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Tom Cruise is preparing for a different kind of dogfight.
The three-time Golden Globe winner, 59, hyped up the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of Sunday’s AFC Championship, appearing in an NFL promo that also featured footage from the long overdue Top Gun: Maverick, premiering May 27.
Cruise gives an inspirational speech about football and patriotism in the two-minute clip, cut together with footage from the upcoming sequel before listing the opposing teams’ accomplishments from the past season.
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“Today, two teams take the field, two teams who have personified what it takes to make it to the top,” he says. “Two teams who have outlasted their opponents, outsmarted the experts, and are prepared to prove, once and for all, who is the best of the best.”
“The Kansas City Chiefs, a franchise coming off one of the most thrilling wins in playoff history, with expectations as high as the sky and the talent to bring them to a third consecutive Super Bowl,” Cruise continues. “Standing in their way, the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that has spent the past year proving their critics wrong, a team who continues to shock the world. They are hungry, they’re resilient, and they’re determined to make this season their season.”
“Two teams coming off heart-pounding wins, two organizations on the edge of history, both committed to being the best of the best. The stage is set, it’s the Kansas City Chiefs against the Cincinnati Bengals and a dogfight for the AFC Championship. So, let’s kick the tires and light the fires, because the time is now,” Cruise concludes.
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Sunday’s AFC Championship kicks off at 3 p.m. ET, seeing the Chiefs defend their two-year winning streak after beating the Buffalo Bills, 42-36, at last week’s playoffs. For their part, the Bengals triumphed over the Tennessee Titans, 19-16, years after winning their last playoffs in 1990.
Cruise can be seen reprising his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick, premiering May 27 in theaters, 36 years after he starred in the original. The film’s premiere was originally set for June 24, 2020, but has since been pushed back multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
