Super Bowl

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.In professional American football, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL). It and its ancillary festivities constitute Super Bowl Sunday, which over the years has become the most-watched U.S. television broadcast of the year, and has become likened to a de facto U.S. national holiday. In addition, many popular singers and musicians have performed during the Super Bowl's pre-game and Super Bowl Halftime Shows ceremonies. This is also the second-largest U.S. food consumption day, following Thanksgiving (United States).

The Super Bowl was first played on January 15 1967 as part of an AFL-NFL Merger between the NFL and its younger rival, the American Football League (AFL) in which each league's championship team would play each other in an "AFL-NFL World Championship Game". After the leagues AFL-NFL Merger in 1970, the Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game.

The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year it was held since the NFL season extends beyond New Year's Eve. For example, the Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLI are the champions of the 2006 NFL season, even though the championship game was played in February 2007.

Origins The Super Bowl was created as part of the AFL-NFL Merger between the National Football League (NFL) and its competitive rival, the American Football League (AFL). After its inception in 1920, the NFL fended off several rival leagues before the AFL began play in 1960. The intense competitive war for players and fans led to serious merger talks between the two leagues in 1966, culminating in a merger announcement on June 8, 1966.

One of the conditions of the AFL-NFL Merger was that the winners of each league's championship game would meet in a contest to determine the "world champion of football". According to NFL Films President Steve Sabol, then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to call the game "The Big One". During the discussions to iron out the details, AFL founder and Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had jokingly referred to the proposed interleague championship as the "Super Bowl." Hunt thought of the name after seeing his kids playing with a toy called a Super Ball. The ball is now on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The name was consistent with postseason college football games which had long been known as "bowl games". The "bowl" term originated from the Rose Bowl Game, which was in turn named for the Rose Bowl (stadium) in which it is played. Hunt only meant his suggested name to be a stopgap until a better one could be found. Nevertheless, the name "Super Bowl" became permanent.

After the NFL's Green Bay Packers convincingly won the first two Super Bowls, some team owners feared for the future of the merger. At the time, many doubted the competitiveness of AFL teams compared with NFL counterparts. That perception all changed with one of the biggest upsets in sports history, the AFL's New York Jets defeat of the History of the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl III in Miami. One year later, the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs defeated the NFL Minnesota Vikings 23-7 and won Super Bowl IV in New Orleans, the last World Championship game played between the champions of the two leagues. These first four Super Bowls were actually List of Super Bowl champions at the time. After the merger, they were redesignated as Super Bowls I through IV.

The game has been played annually on a Sunday as the final game of NFL playoffs, originally early to mid-January when there was a 14 game schedule, but late January or even the first Sunday in February as the current 16 game schedule dictates (a 17th bye-week has been added for TV exposure).

Former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle is often considered the mastermind of both the merger and the Super Bowl. His leadership guided them into the merger agreement and cemented the preeminence of the Super Bowl. The game remains his crowning achievement and was an important factor in him being selected by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

The winning team gets the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two Super Bowl games and 3 of the 5 preceding History of NFL Championships (1961-62, 1965). Following his death in September 1970, the trophy was then named the Vince Lombardi Trophy, first awarded as such at Super Bowl V in Miami.

Game history and a ticket for Super Bowl XI. A Super Bowl ring is given to each member of the winning team to commemorate their Super Bowl victory.

Statistical Trends The following trends occur regarding Super Bowl games:

Teams scoring first are currently 26-15 (.634); 14-7 with a touchdown, 11-8 with a field goal and 1-0 with a Safety (football score).
Teams scoring at least 30 points are currently 21-1 (.955) {17-0 since the 1979 NFL season}; teams scoring under 20 points are currently 4-31 (.114) {0-22 since the 1975 NFL season}. More specifically, teams scoring at least 32 points are undefeated (18-0) and teams scoring under 14 points are winless (0-17).
Field goals have been converted in all but two Super Bowls.
Teams scoring the game's first touchdown are currently 30-11 (.732); teams scoring the game's first field goal, 21-18 (.538).

Conference domination by decade {| class="wikitable"!Decade!!Leader!!Conference & years won|-|1967-76||American Football League/American Football Conference, 7-3||AFL/AFC: 1969-71 and 1973-76. National Football League/National Football Conference: 1967-68 and 1972.|-|1977-86||tied, 5-5||AFC: 1977, 1979-81 and 1984. NFC: 1978, 1982-83 and 1985-86.|-|1987-96||NFC, 10-0||NFC: 1987-96.|-|1997-2006||AFC, 7-3||AFC: 1998-99, 2001-02, 2004-06. NFC: 1997, 2000 and 2003.|-|2007-16||AFC, 1-0||AFC: 2007.|}1967-Present: NFC, 21-20

AFL/AFC, 11-4 from 1967-81

NFC, 15-1 from 1982-97

AFC, 8-2 since 1998

Longest win streaks

AFC: 5 (1973-77)
NFC: 13 (1985-97)

Non-Occurrences In the history of the Super Bowl, the following "firsts" have yet to occur:

An all-wild card (sports) matchup, i.e., teams who failed to win their divisions. Eight wild card teams (since the 1970 merger) have won conference titles, but seven of the eight have come from the same conference (the AFC). The 1975 Dallas Cowboys remain the lone NFC wild card team to win a conference title.
A shutout. Super Bowl VII with Miami Dolphins kicker Garo Yepremian's blocked field goal attempt is perhaps the most dramatic example of a near shutout (the Washington Redskins scored their only points on that play, with 2:07 remaining in the game). The fewest number of points scored in a Super Bowl is 3, put up by those same Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
While many kickoffs have been returned for a touchdown, a punt has yet to be returned for a touchdown.
A team literally having "home field advantage". The closest instances to this have been Super Bowl XIV being played at the Rose Bowl (stadium) in Pasadena, California near the Rams' then-home of Los Angeles and Super Bowl XIX being played at Stanford Stadium which is a short distance from the 49ers' home stadium, Monster Park.
Overtime (sports). The closest instances to overtime play were in:

Indianapolis Colts's Jim O'Brien (football player)'s winning field goal with :05 left in Super Bowl V.
Tennessee Titans's Kevin Dyson stopped one yard short of a tying touchdown as time expired for Super Bowl XXXIV.
Two game-winning field goals by former New England Patriots's kicker Adam Vinatieri in Super Bowl XXXVIII and Super Bowl XXXVI.

Television coverage By any measure, the Super Bowl is the most watched television program of the year in the U.S. The game tends to have high Nielsen Ratings which usually come in around a 40 rating and 60 share (i.e., on average, 40 percent of all U.S. households, and 60 percent of all homes tuned into television during the game). This means that on average, 80 to 90 million United States are tuned into the Super Bowl at any given moment. It is also estimated that 130-140 million tune into some part of the game. NFL press releases have stated that recent Super Bowls have been available to potential audiences of approximately one billion worldwide, although independent studies suggest that the average global viewership is just over 100 million – the vast majority of whom are U.S. viewers .

Given the immense popularity of the Super Bowl, it may be surprising to discover that videotapes of the telecasts of the first two Super Bowls are not known to exist. This is especially shocking for Super Bowl I, which was covered by both NBC and CBS. According to Sports Illustrated, the only footage of the first telecast known to exist is a two minute clip of the first game. From the early days of television into the 1960s, copies of TV broadcasts were routinely erased, known as wiping, mainly because nobody thought anyone would want to watch the same show they had just seen. Another reason was that videotape in those days was prohibitively expensive.

The highest rated game according to Nielsen was Super Bowl XVI in 1982 which was watched in 49.1% of households (73 share) or 40,020,000 households at the time. Super Bowl XVI is #4 on Nielsen's list of top-rated programs of all time, and 3 other Super Bowls (XII, XVII, XX) made the top 10. Although the proliferation of cable and satellite television has undercut broadcast ratings somewhat in recent years, the game is still so popular that a number of networks actually schedule Counterprogramming, such as independently produced halftime entertainment, during the game, simply to take advantage of a large audience already in front of the television.

Following Apple Computer's 1984 (television commercial) introducing the Apple Macintosh computer, directed by Ridley Scott, the broadcast of the Super Bowl became the premier showcase for high concept or simply extravagantly expensive commercials. Famous commercial campaigns include the Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) "Bud Bowl" campaign, and the 1999 and 2000 dot-com ads. Prices have increased each year, with reports citing a record United States dollar2.6 million for a 30 second spot during Super Bowl XLI in 2007. Many people tune in to the Super Bowl solely to watch Advertising in the Super Bowl

TV networks to cover Super Bowl {| class="wikitable"! Network !! Super Bowls broadcast|-|American Broadcasting Company||Super Bowl XIX, Super Bowl XXII, Super Bowl XXV, Super Bowl XXIX, Super Bowl XXXIV, Super Bowl XXXVII, Super Bowl XL|-|CBS]*, Super Bowl II, Super Bowl IV, Super Bowl VI, Super Bowl VIII, Super Bowl X, Super Bowl XII, Super Bowl XIV, Super Bowl XVI, Super Bowl XVIII, Super Bowl XXI, Super Bowl XXIV, Super Bowl XXVI, Super Bowl XXXV, Super Bowl XXXVIII, Super Bowl XLI, Super Bowl XLIV|-|Fox Broadcasting Company||Super Bowl XXXI, Super Bowl XXXIII, Super Bowl XXXVI, Super Bowl XXXIX, Super Bowl XLII, Super Bowl XLV|-|NBC]*, Super Bowl III, Super Bowl V, Super Bowl VII, Super Bowl IX, Super Bowl XI, Super Bowl XIII, Super Bowl XV, Super Bowl XVII, Super Bowl XX, Super Bowl XXIII, Super Bowl XXVII, Super Bowl XXVIII, Super Bowl XXX, Super Bowl XXXII, Super Bowl XLIII|}

* CBS and NBC simultaneous broadcast.

Bold type indicates network in current rotation.

Future games in italics.

Entertainment Earlier Super Bowls/NFL Championships featured halftime show consisting of marching bands from local colleges or high schools. But as the popularity of the game increased, so did the potential of exposure. This has led to trend where a number of popular singers and musicians have performed during its pre-game ceremonies, the halftime show, or even just singing the national song of the United States, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (see Super Bowl anthem performers). Super Bowl XL in 2006 featured Stevie Wonder, Joss Stone, and John Legend during the pre-game ceremonies; Aaron Neville, Aretha Franklin, and Dr. John performed the Star Spangled Banner; and The Rolling Stones played during the halftime show. Unlike regular season or playoff games, one hour is allocated for the Super Bowl halftime.

One especially memorable performance came in 2002, when U2 performed. During their second song, "Where the Streets Have No Name," the band played under a large projection screen which scrolled through all the names of the victims of 9/11.

During halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston in the year 2004, Justin Timberlake removed a piece of Janet Jackson's top, exposing her right breast with a star-shaped ring around the nipple. Timberlake and Jackson have maintained that the incident was accidental, calling it a "wardrobe malfunction." To make matters worse, the game was airing on CBS, and MTV (at the time, a corporate sister company of CBS within Viacom), produced the halftime show. Immediately after that live (not tape-delayed) moment, the producer cut to a very wide-angle shot and the announcer said, "Thank you for watching the Super Bowl halftime show!" followed immediately by a commercial break. However, viewers with TiVo captured the moment in detail, and video captures circulated quickly on the Internet.

The NFL, embarrassed from the incident, permanently banned MTV from doing another halftime show in any capacity. This also led to the FCC tightening controls on indecency and fining CBS US$225,000 for the incident, as well as fining each of CBS's then twenty owned and operated stations. The following year, Paul McCartney gave an uncontroversial halftime performance for Super Bowl XXXIX.

Except for Super Bowl XXXIX, the famous I'm Going to Disney World! Advertising campaign took place at every Super Bowl since it started at Super Bowl XXI. Typically, Disney ran the ad several times during the game showing several players from both teams practicing the catch-phrase. The campaign has been restarted for Super Bowl XLI.

Venue Twenty-five out of forty-one Super Bowls have been played in one of three cities: New Orleans, Louisiana (nine times), the South Florida metropolitan area (nine total), and the Greater Los Angeles Area (seven total). The 3 "big" hosts are then followed by Tampa, Florida and San Diego, having hosted the Super Bowl three times each.

Miami Gardens has been selected to host Super Bowl XLIV in 2010. Although Hurricane Katrina damaged the Louisiana Superdome and the city of New Orleans, it was renovated. Some city officials have stated that they would like to put in another bid sometime in the future. The last time the Los Angeles area hosted the game was Super Bowl XXVII in 1993; the area is currently not considered a possible venue after the league's two teams vacated the city in 1995: the Oakland Raiders moved back to Oakland, California, and the St. Louis Rams moved to St. Louis, Missouri.

A potential venue currently must meet these qualifications in order to be a Super Bowl host:

Average high temperature of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) in February, unless the game is being played in an indoor stadium.
Stadium with 65,000 seats or more.
Space for 10 photo trailers and 40 television trucks.
of exhibit space for fan events.
Large, high-end hotel for teams and NFL.
of space for news media ("Radio Row#Super Bowl").
Enough "quality" hotel rooms within a one-hour drive for 35% of the stadium's capacity.
Separate practice facilities for each team.

Exceptions are at the discretion of the NFL. For instance, cruise ships made up the discrepancy in hotel rooms for Jacksonville, FL in Super Bowl XXXIX.

On March 5 2006, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, a 'cold weather' city, was awarded the rights to host Super Bowl XLIX in 2015. However, the game was contingent on the successful passage of two sales taxes in Jackson County, Missouri on April 4 2006. The first tax would have funded improvements to Arrowhead, home of the Chiefs and the Kansas City Wizards Major League Soccer team, and neighboring Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals Major League Baseball team. The second tax would have allowed the construction of a "rolling roof" between the two stadiums. However, the second tax failed to pass. With increased opposition by local business leaders and politicians, Kansas City eventually withdrew its request to host the game by May 25 2006.

Selection Process The location of the Super Bowl is chosen by the NFL well in advance, usually 3 to 5 years before the game. Cities place bids to host a Super Bowl. Candidate cities are evaluated in terms of stadium renovation and ability to host a Super Bowl. Then the NFL owners meet to make a selection on the site. The sites for the next 4 Super Bowls have been determined, up to Super Bowl XLV in 2011. On October 16, 2007, the NFL commissioner hinted that a future Super Bowl would be played at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Home Team Designation The designated "home team" alternates between the NFC team in odd-numbered years (the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI), and the AFC team in even-numbered years (the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL). The home team is given the choice of either wearing their colored Jersey (clothing) or their white ones; this started with Super Bowl XIII. Prior to that, the home team always wore the dark jerseys. While most home teams in the Super Bowl choose to wear their colored jerseys, only the Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII and Super Bowl XXVII, the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII, and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL have worn white as the home team. The Cowboys (since 1965) and Redskins (since the arrival of coach Joe Gibbs in 1981) have traditionally worn white at home. Meanwhile, the Steelers, who have always worn their black jerseys at home since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, opted for the white jerseys after winning three consecutive playoff games on the road wearing white. The Steelers' decision was a mirror opposite of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. The Patriots traditionally wore white jerseys at home during the 1985 NFL season season, but after winning playoff games on the road against the New York Jets, and Miami Dolphins wearing their red jerseys, New England opted to wear red for the Super Bowl as the designated home team.

Stadiums to host both a Super Bowl and a World Series future games in italics{| class="wikitable"! Stadium !! Location !! Super Bowls hosted !! World Series hosted|-|Dolphin Stadium, [Florida, [2003 World Series|-|Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum||Los Angeles|-|[Qualcomm Stadium||XXII, XXXII, XXXVII||[1984 World Series, 1998 World Series|-|Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome||XXVI||[1987 World Series, 1991 World Series|}Of the above-mentioned ballparks, only Qualcomm Stadium hosted both events in the same calendar year (1998)

Stadiums to host Super Bowl In order of first time hosted

future games in italics{| class="wikitable sortable"|-! Stadium !! Location !! Super Bowls hosted|-|Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum||I, VII|-|[Orange Bowl Stadium||II, III, V, X, XIII|-|[Tulane Stadium||IV, VI, IX|-|[Rice Stadium||VIII|-|[Rose Bowl Stadium||XI, XIV, XVII, XXI, XXVII|-|[Louisiana Superdome||XII, XV, XX, XXIV, XXXI, XXXVI|-|[Pontiac Silverdome||XVI|-|[Tampa Stadium||XVIII, XXV|-|[Stanford Stadium||XIX|-|Qualcomm Stadium||San Diego||XXII, XXXII, XXXVII|-|Dolphin Stadium||Miami Gardens, Florida||XXIII, XXIX, XXXIII, XLI, XLIV|-|Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome||Minneapolis||XXVI|-|[Georgia Dome||XXVIII, XXXIV|-|[Sun Devil Stadium||XXX|-|[Raymond James Stadium||Houston, Texas||XXXVIII|-|[Jacksonville Municipal Stadium||Jacksonville, Florida||[Detroit, Michigan||[Glendale, Arizona]||Arlington, Texas||XLV|}

NFL trademark issues The NFL is vigilant on stopping unauthorized commercial use of its trademarked terms "NFL," "Super Bowl," or "Super Sunday"; as a result, many events and promotions timed to the game but not sanctioned by the NFL are forced to refer to it as "the Big Game," or with other generic descriptions.{{cite web] | work = The Hollywood Reporter, Esq.|title=Super Bowl, Super Trademarks: Protecting the NFL's IP-->

See also

List of Super Bowl champions
Super Bowl MVP
National Football League championships
List of quarterbacks with multiple Super Bowl wins
Super Bowl records
Advertising in the Super Bowl
Super Bowl Halftime Shows
Super Bowl ring
National Football League lore
List of NFL franchise post-season droughts
Grey Cup - Canadian Football League
NFC Championship Game
AFC Championship Game

Footnotes

References

Chris Jones (2 February 2005). "NFL tightens restrictions on Super Bowl advertisements". Las Vegas Review-Journal.
John Branch (4 February 2006). "Build It and They Will Come". New York Times.
Super Bowl play-by-plays from USA Today (Last accessed September 28, 2005)
All-Time Super Bowl Odds from The Sports Network (Last accessed October 16, 2005)
100 Greatest Super Bowl Moments by Kevin Jackson, Jeff Merron, and David Schoenfield; espn.com (Last accessed October 31, 2005)
Various Authors - "SI's 25 Lost Treasures" - Sports Illustrated, July 11, 2005 p114.
"The Super Bowl I-VII." Lost Treasures of NFL Films. ESPN2. 26 January 2001.
"MTV's Super Bowl Uncensored". MTV. 27 January 2001.
"Talk Shows." CBS: 50 Years from Television City. CBS. 27 April 2002.

External links

Official Super Bowl Website
U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features: Super Bowl XLI
Adland Commercial Archive- The Commercial Archive has 35 years of Super Bowl commercials in quicktime format.

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