Super Bowl Th e Super Bowl, thought to be named for an early team owner’s three thousand media credentials are typically assigned for a daughter’s “super ball,” is the premier single-day sporting event Super Bowl, including four hundred assigned to international in the United States. Since its inception in 1967, it has devel- journalists. oped into a major spectacle that has as much to do with Th e game is played at a stadium site that is picked years in commercial advertising, entertainment, and socializing as it advance of the actual game date. Cities are competitive in does with the football game being contested on the fi eld. Nine- bidding to host the game, since the economic impact from just teen teams have won the Super Bowl. Th e game is usually one Super Bowl can be several hundred million dollars. No played in warm locations, since Super Bowl Sunday takes place team has ever played a Super Bowl in its home stadium. Super in the dead of winter, although in 2014 it will return north, Bowl games are usually awarded to stadiums in the southern to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. part of the United States, to help insure good weather, since the game is played in either late January or early February, Keywords: NFL, rituals, violence, spectacles, American although on a few occasions the game has been played in more football, economics, advertising, gambling 0 northern locations. In all, eighteen diff erent cities in the United States have hosted a Super Bowl. It has been hosted in he Super Bowl, the championship game of American the Miami area ten times, ten times in New Orleans, and fi ve T football, is the most watched, written about, and talked at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. about single sports event in the United States today. It has Th e 2013 Super Bowl—nicknamed the “Harbowl” or the become a national ritual, and Super Bowl Sunday is akin to “Harbaugh Bowl” for the two opposing coaches, brothers a national holiday—marked by gatherings of family and Jim and John Harbaugh—was played at the New Orleans friends, food, drink, and betting on the outcome. Th e com- Superdome, which gained infamy as a shelter for thousands petitors are the winners of the National Football and of displaced residents after Hurricane Katrina devastated American Football conferences of the National Football New Orleans in 2005. Th e Baltimore Ravens narrowly League (NFL) playoff s. defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 34–31. In 2014 the Super A US Institution Bowl will again be played in a cold location: MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home (since 2010) First played in 1967, the Super Bowl is traditionally staged on of the New York Giants and the New York Jets. a Sunday evening, and is seen by more than 167 million televi- Th e day has become so popular—more pizzas are sold on sion viewers alone in the United States. Th e games have been Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year in the televised by all four major US networks—ABC (seven times), United States—that some consider it a de facto holiday. About CBS (eighteen), NBC (seventeen), and Fox (seven). Advertisers, $100 million is bet on the game through legal sportbooks. It who paid as little as US$75,000 for a thirty-second commer- is estimated that several billion dollars is actually wagered on cial for the telecast of Super Bowl I, in 2012 paid as much as the game illegally. Part of the Super Bowl tradition is the elabo- right Albert Bridge and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence Attribution-ShareAlike 2. y $3.5 million for the same thirty second commercial. Apple rate halftime show featuring top entertainers such as the late Computers introduced its fi rst-ever line of Macintosh comput- Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Janet ers with a Super Bowl television advertisement in 1984. Some Jackson, Paul McCartney, Prince, and Beyoncé. Commercials Photo © Cop 1242 Sample SUPER BOWL • 1243 You learn you can do your best even when its hard, even when you’re tired and maybe hurting a little bit. It feels good to show some courage. Joe Namath Box 1. Winning Teams of the Super Bowl as of 2013 leagues—the American Football League founded in 1960 Team name Number of times as Super and the National Football League founded in 1920 as the Bowl champions American Professional Football Association. It took the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers 6 name in 1922. Th e game didn’t actually become the “Super Bowl” until 1968, before the third championship game. Dallas Cowboys 5 Legend has it that the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers 5 Lamar Hunt, whose team played in the fi rst ever Super Bowl, Green Bay Packers 4 came up with the event’s name after coming across one of his New York Giants 4 daughter’s favorite toys, a super ball. Th e game’s number is New England Patriots 3 traditionally referred to in roman numerals, although that Oakland/LA Raiders 3 practice did not start until the fi fth Super Bowl. Washington Redskins 3 Th e Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers, coached by Vince Lombardi (considered one of the league’s most legend- Denver Broncos 2 ary coaches) in Super Bowl I, played 15 January 1967. Today, Miami Dolphins 2 the trophy given out to the winning team is called the Vince Baltimore Ravens 2 Lombardi trophy. Th e Pete Rozelle Trophy—named after Baltimore Colts 1 the man who served as league commissioner for almost thirty Chicago Bears 1 years and is largely credited with spurring the growth and Kansas City Chiefs 1 popularity of the National Football League—is given out to New York Jets 1 the Most Valuable Player in the Super Bowl. Far from the popular event it is today, the fi rst Super Bowl St. Louis/LA Rams 1 attracted just short of 62,000 fans, almost 40,000 short of Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1 capacity at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, although Indianapolis Colts 1 every game since has been a sell-out. (Th ere are three men New Orleans Saints 1 who are members of the Never Missed a Super Bowl Club, Source: ESPN NFL. (2013). originally four members, who were featured in a 2010 Visa Note: See ESPN NFL 2013 and NFL 2013 for complete statistics about Super Bowl commercial; one of them still has his ticket to Bowl game dates and locations, teams playing in each Super Bowl, the fi rst game.) Th e most expensive ticket to the fi rst-ever players awarded MVP, and the fi nal scores of the games. Super Bowl was $12; the average ticket price for the 2012 game was $2,000. Green Bay won the fi rst game, 35–10, led have become an integral part of the television broadcast as well, by quarterback Bart Starr and receiver Max McGee—who with major corporations vying to produce the most creative, only saw action in the game because of an injury to starting innovative, or amusing commercials—which are then widely wide receiver Boyd Dowler. For the entire season, McGee critiqued in the media on the day after the game. In fact, many had caught only four passes for 91 yards, but in the newly people watch the broadcast of the game only for the innovative created title game, he hauled in seven passes for 138 yards commercials and the halftime entertainment. and two touchdowns. (For more details on the sport’s rules, please see the article titled “Football, American.”) History Each Packer received a “winner’s share”—a monetary reward for being on the victorious team—of $15,000 each Th e game was originally known as the AFL-NFL World (factoring in infl ation, about $97,000 in 2012 dollars), while Championship Game, and came about because of competi- each Chief earned $7,500 (about $48,000 in 2012 dollars). tion between the two competing professional gridiron football Th e 2012 winning share for each member of the New York Sample 1244 • BERKSHIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD SPORT Giants was $88,000, while the members of the losing New See also America’s Cup; Ashes, Th e; Athletic Talent Migration; Celebrity England Patriots each earned $44,000. Given the size of Athletes; Collective Bargaining; Cricket World Cup; Davis Cup; Football, American; Rituals; Salary Caps; Sports and National Identity; Sports as player salaries, however, the money from winning is not a Religion; Stanley Cup; World Cup; World Series major factor in motivating players to seek to reach the Super Bowl. Instead, the money from companies who want to sign Super Bowl champions to endorse their products, which can Further Reading be millions, are a much bigger fi nancial motivation. In the spirit of sportsmanship, however, it’s about proving a team Bayless, S. (1993). Th e boys . New York: Simon & Schuster. is the most skilled on the fi eld. ESPN NFL. (2013). NFL history—Super Bowl winners. Retrieved April 2, Nineteen teams have won the Super Bowl. (See box 1 on 2013, from http://espn.go.com/nfl /superbowl/history/winners p a g e 1 2 4 3 . ) Th e New England Patriots won three of the four Green, J. (1991). Super bowl chronicles: A sportswriter refl ects on the first Super Bowls between 2002 and 2005. (Th e team did not 25 years of America’s game.