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In professional American football, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL) in the United States. The game and its ancillary festivities constitute Super Bowl Sunday, which over the years has become likened to an unofficial U.S. national holiday.
History
After the leagues merged in 1970, the Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game. Since then, the game has been played annually on a Sunday following the playoffs, originally early to mid-January, then late January, and in recent years, the first Sunday in February. |
The Super Bowl is usually the most-watched U.S. television broadcast of the year, attracting many companies to spend millions of dollars on commercials. This has caused the starting time of the game to be pushed back later and later, to ensure the Sunday night prime time audience on the East Coast. The last true day game (which ended before local sunset) of the series was Super Bowl XI in January 1977.
In addition, many popular singers and musicians have performed during the Super Bowl's pre-game and halftime ceremonies. This is the second-largest U.S. food consumption day, following Thanksgiving.
The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year it was held. The NFL season spreads over two calendar years, so identifying the games by the year of the Super Bowl could cause some confusion. For example, the Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLI are the champions of the 2006 season, even though the championship game was played in February 2007.
Origins
The Super Bowl was created as part of the merger agreement between the National Football League (NFL) and its 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 term originates from the Rose Bowl Game, which was in turn named for the bowl-shaped stadium in which it is played). Hunt only meant his suggested name to be a stopgap until a better one could be found.
After the NFL's Green Bay Packers convincingly won the first two Super Bowls, some team owners feared for the future of the merger, since many doubted that AFL teams could compete with their NFL counterparts. That all changed with one of the biggest upsets in sports history, the AFL's New York Jets defeat of the Baltimore 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.
Then the NFL and AFL merged into one combined league for the 1970 season, three NFL teams joined the 10 AFL teams to form the American Football Conference (AFC), and the other 13 teams became the National Football Conference (NFC). Since then, the Super Bowl has featured the champions of the AFC and NFC, which are determined each season by the league's playoff tournament. As of Super Bowl XL, former AFL teams have won 12 Super Bowls, pre-1970 NFL teams have won 26 games, and two games have been won by teams created after 1970.
The NFL commissioner at that time, 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. Following his death in September 1970, the trophy was named the Vince Lombardi Trophy, first awarded at Super Bowl V in Miami.
Game history
Super Bowl loss jinx
From 1999 through 2006, only two (Tennessee, 2000 and Seattle, 2006) of the eight teams that lost the previous Super Bowl qualified for the playoffs (and on average the seven teams won 5½ games fewer in the season following a Super Bowl defeat), a collapse known commonly as the "Super Bowl Hangover".
This trend, however, is a recent one. Prior to the 2000 season, teams that lost the Super Bowl had qualified for the postseason 26 times in the following season, compared to 24 times for defending champions, a mark that now stands even at 28-28. Overall, defending champions have seen their winning percentage drop further than losers have, albeit by a slight margin.
Super Bowl Past Winners
| Year | Date | Winner | Score | Loser | MVP | Venue | Attendance |
| 41 XLI |
Feb 04, 2007 | Indianapolis Colts | 29 - 17 | Chicago Bears | Peyton Manning | Dolphin Stadium Miami, Florida |
74,512 |
| 40 XL |
Feb 05, 2006 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 21 - 10 | Seattle Seahawks | Hines Ward | Ford Field Detroit, Michigan |
68,206 |
| 39 XXXIX |
Feb 06, 2005 | New England Patriots | 24 - 21 | Philadelphia Eagles | Deion Branch | Alltel Stadium Jacksonville, Florida |
78,125 |
| 38 XXXVIII |
Feb 01, 2004 | New England Patriots | 32 - 29 | Carolina Panthers | Tom Brady | Reliant Stadium Houston, Texas |
71,525 |
| 37 XXXVII |
Jan 26, 2003 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 48 - 21 | Oakland Raiders | Dexter Jackson | Qualcomm Stadium San Diego, California |
67,603 |
| 36 XXXVI |
Feb 03, 2002 | New England Patriots | 20 - 17 | St. Louis Rams | Tom Brady | Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana |
72,922 |
| 35 XXXV |
Jan. 28, 2001 | Baltimore Ravens | 34 - 7 | New York Giants | Ray Lewis | Raymond James Stadium Tampa, Florida |
71,921 |
| 34 XXXIV |
Jan. 30, 2000 | St. Louis Rams | 23 - 16 | Tennessee Titans | Kurt Warner | Georgia Dome Atlanta, Georgia |
72,625 |
| 33 XXXIII |
Jan. 31, 1999 | Denver Broncos | 34 - 19 | Atlanta Falcons | John Elway | Pro Player Stadium Miami, Florida |
74,803 |
| 32 XXXII |
Jan. 25, 1998 | Denver Broncos | 31 - 24 | Green Bay Packers | Terrell Davis | Qualcomm Stadium San Diego, California |
68,912 |
| 31 XXXI |
Jan. 26, 1997 | Green Bay Packers | 35 - 21 | New England Patriots | Desmond Howard | Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana |
72,301 |
| 30 X X X |
Jan. 28, 1996 | Dallas Cowboys | 27 - 17 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Larry Brown | Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, Arizona |
76,347 |
| 29 XXIX |
Jan. 29, 1995 | San Francisco 49ers | 49 - 26 | San Diego Chargers | Steve Young | Joe Robbie Stadium Miami, Florida |
74,107 |
| 28 XXVIII |
Jan. 30, 1994 | Dallas Cowboys | 30 - 13 | Buffalo Bills | Emmitt Smith | Georgia Dome Atlanta, Georgia |
72,817 |
| 27 XXVII |
Jan. 31, 1993 | Dallas Cowboys | 57 - 17 | Buffalo Bills | Troy Aikman | Rose Bowl Pasadena, California |
98,374 |
| 26 XXVI |
Jan. 26, 1992 | Washington Redskins | 37 - 24 | Buffalo Bills | Mark Rypien | Metrodome Minneapolis, Minnesota |
63,130 |
| 25 XXV |
Jan. 27, 1991 | New York Giants | 20 - 19 | Buffalo Bills | Ottis Anderson | Tampa Stadium Tampa, Florida |
73,813 |
| 24 XXIV |
Jan. 28, 1990 | San Francisco 49ers | 55 - 10 | Denver Broncos | Joe Montana | Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana |
72,919 |
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