The NFL season comes to an end with Super Bowl week – and what a week it is.
If you hadn’t heard, it’s this incredible build-up to the Super Bowl and I’ve been in New Orleans all week for it.
Every day is a little chunk of more excitement, whether it’s Opening Night or being here on Radio Row. People are broadcasting from a huge hall to more than 190 countries, in 25 languages.
NFL superstars are walking around all day doing interviews. I’ve just been chatting to [two-time Super Bowl winner] Malcolm Butler on a sofa. You don’t see things like this in everyday life or in any other sport.
Then you’ve got all the razzmatazz. The whole city is taken over by the NFL but in a really lovely, integrated way. They marry sport with culture and music and food. Everywhere you go, everyone has this real excitement for the game and they want to share their city.
The events are non-stop. It’s the NFL awards night on Thursday, then a party for international guests and a Mardi Gras type parade on Saturday. I’ll even be on one of the floats.
Then it’s what we’re all here for, the game itself.
The Kansas City Chiefs are going for an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat. A lot of people are saying they will do it, and they probably will, but let’s give the Philadelphia Eagles a chance.
It’s a rematch of two years ago, when the Eagles were up by 10 points at the half. Then they were rotating their running backs in the second half, and not in a positive way, because they weren’t able to get anything going.
It’s a much more favourable match-up now for the Eagles, mainly because they’ve brought in Saquon Barkley. Nobody does what he does.
I was working on the sideline for the NFC Championship game and I really felt that seeing him on TV was one thing, seeing him in real life was phenomenal.
I can still visualise it now, that lateral step he does when he runs into the line [of scrimmage] and then he’s gone.
His ability to play with vision, the way he follows his lead blockers, it’s like a sixth sense. He’s got that extra something. He feels space and can manoeuvre his body in a way that’s just so explosive.
I can’t even explain the quickness of that. It makes everybody just lose their ankles because you don’t expect somebody of his size and stature to move so quickly. It’s just pure athleticism.
There are very few people that can tackle him so I think Barkley’s going to be huge for the Eagles.
