Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl in search of a sixth title.
They’ll face a Philadelphia Eagles team looking for their first Lombardi Trophy.
Brady led the Patriots (15-3) back from a 10-point Authentic James Washington Jersey , fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 24-20 in the AFC championship game Sunday.
Starting his 36th playoff game, Brady shook off an injury to his right hand and the loss of top target Rob Gronkowski to rally the Patriots to their record 10th Super Bowl appearance.
The Patriots will try to match the Pittsburgh Steelers’ six Super Bowl trophies when they face the Eagles (15-3) on Feb. 4 in Minneapolis.
Nick Foles, the backup QB who was thrust into the starting role when Carson Wentz blew out his left knee last month, led the Philadelphia to a 38-7 rout of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game.
Foles threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns, showing poise and moxie in going 26 for 33.
The Vikings were hoping to become the first NFL team to serve as host to a Super Bowl in its own stadium, but they followed up their ”Minneapolis Miracle ” with a ”Flop in Philly.”
So, they’ll clear out their lockers long before the Eagles and Patriots and their fans take over U.S. Bank Stadium for Super Bowl 52 in two weeks.
Oddsmakers like the chances of Brady winning a sixth Super Bowl ring , making the Patriots nearly a touchdown favorite to beat the Eagles.
The Patriots and Eagles, who last won an NFL title in 1960, several years before the first Super Bowl, met in the Super Bowl after the 2004 season with the Patriots prevailing 24-21.
Hours after Brady’s game-winning 4-yard TD pass to Danny Amendola with 2:48 remaining in Foxborough, the Eagles won for the fourth time in five tries under Foles.
It started out ominously, however.
The Vikings celebrated Kyle Rudolph’s 25-yard touchdown catch from Case Keenum on their opening drive by mimicking the Olympic sport of curling for their TD celebration.
It was the Eagles who had all the fun after that.
Patrick Robinson’s spectacular 50-yard interception return got Philadelphia started. Then Foles and his offense tore up the league’s stingiest scoring defense, with long TD throws to Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith. LeGarrette Blount had an 11-yard scoring run when things were decided in the first half, and the Eagles were headed to an NFL title game the Vikings (14-4) hoped to be in at their own stadium.
”You know everyone was against us,” Foles said. ”Coming out here and stick together and (we) come away with an amazing victory against a great team.”
Blake Bortles and the stingy Jaguars (12-7) led New England 20-10 early in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t hold against the defending champions.
The NFL’s second-ranked defense kept Brady and the Patriots at bay for most of the game, but lost linebacker Myles Jack and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus on consecutive plays on New England’s winning drive.
It was New England’s 13th win in 14 games since their 2-2 start. Their only stumble since September was a 27-20 loss at the Dolphins on Dec. 11.
Brady, wearing a black bandage on his right hand after needing stitches to close a cut that happened on a play during practice earlier in the week, showed no signs of being hampered.
And, with the game – and the season – possibly on the line Sam Martin Jersey , the Patriots star came up big again.
”I’ve had a lot worse,” Brady said. ”I didn’t know that on Wednesday. It was a crazy injury. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was a little scary. Then I started getting some confidence and today we did just enough to win.”
Brady finished 26 of 38 for 290 yards and two touchdowns to Amendola.
It’s the eighth Super Bowl appearance for Brady and coach Bill Belichick, who have won five times – including last year’s 34-28 overtime rally against the Falcons.
”It’s pretty amazing,” Brady said. ”Just to be on a team that wins these kinds of games, it’s just a great accomplishment.”
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Kevin Hart fessed up he was tipsy when he tried to crash the Super Bowl stage and celebrate with his hometown Philadelphia Eagles when they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. The pint-sized funnyman ran into a no-nonsense security guard who refused to allow Hart, wearing an Eagles letterman’s jacket, access to the stage that was set up on the field.
Unlike the Eagles, Hart’s Super Bowl celebration would have to be held elsewhere.
”To all the kids out there, I just want to say don’t drink. When alcohol is in your system, you do dumb stuff,” he later said on an Instagram video.
Hart, the Grammy-nominated star, would have fit in fine in Philly.
Unruly Eagles fans climbed light poles, took trust falls off a hotel canopy, flipped cars, busted store windows and even streaked down city streets shortly after their team won the Super Bowl.
It was time to party.
Eagles fans are just getting started.
The city announced that the Super Bowl parade will be Thursday, starting at 11 a.m. at Broad Street near the stadiums. It will move north along the city’s main thoroughfare, past City Hall and finish at the art museum’s ”Rocky Steps.” The National Weather Service says Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of 34 degrees. Rain and snow are expected in the city Wednesday.
Beer bashes and drunken revelry are in the forecast for the parade.
Eagles fans had suffered through five decades – through Buddy, Reggie and T.O. – without a Super Bowl championship and they want this celebration to go down as one to remember.
That is Darius Slay Jersey , if they can remember, in the wake of an alcohol-fueled stupor.
Revelers along the parade route will be able to indulge in free Bud Light at two dozen bars, thanks to a promise the beer maker made to Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson before the season.
Revelers shot off fireworks, drivers beeped their horns and Philadelphians young and old descended Sunday night on Broad Street, the main thoroughfare that last hosted a major championship parade in 2008
Eagles fans are expected to stuff city streets in record numbers. The Flyers have long claimed more than 2 million fans went wild down Broad each year for the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup winning teams. Sixers fans mobbed the streets for Dr. J and the 1983 NBA champion 76ers.
And Phillies star outfielder Pat Burrell led a championship procession in 2008, riding a horse-drawn carriage and pumping his fists down Broad. Next came eight flatbed trucks filled with waving players and other members of the Phillies organization, including the Phanatic.
Throngs in Phillies gear packed downtown sidewalks, making them almost impassable. Fans climbed trees, hung out of windows, watched from balconies, carried stepladders and stood on roofs to get a better view. The Phillies then greeted tens of thousands of fans who had watched the parade on big screens at the city’s baseball and football stadiums. The team first stopped at Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles play.
Now, the Linc isn’t just the site of another team’s rally – it’s the home of the Super Bowl champs.
The Super Bowl, though, was about an overzealous excuse for irresponsible behavior.
The Eagles are perhaps the city’s greatest passion, and the outpouring of support came in more forms than simply pouring one out. Grown men cried and hugged their fathers. Families bundled up and hit the streets to bang pots and pans and share the championship together. Some fans carried signs with names of loved ones no longer here in tribute for those who never got to cherish a Super Bowl title before death.
”I moved here in `94. I didn’t have a team back home (Louisville). The Eagles were my adopted team,” said 41-year-old Eagles fan Rob Ballenger. ”This city has an underdog culture and to rise above it right now is amazing. This city is at a turning point in so many ways.
”I made 100 new friends at the bar (Grace Tavern). Philly fans sometimes get a negative slant in the media, a negative reputation. But these are the best fans in the world, the most passionate.”
They’ll finally get their chance Thursday to celebrate the champion Eagles as one city, united in green.