Super Bowl LV – Chris Berman’s Swami Sez pick for Kansas City Chiefs-Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Chris Berman is back for his choice of the Swami Sez NFL for the Super Bowl LV between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Odds are courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill.

Kansas City Chiefs (-3, 56) vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Needless to say, the stories are as interesting as they come in this 55th edition of the Super Bowl. My favorite is that Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are trying to repeat themselves as champions and join that exclusive club, and the guy who guards the castle to make sure they don’t pass is the last one to do that, GOAT himself, Tom Brady, with the New England Patriots from 2003-04.

Brady being here for the tenth time – we’ll probably never see that again, unless it happens to involve the guy he’s playing against. This game is the flagship of the past and the present against the present and possible future flagship of the best defenders who have ever played.

When you look at the Chiefs, this is a team with unquestionable talent. In this year’s two playoff games, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill have approximately 40 receptions and 400 combined yards – that’s ridiculous. In addition to the talent, this is a team that has fun playing, which comes from its head coach, Andy Reid. Sometimes, this season, they had so much fun that they took their foot off the gas and, as in the previous victory over Tampa, they could have won by more than 20 points, but instead had to kill the clock by three.

Until the Buffalo game, the Chiefs haven’t played a full 60-minute game since early November. If they can do it again, play every 60 minutes, then I think it might be too much for Tampa Bay to take – despite the magic of the big man himself, Tom Brady.

Tampa Bay, with the pass capture core of Chris Godwin, Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski, is one of the few teams that has as many headliners as the Chiefs. Add to that, you have Leonard Fournette, who ran the best he had all year round against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game, an additional dynamic that gives the offender the feeling that maybe – just maybe – can exchange points with the Bosses, which few teams can say they can. Bucs do.

The loss to the Chiefs during the Thanksgiving weekend put the Bucs at 7-5, entering the final goodbye of the season. For a veteran team to say goodbye so late in the season was perfect, and he responded. I said in prime time, this is the most important farewell of all 32 teams. Look, Swami got it right. The Bucs haven’t lost since. The new pieces were formed and the team assembled everything. You usually can’t rest at week 13, and it was worth it. This cannot be overlooked.

KC has three difference makers in defense: Chris Jones, Frank Clark and honey badger Tyrann Mathieu. Can they put enough pressure on Brady to make him feel a little uncomfortable? I will try to see if this will happen in the first quarter, which can set the tone of the game. If Brady is comfortable, the Bucs can exchange points with the Chiefs. But don’t underestimate defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, whose timing for sending a linebacker or cornerback may be perfect. He’s beaten Brady in the Super Bowl once. It can keep you out of balance.

Tampa Bay’s top seven are very good. Jason Pierre-Paul had a hell of a year, and linebackers Devin White and Shaq Barrett are facing a team without their two initial tackles. Ndamukong Suh and Lavonte David can also play high. Will the Bucs’ seven headlines be able to dictate the game on their own? Bosses should feel that if Mahomes have some time, they can win high school, as they did in the first game.

Another observation of the whole season: just as the Bucs’ late goodbye was what the doctor ordered, the Chiefs also had an unexpected break. Sure, they were the pre-season favorites to repeat and draw a lot of attention, but that defeat for the Las Vegas Raiders was a blessing in disguise. All the talk about unbeaten was for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who started with 11-0. Add to that Brady being in another Super Bowl, and this is at least as big a story as the Chiefs trying to repeat. A little less spotlight than expected never hurts.

In this first Super Bowl played at the home stadium of the conference champion, if the Bucs run out of the locker room 30 minutes before the start of the game in Creamsicle uniforms, it’s all over … Tampa wins and Tom wins his seventh touch. But they can’t, even if they wanted to. Seeing that this is not going to happen, I go with the champions to repeat, and Andy Reid and his team will join this elite repeat group. You know them: the Packers, Dolphins, Steelers (twice), Niners, Cowboys, Broncos and Tom’s Patriots. Each decade has had at least one champion repeated – in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. So the Chiefs won in 2019, so let’s call it consecutively in that decade too, and the trend continues.

Swami Sez: Chiefs 30, Bucs 20