August 21, 2010; Tampa, FL, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Chris Chambers (84) gets tackled by Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Elbert Mack (33) during the first half at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Stories of Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs
The Bucs are the first team to play in the Super Bowl on its own field. The Bucs were not one of the contenders the last time Tampa hosted the Super Bowl; San Diego was the location of the only Super Bowl the Bucs had played in before LV. In part, because the Bucs have lost a lot more games than they have won in their history.
The NFL picks a Super Bowl site several years in advance from among teams that compete to host the games. The competition to host a site resembles a scaled down version of the Olympics selection process. The site is often in a warm location in Florida, California, or Arizona. For example, the temperature will be around 70 F (21 c) at kick off time for this Super Bowl. In contrast, it will be just above freezing in New York, one of the few Northern (meaning cold weather) cities that have hosted the event in recent years
The Chiefs are a founding member team of the current NFL, which came from a union between two previous competitors – the then National Football League and the then upstart American Football League. The two merged to form the NFL which now has two conferences – the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Each conference has 16 teams.
Lamar Hunt, founder of the Chiefs, was a founding member of the NFL. In its long history, the team had previously appeared in only three Super Bowls. It won two including the last one (2020). The Bucs have a mission today to prevent the Chiefs from becoming one of the last to win back to back
Chiefs and Bucs are connected in one positive way – their commitment to hiring minority and women coaches. Tampa leads the league in that Bruce Arian, the white Head Coach, has minority males as his top three assistants. He also has two female assistant coaches. Among prominent minorities on their staff is the person in charge of all their offense, a position seen as a stepping stone to the job of Head Coach (HC). The Chiefs too have two female assistant coaches.
AFRICANS IN THE SUPER BOWL
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs have five Africans between them. They are among what I would describe the big bad heavy players that cause havoc on the defense or the offense.
The biggest most well known of them is Ndakumong Suh, who is on the Defensive Line of the Tampa Bay Bucs. That is the front of the defense to prevent runners from getting through or to disrupt the ability of the quarter back to pass the ball. He was born in Oregon of a Jamaican mother and Camerounian father
The other four are Derrick Nnadi, Alex Okafor, Kelechi Osemele and Patrick Omameh with the Kansas City Chiefs. Nnadi and Okafor play on the front of the defense like Suh. Omameh and Osemele play in mirror positions on the offense to prevent the big bad men on the defense from causing havoc on the offense. These four were all born in the USA of Nigerian parents
Who do you predict wins this year’s Super Bowl? Drop a comment below
