New England Patriots extended their NFL record with a 10th Super Bowl berth by virtue of a 24-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC championship game. The Patriots are 5-4 in their nine previous Super Bowl appearances.

The only NFL franchises with longer championship droughts than the Eagles are the Cardinals (1947) and Lions (1957). The Eagles’ last title was in 1960, about seven weeks after Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy was elected president.

Tom Brady is the only player left who played in the 2005 Super Bowl, when the Patriots beat the Eagles. “I was 14 years old and remember watching that game, hoping the Eagles would win,” said current Philadelphia right tackle Lane Johnson, a native of Groveton, Texas. “Coming up short, you could feel the pain, but you can feel the passion of what the city wants (today). We’re here. It’s right at our fingertips.”

Jim Schwartz, the current Eagles defensive coordinator, got his first job as an unpaid intern for Cleveland Browns Coach Bill Belichick in 1993. Nick Saban was the defensive coordinator as the Browns went 7-9 that year.

Brady and Hall of Fame defensive end Charles Haley are the only players with five Super Bowl titles. Haley won two with the 49ers in the 1980s and three with Dallas in the 1990s.

Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola had 11 catches for 112 yards in New England’s first playoff game this year, and seven catches for 84 yards and two touchdowns in the AFC championship game. He’s been targeted 22 times on Tom Brady’s 91 postseason passes, a shade less than 25 percent of the time.

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This will be Al Michaels 10th Super Bowl, leaving him one shy of Pat Summerall for most by a TV play-by-play announcer. Summerall was an analyst for four others Super Bowls and a sideline reporter for Super Bowl I.

Quarterbacks the Patriots have lost to in the Super Bowl in the Bill Belichick era: Eli Manning.

Tom Brady is 29-4 since serving that four-game suspension at the start of 2016 for his alleged role in deflating footballs.

Ron Jaworski and Donovan McNabb combined to throw six interceptions (three each) in their Super Bowl games as Eagles quarterbacks. Tom Brady has thrown five in the seven Super Bowls he’s played.

LeGarrette Blount and Chris Long are trying to become the latest players to win back-to-back Super Bowls with different teams. Deion Sanders is the most prominent, winning in 1995 with San Francisco and 1996 with Dallas. Ken Norton is the only player to win three consecutive Super Bowls. He was with the Cowboys in 1993 and ’94 before moving to San Francisco for 1995.

Long and Blount would be the first to beat their former teams in the Super Bowl the following season.

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Hershel Williams, a 94-year-old West Virginia native, will perform the opening coin toss. Williams, who earned the Medal of Honor for his performance at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, will be accompanied by 14 other Medal of Honor recipients.

Bill Belichick’s father, Steve, was an assistant coach at Navy when Joe Bellino won the 1960 Heisman. Belichick, 8 years old, was so close to the star player that Bellino gave him his graduation cap. According to a 2012 profile in the Boston Globe, Belichick returned the cap to Bellino after his father died in 2005. “He said, ‘Maybe your grandkids would like it,'” Bellino said.

Julie Ertz, the wife of Philadelphia tight end Zach Ertz, is a standout soccer midfielder on the United States women’s national team.

Eagles assistant offensive line/tight ends/run game coach Eugene Chung entered the NFL with the Patriots as the team’s first-round pick (13th overall) in the 1992 draft. He played in New England for three seasons.

Eagles safety Corey Graham played at the University of New Hampshire from 2003-06. He ranks seventh all-time in Division I-AA (FCS) history with 1,787 yards on 65 kickoff returns (27.5 average) and 3 touchdowns in his four seasons.

Eagles defensive quality control/assistant secondary coach Dino Vasso was a four-year defensive back at the University of New Hampshire (2006-10). He started 51 consecutive games for the Wildcats and earned first-team AFCA All-American honors as a senior.

Eagles Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie was born and raised in the Boston area. He earned his B.A. from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, his master’s degree from Boston University, and a doctorate from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Several of his business interests remain headquartered in the greater Boston area.

The Patriots have not had a takeaway in the past four games, all wins.

– News service report


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