February 02, 2023
Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports
Super Bowl LVII referee Carl Cheffers officiated the Kansas City Chiefs' loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
There were a few Philadelphia Eagles-related news items the last couple of days that aren't worthy of their own articles, but combined together are worth rounding up. So let's get to those, shall we?
In Super Bowl LII, there were controversial calls on a pair of Eagles touchdowns that (correctly) went the Eagles' way. The first was Corey Clement's touchdown, which Patriots fans would argue was bobbled, but the officiating crew determined that Clement was tucking the ball away, as opposed to losing control of it at any point. The other was Zach Ertz's very clear touchdown, which would have been insane to overturn. That game was refereed by Gene Steratore, who is now a rules analyst during games on CBS.
The Eagles are 7-7 in games that Cheffers has refereed. Here are those games:
| Matchup | Eagles | Opponent |
| Giants at Eagles, 2009 | 40 | 17 |
| Colts at Eagles, 2010 | 26 | 24 |
| Eagles at Falcons, 2011 | 31 | 35 |
| Washington at Eagles, 2011 | 34 | 10 |
| Bengals at Eagles, 2012 | 13 | 34 |
| Giants at Eagles, 2013 | 7 | 15 |
| Eagles at Packers, 2014 | 20 | 53 |
| Eagles at Washington, 2014 | 24 | 27 |
| Giants at Eagles, 2015 | 27 | 7 |
| Eagles at Seahawks, 2016 | 15 | 26 |
| Eagles at Chargers, 2017 | 26 | 24 |
| Eagles at Saints, 2018 | 7 | 48 |
| Eagles at Saints, 2018 (playoffs) | 14 | 20 |
| Giants at Eagles, 2022 | 22 | 16 |
I can't recall any egregious officiating weirdness in any of those games.
The Chiefs are 16-7 in games that Cheffers has officiated. One of those losses was in the Super Bowl against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Cheffers knows Patrick Mahomes well, as he has refereed 10 Mahomes starts. He has only refereed one start by Jalen Hurts.
We could go a little more in-depth on the types of penalties Cheffers' crew called more/less than average this season, but that's kind of a pointless endeavor since it will be an "all-star" crew (and not Cheffers' normal regular season crew).
A bunch of sportsbooks released odds for Super Bowl LVIII. They're all pretty similar, but we'll use DraftKings' odds, which look like this:
| Team | Odds | Team | Odds |
| Chiefs | +500 | Buccaneers | +4000 |
| Bills | +650 | Raiders | +4000 |
| 49ers | +700 | Browns | +4500 |
| Eagles | +800 | Saints | +5000 |
| Bengals | +900 | Patriots | +5000 |
| Cowboys | +1400 | Vikings | +5000 |
| Chargers | +2200 | Steelers | +6000 |
| Jets | +2500 | Panthers | +6500 |
| Lions | +3000 | Titans | +7000 |
| Dolphins | +3000 | Seahawks | +7000 |
| Jaguars | +3000 | Falcons | +7500 |
| Ravens | +3000 | Colts | +8000 |
| Packers | +3000 | Bears | +8000 |
| Broncos | +3000 | Commanders | +8000 |
| Rams | +3500 | Texans | +10000 |
| Giants | +4000 | Cardinals | +10000 |
Some quick thoughts:
• The Eagles are a clearly better team than the 49ers and they just bullied them for 60 minutes on Sunday. They also have an answer at quarterback, while the 49ers... don't. What am I missing?
• The Jets being in the top 8 is perhaps an indication that oddsmakers believe that Aaron Rodgers will be playing there in 2023.
• After the Lions' strong finish in 2022, they are now being taken more seriously.
• It's funny how much the oddsmakers think the Vikings are frauds.
• Oddsmakers aren't expecting much from the Saints next season. The Eagles own the Saints' 2024 second-round pick.
• Only two teams have longer odds than the Commanders.
• The Eagles' Super Bowl LVII odds this time last year were +4000.
As the home team, the Eagles will choose jersey colors. Spoiler: Expect green jerseys, with white pants. The Chiefs will wear white jersey, and I'll guess that they go with their red pants.
The Eagles will practice at State Farm Stadium. The Chiefs will practice at Arizona State.
An NFL representative said in a conference call that the NFC and AFC Championship Games averaged 50.7 million viewers, making that the most-watched conference championship round since 2014. That year the Seahawks hosted the Packers, and the Patriots hosted the Colts.
The Eagles will have a walkthrough on Thursday, and practices on Friday and Saturday before flying to Arizona on Sunday. They are scheduled to arrive at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport at around 3:00 p.m. local time. That would be 5:00 p.m. EST.
To note, Arizona is Mountain Standard Time, but most of the state (Navajo Nation excluded) does not observe daylight savings time. That means that they are two hours behind the east coast during the "fall back" period from November to March, and three hours behind the east coast during the "spring forward" period from March to November.
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