Wells Fargo Asset Management’s Analytic Investors LLC, the Los Angeles-based quant shop that’s beaten the point spread in 10 of the last 14 Super Bowls, advises gamblers to take the New England Patriots over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Analytic Investors applies its predictive quant models to the game and it shows that the Patriots will beat the Eagles by at least five points, since the point spread on the game is 4 1/2 points. 

“I know it’ll tick off a few of my Philly fan friends,” said Chris Lardieri, one of the study’s authors. “But the numbers don’t lie.”

Analytic predicted last season that the Falcons would beat the Patriots, which looked like a good forecast when the score was 28-3.

“The Falcons just had to run the clock out,” Lardieri said.“You can’t account for human error and questionable decisions.”

Tom Brady continues to wear a glove on his throwing hand, but he said of the injury: "it's getting better."

Brady injured his hand in practice two weeks ago, but didn't appear limited during the New England Patriots' win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC title game.

"My hand, it's getting better," Brady said. "It's not quite where I want it to be. So I'm just trying to protect it the best way I can. It's obviously a very important part of my body for a quarterback, so I just want it to be as healthy as possible for the game on Sunday.

"Under Armour just made it for me. It's a great glove. It's got a lot of recovery in it, and that's what I need."

Brady reportedly had 12 stitches to close a wound on the hand.

Philadelphia police won't grease light poles with Crisco to keep fans from climbing light poles if the Eagles win the Super Bowl.

Workers applied shortening to light poles before the NFC Championship Game, but it failed to stop some fans from climbing after the Eagles' victory.

Richard Ross, the Philadelphia police commissioner, is keeping his plan secret.

He promised that whatever police do, "it will be safe ... but it will be effective."

Tom Brady cut his weekly appearance on WEEI in Boston short on Monday after host Alex Reimer made a negative comment about the quarterback's daughter during a show last week.

Reimer was suspended and WEEI's parent company released an apology on Monday that called Reimer's remark "utterly indefensible and mean‐spirited."

Despite the fallout, Brady said that he does not want Reimer to lose his job as a result of the comment.

"I would certainly hope the guy is not fired. I would hate for that to happen," he said. "I just think any player is protective of their kids. I never stayed away from criticism. I understand criticism is part of sports. But I certainly don’t think my children or any other children deserve to be in that. … I think we all have careers and we all make mistakes. I would hate to have someone have to change their life over something like that."

Tom Brady has said he hopes to continue playing until he's 45 but he admits that the career of a player can go downhill quickly.

"Well, I never want to be a detriment to the team," Brady admitted to reporters on Monday. "So I think for me, as long as I'm playing at a high level and I make the commitment to take care of myself year-round, I'll continue to play.

"So I don't know, things change quickly. Anything can happen, but obviously I want to keep playing. I love playing. I just love playing for the Patriots."

James Harrison will turn 40 in May, but he has no plans to retire after Super Bowl LII.

"I maybe want to play a year at 40, maybe 41," the linebacker said.

Harrison cleared waivers after he was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers in December and the New England Patriots scooped him up.

Tom Brady had his 12 stiches removed from his right hand earlier this week.

Brady played in the AFC Conference Championship Game with a bandage.

Brady was limited in practice on Thursday, but is expected to play, barring an unforeseen setback.

The Indianapolis Colts will hire Josh McDaniels as head coach following Super Bowl LII.

McDaniels met with the Colts on Friday and the two sides discussed long-term visions.

Jim Irsay and Chris Ballard were in on the interview from the Colts.

McDaniels will replace Chuck Pagano.

This will mark McDaniels' second stint as a head coach. McDaniels led the Denver Broncos to an 11-17 record before being fired midway through the 2010 season.

Rob Gronkowski returned to practice on Saturday but remains in the concussion protocol. 

Participating in football-specific drills is the fourth step, followed by full football activity.

"It's always great to have him out there," quarterback Tom Brady said Saturday. "He's a great player, great person, great teammate and a big part of what we do. So it obviously hurts when he's not out there for a lot of reasons, but he's doing the best he can do, and we're all hopeful."

The Eagles are expecting Gronkowski to play in the Super Bowl.

The NFL's ratings for the Conference Championships were down more than eight percent compared to lat year.

This year's divisional championship round had seen a 16 percent dip in audience size.

The Patriots' win over the Jaguars reached 44.1 million viewers, while Philadelphia's blow out of Minnesota reached 42.3 million.

The Conference Championships only featured one household name at quarterback in Tom Brady.