With the Super Bowl being just over a week away, the New England Patriots are getting healthier, as they saw the return of both Rob Gronkowski and Deatrich Wise Jr. returned to practice.
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Super Bowl 52 is the 10 time the Patriots have lined up for the championship, including three of the matches in the past four years. He’s going to break a Super Bowl record previously held by San Francisco great Jerry Rice. Several countries, including Canada and England, are represented among the volunteers. The Pats have been wildly successful in those Super Bowls as well, winning five of seven under Belichick and Brady.
If you’d like the quintessential, statistical canyon between the haves and have-nots, thumb through Pro-Football-Reference.com. Perhaps all the reports of discord between Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft have something to do with it all.
Though the weeklong trip is rare, it’s not entirely foreign to the Patriots, who spent an additional week in Colorado after playing the Denver Broncos this season, a stopover before their game in Mexico City against the Raiders. The Eagles may want to take that lesson to heart.
Lewis was New England’s leading rusher with 34 yards on nine carries.
On the other sideline, Sunday’s win is more of the same for the Patriots.
The key to the game will be the first couple of drives. That being said, if the Eagles can find a way to beat the Patriots this Sunday, the team would have a wonderful legacy with postseason victories over Lombardi and Belichick coached teams, in addition to picking up their first Super Bowl championship.
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Nick Foles took over and the Eagles haven’t faltered through the playoffs. Patriots 30, Eagles 24. Who knows. But the chance to see just how cerebral and consuming a sport can be for one of the greatest football players of all time is compelling for anyone, regardless of whether or not you dig the Patriots. Blount and Long are looking to become the third and fourth players to win a Super Bowl with one team and then win it the next year with another team. So even if these Patriots are no longer the most impressive or lethal team, they are probably the most resilient team in the history of American sport.
