Super Bowl 2025: The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans

Super Bowl 2025: The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans

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A detail of footballs at the NFL Experience fan festival ahead of Super Bowl LIX on February 07, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A detail of footballs at the NFL Experience fan festival ahead of Super Bowl LIX on February 07, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Tonight the Kansas City Chiefs will meet the Philadelphia Eagles for a date with history. The Chiefs are trying to become the first NFL team ever to win three Super Bowls in a row, and the Eagles are eager to stop them and avenge their 2023 loss.

NPR and our member stations in Kansas City, Philadelphia and New Orleans will have highlights from the halftime show, the best (and worst…) commercials, and of course results for you throughout the night.

The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. EST in New Orleans. Here’s how to watch.

Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs reacts as he runs onto the field prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 26, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs reacts as he runs onto the field prior to the AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 26, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri.

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🏈 Rooting for the Chiefs? 

Head over to Kansas City member station KCUR for the best experience.

“If they win, this is like Michael Jordan, 1990s Chicago Bulls-type stuff — history that we will all look back on as one of the greatest runs of any sport ever, if they can get it done,” says NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan.

Travis Kelce, now a global star thanks to Taylor Swift, takes center stage at the Super Bowl

TIL: Well into the 00’s, Chiefs home games used to feature a live band

🏈 Rooting for the Eagles? 

Head over to member station WHYY in Philadelphia for the best experience.

This time around, with 14 regular-season wins — and a blowout victory at the NFC Championship Game — under their belt, the Eagles have another shot at the Vince Lombardi trophy.

BINGO! Play Philly Super Bowl 59 bingo — 2 game boards for Eagles vs. Chiefs

Revenge of the Super Bowl Playlists: Philly Over Everybody

🎉 The food, the music and the commercials

Even non-football fans will have plenty to look forward to, from star-studded commercials to a halftime show headlined by Kendrick Lamar, fresh off his latest Grammy wins.

The festivities kicked off earlier this week with St. Augustine High School’s Marching 100 ushered both teams into the Caesars Superdome on Monday night.

Jon Batiste will perform the National Anthem. Check out his Tiny Desk to get in the mood.

🎶 Here’s a breakdown of who is performing from NPR’s Dhanika Pineda.

Plus, a Super Bowl riddle: Why are egg prices surging — but not chicken wings?

📺 What to watch for

Saquon Barkley #26 of the Philadelphia Eagles smiles during the NFC Divisional Playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field on January 19, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Saquon Barkley #26 of the Philadelphia Eagles smiles during the NFC Divisional Playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field on January 19, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Sarah Stier/Getty Images

NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan has some tips for what to watch for in this year’s game:

A close, back-and-forth game: All signs point to a close game. The Eagles defense aims to limit big gains and force teams to beat them with small plays. But that’s exactly how the Chiefs like to win: Kansas City is 12-0 in one-score games this season. The Kansas City defense is no slouch either, and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has struggled at times when pressured. 

Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes: The key to the Chiefs’ three-peat hopes is their 29-year-old quarterback who is great all the time but somehow even better in high-stakes moments: in the playoffs, on 3rd and 4th downs and on game-ending drives. 

The tush push: The Eagles have become known for their unusually successful take on the quarterback sneak. Here are the physics behind the play.

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley: After Philadelphia signed him last spring, Barkley has blossomed into the game-changer he always had the potential to be. He became only the ninth player ever to rush for more than 2,000 yards in the regular season, and he has more 60-plus-yard touchdown runs in one season than any player ever.

And some pre-game bonuses: Keep an eye out for Chiefs wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins’ arrival outfit, and whether this Chiefs player tears up during the National Anthem.

More 2025 Super Bowl coverage from The NPR Network

Record-setting legal betting

A record $1.39 billion is expected to be spent on betting legally on Sunday’s Super Bowl — up from $1.25 billion in 2024, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA). It also coincides with warnings from officials to beware of scammers looking to take advantage of the intense interest in the game. Here are two reasons why this year could set a new record.

With the surge in sports betting, the risk of gambling addiction rises too. Here’s what can be done.

“Choose Love”

The NFL has announced it will remove the end zone message “End Racism” for this year’s Super Bowl, replacing it with “Choose Love.”

Code Switch’s Gene Demby writes about how the change fits into broader discussion happening around DEI.

Omelets and cheesesteaks — for free
There’s nothing quite like a tailgate, where fans serve food to strangers who share the same passion. We went to a Philadelphia Eagles tailgate to learn what drives this uniquely American tradition.

Despite last month’s terrorist attack, Tourism in New Orleans remains strong

Today’s New Orleans is built on — and would suffer greatly without — tourism. About 17 million people visited New Orleans in 2022, spending more than $9 billion. Much of that happened during Mardi Gras, which made the New Year’s Day attack especially concerning since it happened right before the start of the tourism season. But so far, a little more than a month removed from the incident, the tourists are still coming.



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Trump doesn’t plan to deport Prince Harry, saying Meghan Markle is enough of a burden for the royal

Trump doesn’t plan to deport Prince Harry, saying Meghan Markle is enough of a burden for the royal

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President Donald Trump on Friday said that he isn’t interested in deporting Prince Harry, who famously left Britain with his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2020, eventually settling in Montecito, California. 

The Duke of Sussex is in hot water after conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation filed a lawsuit last year against the Department of Homeland Security to have his immigration records released following Harry admitting to illegal drug use in the past in his 2023 memoir “Spare.”

“I don’t want to do that,” Trump told the New York Post on Friday after being asked if he would deport the royal. “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”

Markle has criticized Trump in the past, calling him “misogynistic” and “divisive” during a TV appearance ahead of the 2016 election. 

PRINCE HARRY, MEGHAN MARKLE, VISIT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO SUPPORT WILDFIRE VICTIMS, RECOVERY EFFORTS

President Trump on Friday said that he isn’t interested in deporting Prince Harry, who famously left Britain with his wife, Meghan Markle, in 2020, eventually settling in Montecito, Calif.  (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images; Taylor Hill/WireImage)

In 2019, before a state visit to the U.K. during his first term as president, Trump called the Duchess of Sussex “nasty” over her remarks about him. 

He then went on to meet with the royal family during the visit, minus Markle, who was with newborn Archie at the time. 

He also told Piers Morgan in 2022 that Harry was “whipped like no person he had ever seen.”

The Heritage Foundation in its lawsuit says that Harry may have lied on his immigration forms about his past drug use or was given preferential treatment by the government and called on the records to be released. 

“I’ll be urging the president to release Prince Harry’s immigration records and the president does have that legal authority to do that,” Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation previously told the New York Post.

Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle enjoy the opening ceremony at the Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday.  ( Karwai Tang/WireImage)

“It’s important because this is an issue of the rule of law, transparency and accountability. No one should be above the law,” Gardiner added. “Donald Trump is ushering in a new era of strict border control enforcement, and you know, Prince Harry should be held fully to account as he has admitted to extensive illegal drug use.”

PRINCE HARRY ‘CHOSE EXILE’ IN CALIFORNIA AFTER VERBALLY ANNIHILATING FAMILY: EXPERTS

This week a federal judge said he is “likely” to release Harry’s immigration files after the first hearing in the royal’s high-profile case since Trump took office.

U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols said Harry’s files should be released “to the maximum extent possible,” during Wednesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., according to a report from the New York Post, with the judge reasoning that he is “required to make public everything that can be made public” but would take care not to violate any privacy laws.

Last year during the campaign, Trump told Nigel Farage in an interview that the government would have to take the “appropriate action” if Harry was found to have lied on his immigration forms, but didn’t explicitly say he would seek to deport him. 

Copies of Prince Harry's memoir Spare on a top of a table

Prince Harry admitted to past illegal drug use in his memoir “Spare.”  (Getty Images)

Trump also accused the Biden administration of “protecting” Harry, saying in a separate interview with the Daily Express in February 2024 “I wouldn’t protect him. He betrayed the Queen. That’s unforgivable. He would be on his own if it was down to me.”

On Friday, Trump conversely praised Prince William, with whom Harry has a long-running feud, as a “great young man.” 

Trump recently met with William in December in Paris when the two attended the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral following its devastating fire. 

Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report. 



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The EEOC exists to fight discrimination. Fired official fears a hobbling under Trump

The EEOC exists to fight discrimination. Fired official fears a hobbling under Trump

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Former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels (R), President Trump's pick to fill a Democratic seat on the commission, is sworn in by then-EEOC Chair Janet Dhillon (L) on October 14, 2020.

Former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels, shown at right, President Trump’s pick in his first term to fill a Democratic seat on the commission, is sworn in by then-EEOC Chair Janet Dhillon, left, on October 14, 2020.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission


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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

When Jocelyn Samuels learned through an email late on the evening of Jan. 27 that she was being removed from her seat on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was shocked.

She had heard rumblings that President Trump might try to oust commissioners of independent agencies, but she didn’t think it would happen to her.

After all, the veteran civil rights lawyer had worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations. What’s more, she had been Trump’s pick to fill a Democratic seat on the bipartisan commission during his first term.

“I did not hide my policy views or the way I go about legal interpretation when I was interviewed by the Trump White House back in 2020,” says Samuels. “I believe I exercised my responsibilities with integrity and competence and a real attention to the rule of law.”

Yet now, five years on, she’s been told that her “radical” views, including her position that diversity, equity and inclusion work is permissible under law, make her unfit to serve.

The about-face has led Samuels to one conclusion.

“I think it is the perspectives of this administration that have changed and become significantly more radical,” she says.

Since returning to the White House three weeks ago, Trump has taken so many legally questionable actions to implement his agenda that Samuels’ removal, along with that of former EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows, has not sparked the widespread public response that it might have in quieter times.

But people who work in civil rights warn the firings are part of a broad attempt to dismantle the infrastructure for addressing systemic inequalities in America.

An agency established to fight discrimination

The EEOC was created by Congress 60 years ago to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., and field offices all over the country, its mission is to eliminate unlawful discrimination in the workplace.

Every year, the EEOC investigates tens of thousands of discrimination complaints, facilitating mediation in some cases and taking employers to court in others.

“The EEOC as an institution plays a critical role in advancing and vindicating the rights of those who have been subject to discrimination — a role that individuals simply can’t make up by hiring their own lawyers and filing their own lawsuits,” says Samuels.

Historically, the agency has prioritized protecting vulnerable workers and people from underserved communities.

Samuels fears that focus will end, as Trump takes his crackdown on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) into all corners of the federal government and beyond.

Already, the Trump administration has halted DEIA-related work throughout the government, revoked a 1965 executive order aimed at preventing employment discrimination by federal contractors and ordered government websites scrubbed of “gender ideology” content, among other things. Federal employees have been told to strip pronouns from their email signatures.

Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, whom Trump also appointed to the commission in 2020, has already ended the use of the non-binary “X” gender option on forms used for filing discrimination claims.

And much bigger changes are ahead.

“Elections have consequences”

“I do think elections have consequences, and new administrations do have different priorities,” says Samuels. “I think what is going on now is an effort to eviscerate the underpinnings of EEOC policy… and the nature of the work that it is able to undertake in a way that is completely unprecedented.”

Currently, the EEOC cannot make any big policy changes. With only two commissioners remaining, it lacks a quorum.

But with vacant seats that Trump can fill, the commission is expected to soon gain a Republican majority. At that point, Samuels expects an upheaval.

Lucas has vowed to rescind portions of the EEOC’s harassment guidance that make clear that trans people are protected from harassment on the basis of gender identity.

Samuels views that guidance as a vital tool for protecting people who have experienced egregious treatment at work, “whether it’s through misgendering, or asking invasive questions about employees’ genitalia, or saying that people are not real men if they are trans men, or calling people ‘it.'”

Lucas, meanwhile, contends that the guidance puts women in danger by ignoring “biological realities.”

“The same agency that in the 1960s and 70s fought to ensure women had the right to their own restrooms, locker rooms, sleeping quarters, and other sex-specific workplace facilities — and established that it would be sex discrimination not to provide such women-only facilities — betrayed women by attacking their sex-based rights in the workplace,” Lucas said in a statement last month. “That must end.”

A decision to rescind the gender identity part of the guidance could put the commission at odds with the Supreme Court. In 2020, the court ruled, “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”

A chilling effect on employers

Many also worry that the Trump EEOC will adopt a proposal from Project 2025 to end the requirement that employers with 100 or more employees provide the government with yearly data about the race, ethnicity, gender and job category of their workers. Without the data, the EEOC may not be able to prove that an employer’s hiring or promotion practices are discriminatory.

“I am deeply worried that the EEOC will no longer be an agency that is committed to protecting and vindicating the rights of vulnerable workers, and will instead be a barrier to their ability to be protected from discrimination,” says Samuels.

Even before any big policy changes are finalized, Samuels anticipates many employers will cease all kinds of efforts to address barriers to opportunity, even things like mentorship programs that are open to all.

“Because the administration has offered no description of the kinds of initiatives that it is sweeping into the DEI rubric, employers may be chilled,” she says.

She fears that Trump’s executive orders, which include many references to “illegal DEI and DEIA policies” and a direct call to private sector employers to examine their own practices, may lead some companies to inadvertently violate anti-discrimination laws.

As an example, federal law requires that employers make accommodations for employees and job applicants with disabilities, unless those accommodations would impose an undue hardship.

“Clumping accessibility together with this Trump DEI, as if these are woke, ideological terms that have no relationship to legal requirements, I think just leads employers down the garden path to believe that complying with their accommodation obligations is discretionary,” she says.

A fight of her own

After a career fighting on behalf of other people, Samuels is now weighing whether to challenge her own firing in court.

“I’m going to be thinking very hard about appropriate next steps,” she says.

Ninety years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents don’t have the power to fire commissioners of independent agencies.

Through multiple firings, Trump is setting up opportunities for courts to reconsider that decision.

Already, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired by Trump the same night as Samuels, has sued Trump, citing language in the National Labor Relations Act that allows the president to remove board members only for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

“We trust that the courts will uphold the law’s longstanding protections for agency independence,” Wilcox’s attorney Deepak Gupta said in a statement.



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Europe's far-right leaders applaud Trump and downplay threat of possible U.S. tariffs

Europe's far-right leaders applaud Trump and downplay threat of possible U.S. tariffs

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Spanish far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal, centre, waves next to European far-right politicians during the Patriots for Europe summit in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. From left, Italy's vice Premier Matteo Salvini, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Spanish far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal, centre, waves next to European far-right politicians during the Patriots for Europe summit in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. From left, Italy’s vice Premier Matteo Salvini, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

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MADRID — Europe’s far-right leaders applauded U.S. President Donald Trump’s agenda and spoke of the turning point it presented Europe at an event Saturday organized by Spain’s Vox party in Madrid under the banner “Make Europe Great Again.”

Those gathered included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italy’s Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen and others.

Salvini and Vox president Santiago Abascal downplayed Trump’s threat to hike tariffs on European imports, saying that the European Union’s taxes and regulations are a bigger danger to Europe’s prosperity.

“The great tariff is the Green Deal and the confiscatory taxes of Brussels and socialist governments across Europe,” said Abascal.

Salvini referenced the “historic opportunity” ahead of Germany’s Feb. 23 election, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party is polling in second place, behind center-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s Union bloc.

“The engine of Europe has come to a halt in the face of the most disastrous government of the post-war period,” Salvini said of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government.

The defense of Europe’s borders against illegal immigration was another topic touched on by every speaker at the two-day event, even though irregular border crossings into the European Union fell sharply in 2024, according to data collected by the bloc’s border control agency Frontex.

Le Pen said that Trump’s election triumph put Europe before a “real change,” and said that the EU had left the continent at the margins of ongoing technological revolutions in artificial intelligence and other realms.

She also said that it was the European leaders present at the gathering, whose Patriots for Europe group has 84 seats in the European Parliament, who had the best chance of communicating and working with Trump.

“We are the only ones that can talk with the new Trump administration,” Le Pen said.



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Energy experts blast failed billion-dollar DOE project as 'financial boondoggle,' 'disaster'

Energy experts blast failed billion-dollar DOE project as 'financial boondoggle,' 'disaster'

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A major solar power plant project that was granted over a billion dollars in federal loans is on the road to closure, with energy experts blasting the project as a “boondoggle” that harmed the environment.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under former President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in loan guarantees to finance the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, a green energy project that consists of three solar concentrating thermal power plants in California

The facility was touted by then-Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz as an “example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.” But after 10 years, the federally funded plant is now on track to close. 

“Ivanpah is yet another failed green energy boondoggle, much like Solyndra,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Despite receiving $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees, it never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected while still relying on natural gas to stay operational.”

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Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (U.S. Department of Energy)

“Now, with its power contracts canceled, Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government-subsidized energy schemes,” Isaac said.

Ivanpah consists of three individual units, two of which were contracted by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in 2009 and scheduled to run until 2039. 

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In January, PG&E announced plans to cancel its agreement with Ivanpah 14 years early, determining that “ending the agreements at this time will save customers money compared to the cost of keeping them through 2039” – ultimately putting Ivanpah on notice for closure.

“The Ivanpah plant was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,” Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club, an environmental activism group, said of the power plant. 

Obama

The $1.6 billion loan to Ivanpah was delivered under former President Obama’s administration. (AP )

“Along with killing thousands of birds and tortoises, the project’s construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat along with numerous rare plant species,” Dowell said. “While the Sierra Club strongly supports innovative clean energy solutions and recognizes the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels, Ivanpah demonstrated that not all renewable technologies are created equal.”

This comes after another DOE-funded green energy project, Solyndra, went bankrupt in 2011 after receiving $535 million in federal loan guarantees from the Obama administration.

“Green projects have a long history of expensive taxpayer-subsidized disaster that is getting more so,” Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute and former Trump EPA transition team member, said in a statement to Fox.

Chris Wright, chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc., was recently confirmed to head the U.S. Department of Energy under the Trump administration.

Chris Wright, chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc., was recently confirmed to head the U.S. Department of Energy under the Trump administration. (Al Drago)

Milloy suggested that further green energy failures could come from projects funded by recent Democrat-backed legislation that aims to push the green energy agenda.

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“Soon we will be looking at failures of larger magnitude than Green New Deal spending. No green project relying on taxpayer subsidies has ever made any economic or environmental sense,” Milloy said. “It’s important that President Trump stop the taxpayer bleeding by ending what he accurately calls the Green New Scam.”



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