Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
American football stadium with people
American football stadium with people
Aaron Burden/Unsplash
Culture > News

Eagles & Patriots Are Headed To The Super Bowl — Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Hannah Harshe

https://twitter.com/NFL_Memes/status/955271861201448961https://titter.co…9552718612096Hundreds of millions of people will pack into their local Buffalo Wild Wings, or crowd around the TV in their basement, or congregate in the community center of their dorms on February 4th, to catch the most-watched American television broadcast of the year. That’s right, February 4th is Super Bowl Sunday. And, like every year, we’re pumped.

The Rundown:

This year, the Philadelphia Eagles will be playing the New England Patriots in a classic matchup of the underdog versus the reigning champ. The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (or the NFL, as most people call it). The NFL is broken up into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each conference is then divided into four divisions.

On Sunday, the NFC and AFC both held their conference championship games, to determine which team is the best in the conference. In the NFC Championship Game, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings. In the AFC Championship Game, the New England Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Because the Eagles are now the champion of the National Football Conference, and the Patriots are now the champion of the American Football Conference, the Eagles and Patriots will now play each other in the Super Bowl to determine who is the champion of the entire NFL. (Don’t confuse the Super Bowl with the College Football Playoff National Championship, which was on January 8th. The CFP National Championship was college students playing for their schools’ teams, whereas the Super Bowl is professional athletes who usually already went to college and now get paid to play football as their job.)

If you’ve heard of the Patriots before, that’s because they won the Super Bowl last year. And a bunch of times before that. In fact, this will be their eighth Super Bowl appearance in the past eighteen years. The Eagles, on the other hand, are the biggest Super Bowl underdog since the Cardinals played the Steelers nine years ago. Because the Patriots are so obnoxiously good, most people will be rooting for the underdog.

As SB Nation put it, “If you’re a Patriots fan, then congratulations on the dynasty getting dynastier. If you’re not a Patriots fan, you’d probably rather have a colonoscopy than sit through yet another Tom Brady-Bill Belichick supervillain Super Bowl.”

But don’t let the crowds influence you. Read more about the teams and learn for yourself! In the end, it all comes down to whether you prefer goats or dogs. (That is, the GOAT or the underdog.)

The Patriots:

If you haven’t heard of the Patriots, then you’ve probably at least heard of their quarterback Tom Brady. Tom Brady is like…I can’t even think of anyone to compare him to, because he’s Tom Brady. He’s in a league of his own. You could say that Taylor Swift is the Tom Brady of country-pop singer-songwriters, or that Ellen Degeneres is the Tom Brady of talk show hosts, but even those metaphors wouldn’t come close to describing what a legend Brady is.

After playing for the University of Michigan, Brady was drafted by the Pats in 2000, and has played for them ever since. He has eight AFC Championship wins, which is more than any other quarterback since the inception of the Super Bowl. If the Patriots win the Super Bowl this year, Brady will hold the record for the most career NFL titles. As Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said, “We’re playing the greatest quarterback of all time.” That’s what I’m telling you. The GOAT.

Brady aside, the Patriots right now are a team that even our grandkids will be talking about fifty years from now. This is their tenth Super Bowl appearance in team history, which is more than any other team. Their coach, Bill Belichick, is arguably almost as much of a GOAT as Brady. They’re the team that just keeps on winning, that causes most families in America to turn off their TV or change the channel because they’re just so sick of it.

This isn’t to say the Patriots are perfect. Notably, they have a few injured players out this year. Linebacker Dont’a Hightower and receiver Julian Edelman are both out, and they were important players in last year’s Super Bowl. And now they may have to play the Super Bowl with yet another player on the bench: tight end Rob Gronkowski. You’ve probably heard of Gronk for his crazy antics. (You know, like chugging beers during the Super Bowl parade, putting together his own party cruise line, and, when asked about the controversy in which Brady was accused of deflating footballs, saying, “You can deflate deez nuts.”)

Well, now he’s up to some other shenanigans: concussion protocol. He suffered a concussion during the conference championship game on Sunday, and may have to miss the Super Bowl due to NFL’s policies about playing after a concussion. If he’s out, the Pats might really miss him.

Even though the Patriots are predicted to win, very few people think they will dominate the entire game. In fact, the Patriots have played seven Super Bowls with Brady as quarterback, and every single one of them was a battle up until the very end. No matter who you’re rooting for, it’s more than likely gonna be a game you can’t walk away from until it’s officially over.

The Eagles:

If you’re into Cinderella stories, then this is your year to root for the Eagles. In fact, the Eagles have embraced their underdog status so much that they’ve started wearing dog masks. Seriously. After the Eagles won their division, players Chris Long and Lane Johnson pulled on matching German shepherd masks. According to the LA Times, those masks sold out online immediately after, as fans seek to show their support for the underdogs.

In the narrative that much of America sees, the Patriots are the big bullies who have often been accused of cheating. The Eagles, on the other hand, have defied the odds and managed to make the Super Bowl, even after an injury-laiden season. The best player that the Eagles have is their quarterback, Carson Wentz. He’s no Brady, simply because Brady’s the only Brady, but as far as professional quarterbacks go, Wentz is really, really good. In fact, he had a chance of winning the NFL MVP award (I’m sure you can take a guess as to what that means)—until he tore his ACL on December 10th. Boom. Out for the season. And the Super Bowl.

As if losing Wentz isn’t bad enough, the Eagles have also lost left tackle Jason Peters, running back Darren Sproles and linebacker Jordan Hicks, all due to injuries. These players were all super influential on the team, and it would have been easy to assume the Eagles would fall apart without them. Yet, somehow, they managed to win their division, and then their conference, and now they’re one of two teams in the country to appear in the Super Bowl. Talk about defeating the odds!

The Eagles also have an incredibly strong defensive line, and teams with strong defenses tend to be the Patriots’ weakness. According to ESPN, “The defenses that have had the greatest success against the Patriots are those that can rush four and get pressure on Brady, while dropping seven into coverage. The Philadelphia defense has shown the ability to do so.” Basically, it takes a very specific type of defense to defeat Brady, but the Eagles might just be that type. When the Eagles are on defense, make sure to watch defensive end Brandon Graham and defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. If the Eagles win, they will likely have a lot to do with it.

Game on!

It’s safe to say, no matter who you’re rooting for, this is going to be a game that goes down in history. Make sure to grab some snacks before kickoff—chances are, you’re not gonna want to get up this entire game.

Hannah is an editorial intern for Her Campus and the editor of the High School section as well as a chapter writer for the University of Michigan. Achievements include being voted "Biggest Belieber" (2010) and "Most Likely to Have a Child Born Addicted to Starbucks" (2016), as well as taking a selfie with the back of Jim Harbaugh's head.  Goals for the future include taking a selfie with the front of Jim Harbaugh's head.  She's also an obsessive Instagrammer, so hit her with a follow @hannah.harshe