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Super Bowl ‘Cliff notes’ for dummies

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Super Bowl Sunday is coming up and while this year may be different in that there are fewer or smaller get-together for it due to COVID-19, a large audience is still expected to tune in.
This is a primer for those people whose only experience watching a single a minute of a football game is going to come Sunday and would like to know some context.
Here is what you need to know.
General information
Super Bowl LV (or 55 for those who don’t know their roman numerals) is being played in Tampa Bay between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
One thing in that sentence that might have stood out is a first. The Buccaneers are the first team in history to play in a Super Bowl on their home field.
Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, this year’s attendance is expected to cap at about 25,000 fans, less than half of the 75,000 capacity. More seats are going to have cardboard cutouts than fans this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
While the television broadcast might pump in some artificial crowd noise, it has not been much of a factor for players all year with smaller crowds this season.
The teams
The Kansas City Chiefs are slight favorites according to the Las Vegas odds makers. The Chiefs are the defending champions and have looked the part all season with a record of 14-2.
They have the most exciting and unstoppable offense in the league led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes. In just his third year as the starter, the 25-year-old has established himself as one of the most talented quarterbacks in league history.
While both teams have players whose off the field history is plenty problematic, there is no such worry with Mahomes, who comes off as well as a model boy scout with a slightly higher pitched voice than you would usually think of when you think football player.
His big offensive weapons are tight end Travis Kelce and speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill. On defense the players to know are safety Tyrann Mathieu (who has the fun nickname of “Honey Badger”) and defensive lineman Chris Jones.
If you feel guilty rooting for the favorites don’t worry.
Kansas City hasn’t gotten to the level of dynasty yet where everyone roots against them out of principal like the New England Patriots.
A lot of people think they look like they are on the cusp of being that next team in the sport, so it’s still okay to like them for the most the part. Before last year’s win, the franchise’s only Super Bowl win was in 1970.
With that comparison to that 20 year Patriots run comes the other big storyline for this game.
The Buccaneers employ quarterback Tom Brady, who if you don’t know, quarterbacked all of those New England teams the last two decades. You might have heard his name.
This is Brady’s first season away from the Patriots after the two separated due mostly to Brady’s age.
While I would not call someone 43 old, in professional football that is considered ancient. He first won the Super Bowl with New England in 2002.
His six wins and nine appearances in the biggest game is easily a league record and many consider him the best quarterback of all time or at least in the conversation.
Even at 43, Brady still has played well this year, getting a Tampa Bay team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2007.
The Buccaneers only Super Bowl appearance came in 2003 which they won, but they have largely been irrelevant for all of the 2010s.
Other big names to know are receivers Mike Evans, Chris Goodwin, the infamous Antonio Brown and tight end Rob Gronkowski.
On defense linebackers Devin White, Lavonte David along with pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul are names to know.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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Bowie track runs at Peaster in final meet before district

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The Bowie track team competed in its final meet before district last week on March 27 at Peaster.
The boy’s team finished fourth overall while the girl’s team got seventh place.
The boy’s team had three athletes who won their events.
Russell Anderson won the 400 meter race, Braden Rhyne won the triple jump and Tyler Richey won the pole vault events.
Some other highlights for the team included Cody West getting second in the shot put, the 4×400 relay team getting second place, Richey getting fourth in the 110 meter hurdles, Rhyne getting third in the 300 meter hurdles and Jorge De Leon getting fourth in both the discus and shot put.
Brayden Willett got second place in the 3200 meters, third place in the 1600 meters and fourth place in the 800 meter race.
The Lady Rabbit highlights included Dallie Monroe getting fourth in the shot put, Laney Segura getting fifth in the 800 meters and Olivia Richey getting sixth in the 100 meters.
The 4×200 relay got fifth place and the 4×100 relay got sixth place to earn points.
Bowie competes in the district rack meet this week at Iowa Park. The running finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on April 4.

Results for all Bowie varsity athletes who finished sixth or better are in the weekly edition of the Bowie News.

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Montague County has nine named all-region basketball players

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Nocona’s Meg Meekins (above) not only earned all-region honors, she also earned all-state honors and was named the Texas Girls Coaches Association 1A-4A Player of the Year.

Other Montague County basketball athletes who were named to all-region teams including Rayder Mann from Bowie and Reagan Phipps from Nocona. From Saint Jo, Payzlie Cervantes, Taylor Patrick and Barrett Johnson were named to the all-region team. From Forestburg, Jesus Sanchez, Brenna Briles and Kyler Willett were named to the all-region team.

For pictures of all nine athletes, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.

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Baseball Roundup

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Logan Hoover dives head first into home plate, beating the tag to score one of Saint Jo’s three runs in the game. (Photo by Jennifer Gaston)

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost a close game at home against Perrin-Whitt on March 28.
The Pirates won 8-3, only taking the lead in the seventh inning after the Panthers had come back to tie up the game.
Saint Jo was coming into the game after a close one-run loss in extra innings against Perrin-Whitt earlier last week.
The second game started with two scoreless innings before the Pirates got on the board in the third inning. A line drive into left field resulted in a fielding error that allowed one run to score. A double followed that drove in another run as Perrin-Whitt went up 2-0.
The Pirates added to the lead in the fourth inning, driving in a run on a single to extend its lead to 3-0.
Saint Jo answered back in the same inning. Charlie Evans drove in one run with a single. Later in the inning, with a runners on second on third base, the Perrin-Whitt pitcher balked twice, an illegal pitching motion, that allowed both runners to advance to home plate. The Panthers had tied the score at 3-3.
After a scoreless fifth and sixth inning, the Pirates had the pressure on in the seventh inning.
With the bases loaded, a hit batter and later a walk scored two runs for Perrin-Whitt. Then a bases clearing double scored three more runs to break the game open in the final inning.
Saint Jo tried to answer in its final at-bats, getting two singles and drawing a walk but could not get enough things going to score.
The Pirates won 8-3.
Evans led the team with one RBI and two hits as the team finished with five hits and drew six walks.
Sam Martin allowed eight runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out six and walking three batters in 6.2 innings of work. The defense committed three fielding errors overall.

Nocona
The Nocona Indians had a tough start to district last week, losing both games in their series against Lindsay.
The Knights won 11-4 and 7-3 against the Indians last week as Nocona hopes to get back into the playoffs.
Nocona was coming off a string of good wins the previous week against smaller schools, but knew Lindsay would be tough.
The first game saw Lindsay continually score runs in the first four innings, building a 9-0 lead before the Indians could get on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with two runs.
Nocona added two more runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 9-4 and get some momentum heading into the final two innings.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Knights scored two runs in the seventh inning to extend their lead and eventually win 11-4.
Miller Jentry led the team with two RBIs while RJ Walker also drove in two runs. The team had only two hits, but drew nine walks in the game.
Brody Langford allowed six runs (two earned) on five hits while striking out three in three innings pitches. Landon Fatheree allowed five runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out one and walking four. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Nocona knew it could play better and tried to in the second game later in the week while playing on the road at Lindsay.
The Knights again took the early lead, scoring in three of the first four innings and going up 6-0. The Indians scored two runs in the fifth inning and one in the top of the sixth inning to initially cut the lead to 6-3. Lindsay answered with one run in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on to win 7-3.
Walker Murphey led the team with two RBIs after hit a double. Kutter Cabrera drove in the other run for Nocona. The Indians finished with three hits and drew only two walks, making the most of their limited opportunities.
Walker got the start on the mound and allowed seven runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out six batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed six fielding errors overall.

Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles started district last week playing a series against fellow 1A team Bryson.
Unfortunately, the Cowboys won both games handily 11-1 and 10-1.
Bellevue was coming off a tough week where it hung tough playing 2A teams Nocona and Chico, not getting wins but competing well against the more experienced and bigger schools.
Unfortunately against Bryson in the first game, a few bad defensive innings threw away a good start to the game. Bryce Ramsey drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and stole his way around to second base, third base before eventually coming home on a steal.
Bellevue led 1-0 after the first inning.
That was the highlight as the Cowboys scored four runs in both the third and fourth inning to take control of the game. Bryson eventually added three more in the sixth inning.
The Eagles needed to score at least one run to avoid getting run-ruled and play the seventh inning, but could not do it. The Cowboys won 11-1.
Walker Strahan, Ryan Jones and Ramsey each had one hit to lead the team. With the Eagles drawing only one walk, it was a tough day swinging the bats for Bellevue.
Defensively, the Eagles allowed 12 hits and walked four batters, though avoided committing any fielding errors.
The second game on the road was not much better.
Bryson built up a 6-0 lead before Bellevue scored in the fifth inning. Cam Blaylock scored on the base paths to cut the lead to 6-1. The Cowboys responded in the same inning scoring four runs to go up 10-1.
The game cuts off on the Game Changer app from there.
Ramsey led the team with three hits in the game and Strahan was behind him with two hits as the team finished with six total and drew one walk.
Defensively, Bryson had nine hits and drew eight walks, but Bellevue did not commit any fielding errors.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.

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