LOS ANGELES — Eminem is the latest celebrity to take a knee.

The kneeling took place during the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show after the rapper performed “Lose Yourself.”

Kneeling has become a form of protest and a source of controversy after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick did it to protest police brutality and racial discrimination.

On Sunday, Eminem dropped to one knee with one hand over his head and held the pose for several moments.

The NFL said it was aware that the rapper was going to make the gesture.

“We watched all elements of the show during multiple rehearsals this week and were aware that Eminem was going to do that,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

This is not the first time Eminem has shown support for Kaepernick’s message.

In 2017, Eminem released a four-minute freestyle rap where he called out former President Donald Trump, who was critical of Kaepernick.

Taking a knee has become a more common form of protest in the NBA, after the murder of George Floyd.

Other athletes and celebrities who have protested by kneeling include Megan Rapinoe of the National Women’s Soccer League, the Dallas Cowboys and their owner Jerry Jones, John Legend, Stevie Wonder and others.

Football is just a part of what makes the Super Bowl the biggest game of the year.

Aside from the NFL's top two teams going head to head for four quarters, there's never a shortage of viral moments happening before and during the main event.

From the commercials everyone looks forward to, celebrity sightings and a star-studded halftime show, here are all of the moments everyone is talking about during the 2022 Super Bowl.

Postgame celebrations

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp was named the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player during a postgame ceremony at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Kupp had eight receptions for 92 yards and two touchdowns. He had a 1-yard reception from Matthew Stafford with 1:25 remaining to give the Rams a 23-20 lead that gave them to their second Vince Lombardi Trophy. Kupp had four catches for 39 yards on the final drive along with a 7-yard run on fourth-and-1 to keep the drive alive.

Kupp set a postseason record for receptions with 33.

The victory makes Rams head coach Sean McVay, 36, the youngest ever to win the Super Bowl.

Halftime

Everyone knew a halftime show starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige would be epic.

It didn't disappoint, as fans roared in response to their classic hits and reacted to a surprise appearance from 50 Cent, who performed his 2003 hit "In Da Club" partially while suspended upside down.

It was a rare Super Bowl halftime show performed in the daylight, but it still had a feeling of a nightclub at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, with a set made up to look like the houses of nearby Compton and South LA.

Dre and Snoop opened the show with “Next Episode” and “California Love.”

50 Cent, not among the announced performers, started his “In Da Club” while hanging upside down inside one of the rooms.

Blige was decked out in silver sparkles and surrounded by backup dancers as she sang a medley of her hits.

Eminem was surrounded by a rock band as he performed “Lose Yourself,” at one point taking a knee in apparent tribute to Colin Kaepernick’s protests.

The set was surrounded by what looked like a lit-up cityscape from above, with classic convertibles and replicas of the Tam's Burgers stand and the sculpture outside the Compton Courthouse.

The crowd had lanyards with LED lights that flashed in coordination with the show’s beats, turning the whole stadium into a light show.

An explosion of fireworks lit up the sky as the sun set outside and the show ended with Dre’s “Still DRE”

The commercials

The Super Bowl just wouldn't be the same without commercials. This year is no different.

The throwback vibes were strong in this year's ads, which included a reunion of "Scrubs" stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison for T-Mobile and Verizon's remake of the 1996 movie "The Cable Guy," starring Jim Carrey.

Meanwhile, GM enlisted Mike Myers for an “Austin Powers”-themed ad that featured a reprise of his role as Austin Powers’ nemesis, Dr. Evil. Sidekicks played by Rob Lowe, Seth Green and Mindy Sterling also joined.

Celebrity appearances seemed to be the theme of this year's commercial breaks, including Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus, the god of the sky (or in this commercial, the god of lightning) whose wife, Salma Hayek Pinault, gives him the EV BMW iX to spice up retirement.

Michelob Ultra's ad showed a bowling alley run by Steve Buscemi and unites several star athletes including tennis great Serena Williams, former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, NBA Miami Heat all-star forward Jimmy Butler, WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike, top golfer Brooks Koepka and U.S. women's soccer star Alex Morgan.

Uber Eats wanted to get across the message that you can order household items and other sundries from its delivery service, not just food. So its ad shows celebrities and other actors trying to eat everything from cat litter to diapers. “If it was delivered by Uber Eats, does that mean I can ‘Eats’ it?” White Lotus actor Jennifer Coolidge asks. Gwyneth Paltrow tries to eat a candle, Trevor Noah tries to eat a light bulb and Nicholas Braun from “Succession” tries to eat dish soap.

Other stars featured included Matthew McConaughey for Salesforce, Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen for Lay's Potato Chips, Jim Carrey for Verizon. and Larry David for crytocurrency company FTX. Leslie Jones, Rashida Jones, Tommy Lee Jones and Nick Jonas also teamed up for Toyota's pre-halftime spot.

Looking towards the future, Amazon’s spot showed real-life spouses — Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost — living in a world where Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa can read your mind.

Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company, had social media buzzing with their commercial, which featured a color-changing QR code linking viewers to its website that bounced around the screen for about 30 seconds. Some users reported that the Coinbase website crashed soon after the commercial aired because so many people accessed the QR code

Pregame

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made an epic introduction of both teams before the game began and tennis legend Billie Jean King joined Super Bowl referees and captains for the Bengals and the Rams for the coin toss prior to kickoff.

King appeared as the NFL recognized the 50-year anniversary of Title IX enacted in 1972 as part of the Education Amendments providing equal funding for men and women for the first time at high schools, colleges and universities receiving federal funding.

She was joined by the team captains for the California School for the Deaf Riverside Cubs, members of the high school girls flag league of champions and girls youth tackle football players from the Inglewood Chargers and Watts Rams.

King tweeted out video of her practicing the coin toss before kickoff. King wrote “Pressure is a privilege” and she noted the tip to bend her knees actually helped a lot.

Country music star Mickey Guyton delivered a powerful version of the national anthem, while R&B hitmaker Jhené Aiko performed a simple rendition of “America the Beautiful" before the game got started.

Actress Sandra Mae Frank performed the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” in American sign language.

Gospel duo Mary Mary was accompanied by the LA Phil’s YOLA — which stands for Youth Orchestra Los Angeles — to perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing" prior to pregame festivities.

---

It was hot at SoFi Stadium for the 2022 Super Bowl 56, just not the hottest ever for this game.

The temperature was 82 ahead of kickoff between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals after having cooled off from 85 a couple of hours before kickoff. California has been dealing with a heatwave over the past week with temperatures reaching into the low 90s in the region.

That’s short of the record of 84 set on Jan. 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Stars fill Super Bowl eve festivities

At the Super Bowl eve party dubbed "Homecoming Weekend" Saturday night, the crowd included celebrities like Issa Rae, Mike Tyson, Lil Wayne, Paul Pierce, Derrick Henry, Ricky Gervais, Jon Hamm, Nicole Scherzinger, Cedric the Entertainer, Karrueche Tran and Flava Flav.

And that was just the audience.

Justin Bieber was amongst several performers during a weeklong series of entertainment leading up to the 2022 Super Bowl, which is being held in Los Angeles for the first time in nearly three decades. Drake performed on the final night of those events, while Miley Cyrus and Green Day closed out the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest across town at the Crypto.com Arena.

The annual festival also featured performances by Halsey, Machine Gun Kelly, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

CENTERVILLE, Ohio — Dave Berk's pinned tweet about the start of Joe Burrow's college football recruiting journey has 5,165 retweets and nearly 33,000 likes since Dec. 14, 2019 — the night Burrow won the Heisman Trophy.

"People find it all the time," said Berk, a longtime Ohio high school football analyst. "Someone called me the other day and said, 'Hey I saw your tweet on ESPN.'"

Berk's tweet more than two years ago is often cited by national media outlets and is still a reminder of Burrow's journey from Athens High School to quarterback of the Super Bowl-bound Cincinnati Bengals.

Every high school football player with dreams of playing in college and beyond has to start somewhere. Burrow was no different.

"I was wondering if there were any specific camps I should go to to help get my name out there because I'm not really getting any attention," the Athens junior quarterback wrote Berk in a direct message Dec. 18, 2013.

A few weeks earlier, Burrow lost a playoff game to Marion-Franklin during a cold night in Southeast Ohio.

Berk, a Centerville resident, and Columbus-based photographer Scott Reed made the drive to watch Burrow play quarterback and line up as a defensive back in press coverage.

"As soon as he put the helmet on and he strapped it up, he was making plays," Reed said. "We were just looking at each other going, 'Wow, how did he make that pass?' "It was phenomenal what he was doing."

Scott Reed/SR Action Photography

Before that playoff game, Berk heard critics who claimed Burrow was putting up significant offensive stats against weak competition in an area of the state that often gets overlooked by some college football programs.

Berk and Reed didn't accept the negativity. They were impressed with Burrow's ability to stretch the pocket, throw across his body and simply make plays.

"A lot of the things that you don't see in young quarterbacks he could do, and a lot of things people talk about now I saw that night," Berk said. "He just had the 'it' factor is the best way to explain it."

Berk is convinced Burrow's work ethic had a significant impact in high school and throughout his college career, from Ohio State University to Louisiana State University.

So it was no surprise to hear Burrow this week discussing his advice to young athletes as he prepares for the Super Bowl.

"Don't go have a workout and post it on Instagram the next day and then go sit on your butt for four days and everyone thinks you're working hard but you're really not," Burrow told reporters. "Work in silence. Don't show everybody what you're doing."

That mentality as the son of former Ohio University assistant coach Jimmy Burrow was evident to Berk and to college recruiters. The patience and persistence paid off.

"When he sent me the original message my response to him was basically, 'Hey you just need to do what you're doing,'" Berk said. "And there is going to be opportunities for him in places like the Elite 11, the Nike combines and camps but the most important thing was the college camps."

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

Less than a month after Burrow's direct message, he told Berk he received his first scholarship offer from Western Michigan in January 2014. Central Michigan, Fresno State, University of Cincinnati and West Virginia soon followed. Big Ten and Southeastern Conference programs were among those not far behind with scholarship offers, too.

Later that year, Burrow led Athens to the Division III state final as a senior at Ohio Stadium and eventually won Ohio Mr. Football before signing with Ohio State.

"I always felt Joe's talent was a different talent," Berk said. "And it's not just pure athleticism where you can throw the football and how far you can throw it, what velocity and all that. It's the understanding."

"People are seeing that now," Berk said. "What he's showing people now, he was showing in high school early glimpses of it."

READ MORE
Joe Burrow has been an 'incredible leader' since his playing days at Athens High School
Donations to the Joe Burrow Hunger Relief Fund have been 'astronomical'

The Super Bowl has long been one of the most popular events to bet on in the world.

But this year, the big game is expected to set new records.  

"You've got 35% more American adults saying they're going to bet on the game," American Gaming Association Senior Vice President Casey Clark said.

"And the amount that they're going to wager is 78% more than what they said they were going to wager in 2021."

That's a result of millions of Americans being allowed to wager in their home states for the first time.  

"There's 130 million American adults who now have access to the legal market that they didn't have before," Clark continued.

Thirty states and Washington, D.C. now allow sports gambling, with three additional markets about to launch. 

Overall, more than 31 million Americans plan to bet a combined $7.6 billion on Sunday's final, according to the American Gaming Association. 

While many prefer to gamble on the final outcome, there are other, weirder bets designed to make every second of the game count. 

PointsBet's Head Oddsmaker Jay Croucher says one bet is whether a coach wears a hat on the sideline during the game, and one of the most famous ones is the length of the national anthem.

DraftKings Director of Sportsbook Operations Johnny Avello says another bet is the color of the Gatorade that's going to get poured on the coach at the end of the game.

He says, "Clear is the favorite. It's followed by orange, and then there's blue."

These are called prop bets — short for proposition — and Croucher says they are increasingly popular. 

"People just want to be able to bet on absolutely everything," he said.

That includes the halftime show and commercial breaks.

For example: Will Snoop Dogg smoke weed? And how many commercials will have a dog in them? Or will any player propose on the field after the game?

If you think so and you're right, a $10 wager on the proposal bet would pay about $52. 

Oddball prop bets tend to be low-strategy, though if you're thinking coin flip, tails leads heads 29 to 26 over 55 games. 

"Have some fun with it," Clark said. "But set budgets, know your limits. Really ensure that you have a game plan and bet responsibly."

This story was first reported by Ben Schamisso at Newsy.

Milwaukee police Officer Herbert Davis was shot by a suspect Thursday night.

Now, his family has started fundraising to send him to Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.

It's no secret he's a big Cincinnati Bengals fan.

Davis, 26, wore his gear when he was released from the hospital Friday.

His family shared video with WISN 12 showing Davis watch the end of the Bengals-Chiefs game Sunday night.

We all know the Bengals kicked a last-minute field goal to give them the victory and send them to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989.

Davis got emotional watching the kick and score.

His family started a GoFundMe page to help raise the money needed.

Their goal is $25,000.

"Physically, he will heal," his sister wrote on the page. "Our family knows the healing process doesn't end with physical capabilities. He has a long haul ahead. He started as a police aide at 19 years old and has 7 years of service. Herb is a hero. He will forever hold that title."

The page said Davis' fiancee is also part of the MPD family.

Funds raised will also help with family travel and medical expenses.

"Go Bengals!!! Thank you for all the love and support he's been given," Davis' sister wrote.

Super Bowl LVI is Feb. 13. The Bengals will play the San Francisco 49ers.

The suspect charged with shooting Davis remains in the Milwaukee County Jail on $1 million cash bail.