TNIAAM Super Bowl LIV Watch Guide & GameThread

Welcome to Super Bowl LIV (54, for those that haven’t caught onto the whole Roman numerals thing yet, somehow).

While I, personally, enjoyed not watching a single NFL game this year, perhaps many of you did watch “other” football throughout the fall and into the winter. But whether you did or not, you’re probably watching Sunday night’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers (15-3) and the Kansas City Chiefs (14-4).

The game gets started at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX. If you’re not watching on linear television, though, you’ll have a host of different options. Fox Sports, Fox Now and Fox Deportes mobile apps will all be streaming, as well the NFL Mobile and Yahoo Sports apps. Connected TVs can also utilize the Fox Sports or Fox Now apps to stream.

Before kickoff, however, some things you may want to know:

Who’s favored?

The Chiefs are a 1- or 1.5-point favorite, depending on who you ask. So basically a pick’em.

Any Syracuse Orange connections to the game?

No one on either roster played for the Orange, unfortunately. Though Jamal Custis did spend a good amount of time with the Chiefs last summer. Also, as you’ve probably heard by now, Dino Babers (and new OC Sterlin Gilbert) coached 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo at Eastern Illinois.

Who are you rooting for?

That depends. Are you a Chiefs or 49ers fan? Then you’re rooting for your team. If you’re a fan of another NFC West squad, you’re probably rooting for the Chiefs, because teams in the same NFL divisions actually hate each other in pro sports, unlike the weird things we see in college sports sometimes. Same goes for AFC West fans: You’re probably rooting for the 49ers.

Are you a liberal, coastal elite? Then you’re potentially rooting for the Niners as well. Live in “Real America” (TM), then you’re probably pulling for the Chiefs.

Personally, I’m a liberal, coastal elite that hates all things Bay Area, so Chiefs it is. But perhaps you want Dino’s guy to win. In which case, the Niners could be your squad. Though it’s unlikely that a former Babers QB winning the Super Bowl will amount to much for the Orange on the recruiting trail, I suppose it can’t hurt.

Any other fun facts worth knowing?

The Miami area will host the game for a record 11th time this year, though the game (interestingly) hasn’t been held there since 2010. While Miami has hosted the Super Bowl quite a few times, the home team Dolphins haven’t participated in the game themselves since 1984.

San Francisco once won the most consecutive Super Bowls appearances, with five. However, that streak ended when they lost to the Ravens, 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. The This year makes the Niners’ seventh Super Bowl trip, which is fifth all-time. Should they win this one, they’d be the third NFL team to win it six times (joining the Steelers and Patriots).

Though the Chiefs played in Super Bowl I back in 1967, they’ve only been to one other iteration of the game: Super Bowl IV, a 23-7 win for Kansas City over the Vikings. The 50-year gap between appearances is the longest in the history of the game (or at least it will be until the Jets eventually manage to make their first since Super Bowl III).

This is the first meeting of first-time Super Bowl starters since Super Bowl XLVII (the 49ers’ last trip), when San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick and Baltimore’s Joe Flacco faced off.

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Ready for the game? Anxious? Don’t care? Leave your pre-/in-/post-game comments below.