Super Bowl LI pregame: Follow all the news and highlights from before kickoff

If regular NFL Sundays are like a typical restaurant meal for bettors, the Super Bowl is a Hometown Buffet. The choices are nearly limitless, and many of them are weird and mediocre.

The biggest broadcast of the year will draw diehards and non-fans alike, and the spread of nonessential prop bets reflects the wide net of viewers looking to make the game a bit more interesting. While the traditional stanchions of sports wagering are out there — straight-up winners, spreads, over/unders — the big game allows fans to put down cold hard cash on important topics like “Luke Bryan’s pants” and “Gatorade colors.”

The Super Bowl halftime show is never lacking in theatrics and production value, and Lady Gaga will take those reins during halftime of Super Bowl LI.

Here’s a full recap of the halftime show, which was pretty great!

Art Spander is one of the most decorated and prolific American sports writers ever. Across 56 years, he has covered 50 Masters Tournaments, 33 Wimbledons, 34 Final Fours, and attended or covered 63 consecutive Rose Bowls. This year he will attend his 40th Super Bowl, an event he started covering during his stint with the San Francisco Chronicle from 1965 to 1979, and through his current job writing for the San Francisco Examiner ever since.

Spander has done a lot, but that clout bought him no sympathy when, during Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday, he accidentally picked up the gray-green backpack of Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and walked away.

The rivalry between the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints runs deep and bitter. That presented a quandary for the family of Falcons rookie linebacker Deion Jones when he was drafted by Atlanta. Now Jones’ family members, previously diehard Saints fans, have placed all of their fandom and support squarely behind Jones’ Falcons.

Jones’ father, Cal, told Larry Holder of the Times-Picayune that after the draft, there was no question they’d support the Falcons.

HOUSTON – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Atlanta Falcons middle linebacker Deion Jones are the players to watch in Super Bowl LI. Here is why:

“It’s an emotional game.”

The cast of Hamilton sung “America the Beautiful” before Super Bowl LI, kicking off the Super Bowl festivities. Luke Bryan followed it up with the national anthem.

All three singers — Jasmine Cephas Jones, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Phillipa Soo — were part of the original Hamilton cast.

The biggest revelation of the Super Bowl had nothing to do with the game, the commercials, or the halftime show. It was the realization that Ving Rhames is the voice on the “WE HAVE THE MEATS!” Arby’s ads. Here is the precise moment everyone worked it out:

Now you know why you were getting oddly hungry during the team intros. It’s because those intros HAD THE MEATS!

There are so many different things on the periphery of the Super Bowl that wind up being huge news and a business all on their own. One of the most notable is the proliferation of prop bets for just about every conceivable aspect of the game.

One of the more popular prop bets each and every year is the bet for how long the national anthem performance will be. Right now, the over/under is 2 minutes, 9 seconds.

There’s something about the big game that sure makes you thirsty. And what better way to wash that down than with an ice cold beer! Fortunately for most folks watching the game at home or at a friend’s house, they can get by pretty cheap. It will cost a little more if you at the neighborhood watering hole with the ol’ softball team. It’s still quite a bit cheaper than what you’ll pay for a beer at the game itself.

A beer at NRG Stadium, host facility for Super Bowl LI, costs $12.

In the last hour before the kickoff of Super Bowl 51, the team of commentators on Fox’s network pregame show unveiled game picks. Four of the panel’s five members went with the Patriots to beat the Falcons.

So, for the Patriots, that’s Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, and comedian Rob Riggle. Long’s son, Chris, is a defensive end for the Patriots, so it’d be somewhat treasonous for him to choose against them. Michael Strahan, the former defensive end who beat the Patriots with the Giants in Super Bowl 42, picked Atlanta.

The Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots will face off under the bright lights of Super Bowl 51 from NRG Stadium in Houston. Matt Ryan’s Falcons are going for their franchise’s first ever Lombardi Trophy, while Tom Brady’s Patriots are no strangers to playing in — and winning — Super Bowls.

Sunday’s game will kick off at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast in the United States by FOX. There will be pregame coverage hours before the game on all of FOX, the NFL Network, and ESPN.

Luke Bryan is the national anthem performer for Super Bowl 51.

To some, that name is familiar. To others, probably not so much.

Celebrity sightings are huge at the biggest sporting event of the year.

Here we have Georgia native and HUGE Falcons fan 2 Chainz (or Tity Boi as he is known colloquially).

Super Bowl LI just got a bit easier for kickers Stephen Gostkowski and Matt Bryant. They won’t have to deal with any wind, as the roof of NRG Stadium will be closed for the big game. The decision was announced about 90 minutes before kickoff.

The weather in Houston calls for a warm February day, though pockets of thunderstorms loping across the state brought the potential of a rainy backdrop for the big game. The high for Sunday night is a balmy 66 degrees.

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events of the year. It’s such a cultural touchstone even Pope Francis took the opportunity to weigh in on Sunday’s New England Patriots-Atlanta Falcons showdown.

The Pope didn’t actually touch on the game itself, instead reflecting on the opportunity the sport and Super Bowl provide. Football, he reasons, brings people together by building a culture of inclusiveness and peace. Playing the sport shows how people can put aside self-interests and sacrifice in the quest for a larger goal.

Kenan Thompson is back with his David Ortiz on Saturday Night Live, and this time, he’s making a Super Bowl prediction.

And of course, as he has in the past, he’s talking about lunch.

It can’t be ignored that this is an advertisement for a car company which has a vested interest in appealing to not only fathers, but also women and girls who will grow to be women who will want to drive cars. It’s a commercial that will air during the most watched event in the United States, the Super Bowl, and thus will have a grand audience of these demographics to connect to. It’s first and foremost, an effort to sell a product.

With that being said, Audi’s ad for the Super Bowl is one of the best yet for this year and in recent memory.

On Saturday Night Live, Keenan Thompson hosted a Family Feud as Steve Harvey. It was a Super Bowl edition that featured the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots, including a variety of celebrity contestants as fans of the respective teams.

In the skit, the Falcons were represented by Justin Bieber, Samuel L. Jackson, Paula Deen, and Roger Goodell. For the Patriots, Gisele Bundchen, Bill Belichick, Casey Affleck, and Lady Gaga.

On Friday, the Falcons were having one of their final practices before Super Bowl LI when a drone was seen by security flying over their practice.

The NFL’s pool report says that security “grounded a drone” that was being flown over Falcons practice, which was near a residential area near the Rice University campus.

The Super Bowl is big business for sportsbooks. CG Technology, an operator out of Las Vegas, learned that Friday when a bettor threw down a $1.1 million wager on the Falcons.

The bet took Atlanta and the 3-point spread, meaning Matt Ryan’s team doesn’t have to win to pay off $1 million to the anonymous gambler who placed it. If the Falcons lose by two points or fewer or upset the Patriots, he or she will earn a seven-figure return on his or her investment.

If you love to yell at the refs for getting the call wrong, here’s an excellent opportunity for you to brush up on your knowledge of the NFL rulebook.

Most people who will tune into the Super Bowl are already familiar with most of the NFL’s new rules. But for many, it’s nice to have a refresher before the big game, especially if they haven’t been watching the playoffs this year, which have been underwhelming.

“The Patriot Way” isn’t a new philosophy. With 16 consecutive winning seasons under Bill Belichick and one more game between the franchise and a possible fifth Super Bowl victory, it has come to define everything about the New England Patriots’ excellence in the 21st century.

With so much success over such an extended period, everything about Belichick’s strategies and beliefs have been dissected. But it’s the win column itself that really defines what “The Patriot Way” is all about.

Super Bowl LI will feature a referee making his first appearance in the big game. Fortunately, Carl Cheffers has prepared his whole lifetime for Sunday’s assignment.

Cheffers is in his 17th season as an NFL official, though his affinity for the game was built into his bloodlines. Cheffers’ father worked as a referee for the Pac-10, and it was that same conference to give the budding side judge his first major gig on the gridiron. He’s been with the NFL since 2000, but earned his promotion to referee in 2008.

HOUSTON — On Wednesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked to clarify the league’s stance on President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the United States.

Goodell passed up the opportunity.