has not responded well to the coronavirus outbreak since it was declared a pandemic almost 11 months ago — faltering perhaps more than any other major country with such vast resources for problem solving. It has about 5 percent of the world’s population, but nearly 20 percent of its reported Covid fatalities. Tens of thousands more are likely to die in the coming weeks, whatever the progress of the vaccine rollout.Some may consider it reckless to play such a game during a pandemic, to hold a potential super-spreader event at a football stadium in Tampa, Fla. — even one with a limited audience, adhering to social distancing and health protocols. It may encourage gatherings around the country and, at best, serve as a frivolous example of American priorities.Others might see the game as a source of inspiration, healing and unity.The divide might depend on how the game is presented by the N.F.L. and CBS. Viewers will certainly judge the social distancing, the mask wearing, the images on the screen and the words of the announcers — all parsed and debated in real time, thanks to social media.“It’s hard with social media and everybody waiting for someone to make a mistake, or be like, ‘All I wanted to do was get away from Covid for two minutes,’” Bell said, adding: “That can be a pretty nasty place to have your head space while you’re trying to produce the single-biggest event on the planet.”Not everyone will be happy with the results.A healthcare worker assisted a patient at a coronavirus testing site in Phoenix last month. As the Super Bowl approached, Americans were dying of Covid-19 at a rate of more than one every minute.Credit…Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times“I can only really, in some ways, applaud them in the challenge that they clearly have taken on,” said Patrick Nally, a British sports-marketing executive with deep experience in the Olympics, soccer and an array of other major sports. “At the same time, I hope that they see the need to be as responsible as they must be, and present it in a manner that really reflects the tragedy that we’re all facing.”The game represents an odd chance for an American makeover — a new year, a new administration, a new outlook. It will be a 2021 America packaged and broadcast to the world. While the N.F.L. has a chance to look really good, or really bad, in ways never imagined before, Americans may be judged right along with the league.“In many ways, they are torch-carrying for the United States as a nation,” Nally said. “If ever there was an opportunity to present, to comment, in the right, responsible manner, this is the chance of doing it.”In Mourning, or In Vegas? Other sports leagues have had a chance to address the toll of the pandemic in recent months, though not with an audience this vast or a single game this orchestrated.The issue will confront the postponed Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which were rescheduled for this July and August. Next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing will be closely watched, to see how the Chinese spin their role in the pandemic.The question of navigating something as frivolous-seeming as sports amid an ongoing crisis is not new, though there are no true historical parallels. Wartime might be the closest thing.During World War II, the Olympics were called off, but the N.F.L. and Major League Baseball conducted seasons and championships despite some players’ being pulled into duty. The N.F.L. finished its regular season on Dec. 7, 1941, the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing, and held playoff games a week later, as scheduled.There have been occasional examples of singular events that rocked the sports landscape, like terrorism at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, or the deadly earthquake that interrupted the 1989 World Series. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the N.F.L. took the next weekend off and baseball paused for six days.“After 9/11, I spent the next four days talking to everybody, including the president of the United States, about when we should come back and what’s healthy and what’s productive,” said Bud Selig, the Major League Baseball commissioner at the time. “In our own little way I do think that we helped.”Selig acknowledged that the era and circumstances are different now. Twenty years ago, Americans generally rallied together in a show of patriotism. The country today feels far more divided, even on matters of Covid protocols.“It is very sensitive, and you have to be extremely careful,” Selig said of the N.F.L. “But they’re smart, and they know what they have to do.”When the New York Mets played their first home game after the attacks, Mayor Rudy Giuliani got a rousing ovation, and Liza Minnelli danced and sang “New York, New York” during the seventh-inning stretch.“Are we in mourning, or Las Vegas?” The New York Times columnist Harvey Araton asked.That is the type of question the N.F.L. will ask itself on Sunday, as it searches for balance in a game that usually has no such restraints on pageantry, volume or tone.Is this year’s Super Bowl mere entertainment, a diversion from the ongoing horror? Does it reflect our losses and our past failings? Or does it signal a new tone and even recalibrate the way we move forward?“I think America needs this Super Bowl,” said Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports. “I think it’s an opportunity for the country to come together. I think it’s going to be uplifting. I think it’s going to be unifying. And I think it’s coming at the right time.”The game promises unique touches. Raymond James Stadium will have only about 25,000 spectators, roughly a third of its capacity, because of distancing mandates. That will make it the least-attended Super Bowl in history.The N.F.L. has given 7,500 tickets to vaccinated health-care workers. All fans will be given KN-95 respirator masks as they enter, the league said, and seating has been devised for distancing. Gaps between fans will be filled with cardboard cutouts of people.Nurses at a vaccination site in Los Angeles late last month. Thousands of health-care workers received tickets to the Super Bowl in Tampa.Credit…Ryan Young for The New York TimesIf there is an unusually somber mood, it will be most obvious in the pregame. A nurse, a teacher and a Marine veteran will serve as honorary captains for the coin toss, and the poet Amanda Gorman, fresh from her star turn at the presidential inauguration, will recite an original poem. (The N.F.L. said she was invited before her appearance at the inaugural.) A video featuring Vince Lombardi, the Hall of Fame coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, will lead into a performance of “America the Beautiful,” the league said.“You’ll see that tone in the pregame and in the pieces that are in-stadium and on air,” said O’Reilly, the N.F.L. vice president overseeing the Super Bowl. “And the moments that are always big and powerful around the Super Bowl will take on just a bit more significance this year.”Bell, the veteran producer who left NBC in 2019, said a key part of good sports broadcasts is “storytelling,” a model handed down from the likes of producers Roone Arledge and Dick Ebersol.“You may see it sprinkled into the telecast, as it relates to the players, coaches and teams,” Bell said. “I know those guys will do a fantastic job of finding the right balance and having the right tone between covering the game and telling the stories.”Protocols around Covid-19 have made it trickier than usual to prepare for the game broadcast, but they have created some unexpected opportunities. Camera platforms and wires were fitted into places where they could not normally have been, offering a chance for unusual angles.N.F.L. stadiums this season have had an extra buffer between the teams on the sidelines and fans in the seats, usually several empty rows of seats covered by a tarp. For the Super Bowl, the first seven rows will be wrapped in LED screens.“Are we going to get excited if Brady or Mahomes throws a 60-yard touchdown pass, or if Tyreek Hill goes crazy?” McManus said of quarterbacks Tom Brady (Buccaneers) and Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs). “We’re going to get excited. And we’re going to kind of forget our troubles for a while.”The bottom rows of seats, normally covered in tarps during the Super Bowl, will bear LED screens, providing an opportunity to promote certain messages.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesHe added: “We’re not going to be somber, and we’re not going to be depressing. But I think we’re going to put everything in perspective.”The same is true for all those connecting themselves to the game, like television advertisers reportedly paying $5.5 million for 30 seconds of time. Some perennial participants, like Budweiser, have opted out of their usual slots, choosing social media as a more understated way to get pitches across.The question is whether the world at game’s end is any different. Maybe it will be a source of unity, a boost for American pride. Maybe if Kansas City Coach Andy Reid wears a mask, or Jim Nantz of CBS suggests that Americans get vaccinated, it could be a teaching moment. Might the production feel too political, or too preachy, or not enough of either?The only certainty on Sunday is that the death count from Covid-19 will rise, by the hundreds or thousands just in the United States, as millions watch a football game.How that game is received, and how America is reflected in the moment, is up to the N.F.L.“It puts them on a wonderful pedestal to present a very responsible and a very positive image of themselves and their organization,” said Nally, the global marketing expert. “Which under normal circumstances they would never have.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Super Bowl Sunday Changes: Face Masks, Empty Seats and Driveway Parties

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021Chiefs Fans’ Generational DivideReconsidering Tom BradySuper Bowl Party TipsThe N.F.L.’s ‘First’ Women Want CompanyAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySuper Bowl Sunday Changes: Face Masks, Empty Seats and Driveway PartiesThe Super Bowl will once again feature the Chiefs, but almost every other part of the fan experience could be different.Dan Newby, owner of Crossroads Tours bus company, had an offer for Chiefs fans wanting to travel to Tampa, Fla., for the Super Bowl: For $9,000, a close group of travelers can get a bus that sleeps 12 — meaning no hotel costs in Tampa — and a driver.Credit…Chase Castor for The New York TimesAmaris Castillo and Feb. 4, 2021, 3:30 p.m. ETTAMPA, Fla. — One year ago, Dan Newby was on top of the world.Five buses from his company, Crossroad Tours, picked the Kansas City Chiefs up from the airport when they returned home from the Super Bowl as conquering heroes. Days later, those buses transported quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Coach Andy Reid and the Lombardi Trophy to Union Station in downtown Kansas City as part of a victory parade.The next month, as the coronavirus shut down almost all nonessential travel, the bottom fell out of Newby’s business. A packed schedule of trips for sports teams, church groups and schools was wiped clean.“Every bus we had was parked from March 13 to September 14,” Newby said.The Super Bowl is still the biggest event in American sports, and most fans will have only a few opportunities, if any (sorry Lions fans), to watch their team play in it, let alone attend in person. This Sunday the Super Bowl will once again feature the Chiefs, this time against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but Kansas City’s team will be about the only constant from last year.The most obvious change, for one of the most coveted tickets in sports, is that Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium will be only a third full. Although 7,500 of the 25,000 seats will be filled by vaccinated health care workers, attending for free as guests of the N.F.L. and presented with gifts of face masks and hand sanitizer as they enter, there are still plenty of fans buying tickets, selling tickets, scheming to attend or traveling to Tampa without a ticket just to soak up the atmosphere.Karen Ricardi, who works as a nurse manager at a hospital in Lutz, Fla., will be one of the lucky few after winning tickets through a drawing. A Massachusetts native who has lived in Florida for about 16 years, she considers herself a fan of both the Buccaneers and the New England Patriots — Tom Brady’s teams, present and past.“I never thought I’d ever go to a Super Bowl because the cost is so prohibitive,” she said. “It still feels surreal.”Jeremiah Coleman, a Chiefs fan who owns a car dealership in Wichita, Kan., will be there, too. He planned to fly to Tampa on Thursday evening.Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs strolled Tampa Riverwalk during lead-up events for the Super Bowl.Credit…Eve Edelheit for The New York TimesColeman said he thought about traveling to see his team in the Super Bowl last year, but chose to host a party for his friends instead. “I’ve had these friends some 20 or 30 years, and we’ve never got to watch the Super Bowl together,” he said. “So I said, ‘I don’t want to leave all them.’”This year, however, he plunked down $6,753 for a ticket, in part because his cousin, who was born and raised in Kansas City, now lives in Tampa. Earlier this season, he made the same trip, to watch the Chiefs play the Buccaneers in the same stadium on the weekend after Thanksgiving.Coleman’s cousin, Sara Carrasquillo, also bought a ticket, which she acknowledged was quite expensive. But since she lives in the Tampa area, she has no travel costs. “I just realized that I can always make the money back,” said Carrasquillo, who owns a waxing studio. “It’s not going to take me a whole lot of time to make it back, as if maybe I worked for someone.”Neither of the cousins seemed to have many health concerns about attending. Carrasquillo said she believed that the necessary precautions were being taken, and that because she has healthy eating habits she is in a “good position to fight off any virus.” Coleman said that he would wear a mask and wash his hands consistently, but that his mantra was to “be conscious but not scared.”Ultimately for Coleman, the allure of watching his favorite team in the Super Bowl overrode all other considerations. “On my deathbed, this will probably be one of the top five days I remember in my life, you know?” he said.Getting to see the Super Bowl in person may be tougher than ever. Chiefs fans hoping to attend the game could buy tickets through the N.F.L. or the team, or through companies that work with the league to sell packages that can include airfare, lodging, food and entertainment. Or they could buy up seats purchased by the dejected fans of teams who didn’t make it.Christian Mollon, a Buffalo Bills fan who now lives in Kansas City, paid almost $20,000, including fees, for two Super Bowl tickets before the A.F.C. championship game against the Chiefs. He had a hotel room reserved in Tampa, and was just waiting for the Bills to win. They did not.Christian Mollon, a Buffalo Bills fan who now lives in the Kansas City area, paid almost $20,000, including fees, for two Super Bowl tickets before the A.F.C. championship game against the Chiefs.Credit…Chase Castor for The New York TimesHe said that he got a number of nibbles for his tickets, but that while he tried to sell them at cost, most potential buyers tried to talk him down.What if nobody is willing to pay full cost? Well, his wife would be furious, Mollon joked last week, “but we’re taking a trip down to Tampa.”(That won’t be happening. Over the weekend he was able to unload the tickets for about $17,000, covering the ticket costs but not most of the fees he had paid.)For those traveling from Kansas City but unsure about flying, Newby — who said his bus business declined by 85 percent in 2020 — came up with a solution. He has been advertising his entertainer buses, the kind normally used for concert tours, on Craigslist. For $9,000, he said, a close group of travelers can get a bus that sleeps 12 — meaning no hotel costs in Tampa — and a driver.“You have to have 12 people in one family, or 12 people in a group of friends, a pod that has the money to go there,” said Newby, whose company sent 56-seat charter buses to the Super Bowl outside Miami last year. As of late last week, he had not found any takers.“It’s just hard,” Newby said. “People are going in two and threes, threes and fours, and they’re driving.”About the only consolation during a tough summer for Newby was the Chiefs giving him a Super Bowl ring in recognition of his years ferrying the team around.Credit…Chase Castor for The New York TimesThe vast majority of Chiefs fans face a different complication: What to do about a Super Bowl party? Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has advised people not to invite friends and family over on Sunday, in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “Just lay low and cool it,” he said on Wednesday.Such messaging has been a boon for James Hansen, the owner of Easy Audio Rental in Olathe, Kan. Hansen’s company rents out projectors and other audiovisual equipment, and he said he expected to be sold out for the first time since 2015, when the Kansas City Royals were in the World Series.Rather than have everybody crowd around a television in the living room, he said, fans may try to play it safer — and still have a crowd — by setting up a projector on the front lawn or the driveway.“These Midwesterners don’t mind a little cold,” Hansen said. They had better not: The temperature there on Sunday is projected to top out at 30 degrees.Chiefs fans, however, are used to attending cold-weather games at Arrowhead Stadium. Hansen said his brother and father, who have season tickets, followed Chiefs games all season by setting up a television in the garage and watching from the driveway.Hansen said his family was no different from so many others these days. “They really just want to be together,” he said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    The Weeknd’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Breaks With Tradition

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Weeknd’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Breaks With TraditionThis time, the field won’t be swarming with fans crowding the stage. In fact, the stage won’t be on the field at all, but in the stands.The Weeknd in concert. He will be headlining the Super Bowl halftime show in Tampa on Sunday.Credit…Hayoung Jeon/EPA, via ShutterstockJulia Jacobs and Feb. 4, 2021, 3:09 p.m. ETWhether it stars Al Hirt, Michael Jackson or Beyoncé, the Super Bowl halftime show has always taken center stage on the field.But for the first time in the 55-year history of the game, the Weeknd, who is headlining this Sunday in Tampa, Fla., will perform on a stage set up in the stands in keeping with strict coronavirus protocols intended to limit contact with the players and coaches; his act may, however, include a brief interlude on the field.In a typical year, a massive stage is rolled onto the field and hundreds of fans pour out to surround it; this year only about 1,050 people are expected to work to put on the show, compared with 2,000 to 3,000 most years. Performers and crew members will receive Covid-19 tests before rehearsals and before the performance.When he strode to the microphone Thursday at a news conference, the Weeknd took in the room and noted, “It’s kind of empty.” His words were perhaps a preview of how the stadium might look to people watching from home. (About 25,000 fans will be in the stadium — less than half its 65,000-person capacity — joined by thousands of two-dimensional cardboard cutouts of fans provided by the N.F.L.)The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), is a 30-year-old Canadian pop star known for hits including “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Starboy.” His concerts often have a brooding feel and a dark, avant-garde edge. (The music video for his latest hit, “Blinding Lights,” opens with the Weeknd laughing maniacally, his face covered in blood.) He said that his halftime show would incorporate some of his trademark artistic themes but that he plans to be “respectful to the viewers at home.”“The story will continue,” he said, “but definitely we’ll keep it PG for the families.”This will be the second Super Bowl halftime show produced in part by Jay-Z and his entertainment company, Roc Nation, who were recruited by the N.F.L. in 2019. At the time, performers were refusing to work with the league, in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.The Coronavirus Outbreak More