The Patriots are hungry for another Super Bowl victory. The Eagles are voracious for their first such title.
Everyone else in the Twin Cities will have to settle for a massive sandwich by master chef Ron DeSantis that will include 52 ingredients -- one for each of the Super Bowls.
DeSantis, one of 68 certified master chefs in the United States, is working with Hormel Foods to create a sandwich 9 inches tall, 26 inches long and 18 inches wide. It takes 2½ hours to make and can feed 48 people.
"My inspiration is you have got the 52nd Super Bowl and how to make something as magnificent that stands up to that," DeSantis says. "I am about food, so 52 unique ingredients."
Half of the sandwich will be cold, the other half hot.
"The bottom part of the sandwich has cold, the top has all hot," he explains. "You got two sandwiches put together with a hummus that is kind of like the glue to keep together the top and bottom.
"It was a lot of fun."
The sandwich will be unveiled later in the week, with Minnesota receiver Adam Thielen and maybe other NFL players dropping by the Mall of America to take a bite Thursday.
So what goes into such a masterpiece?
Just about everything.
For example: provolone, havarti and gouda cheese; genoa salami, ham, porchetta, bacon, turkey and pulled pork; hummus; roasted sweet potatoes; spinach, cucumber, artichoke spinach dip, roasted tomatoes; grilled onions, zucchini, peppers and eggplant. Even SPAM.
"Thinking through the flavors and textures, I did flavors that are kind of Mediterranean rim," DeSantis says. "I needed to make sure everything on there stays with that kind of flavor. Things from Mexican or Indian or Asian [cuisines] might not fit."
DeSantis invited some neighbors over to sample the mixture he will put into the Super Bowl sandwich. It filled them up.
"This is a meal," he says. "You slice into this and it is like a meal. I had the neighbors over and they ate a full wedge of it and said, 'I am done.' "
Crime time
The last two times Tom Brady played in a Super Bowl, he left the game an MVP who had no idea where his game-worn jersey ended up. This year in Minneapolis, police officers and security staff members are going to do all they can to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Law enforcement officials who are directly involved with handling Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium told TMZ they are taking added measures this year to protect player property, especially game-worn and game-used memorabilia.
As one source put it: "One of the main goals is to keep people and property safe. We do not want a repeat of last year, and we have learned lessons from other major sporting events."
Brady's jersey was infamously stolen from inside the locker room after the Patriots beat the Falcons in Super Bowl LI last year. The man who took it -- a member of the media -- returned to Mexico and has been able to avoid legal trouble, but he has been banned from attending Super Bowls and any other NFL events for life.
A surveillance video that was released after the game showed the reporter, Muricio Ortega, strolling into New England's locker room and exiting with something tucked under his left arm.
When a fan helped the FBI find Ortega in Mexico, authorities discovered he also had stolen Brady's jersey from the Patriots' Super Bowl victory over the Seahawks two years prior.
Don't expect anyone to follow his lead this year in Minnesota.
Sports quiz
Name the five NFL players to play on back-to-back Super Bowl winning teams with different teams.
Sports answer
Ken Norton Jr. (Cowboys 1993, 49ers 1994), Deion Sanders (49ers 1994, Cowboys 1995), Derrick Martin (Packers 2010, Giants 2011), Russ Hochstein (Bucs 2002, Patriots 2003) and Brandon Browner (Seahawks 2014, Patriots 2015)
Sports on 01/31/2018