A Brief Super Bowl History...
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
halftime ceremonies. This is also the
second-largest U.S. food consumption day,
following
Thanksgiving.[1]
The Super Bowl was first played January 15, 1967
as part of an agreement 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 merged in 1970, the Super Bowl
became the NFL's championship game. Since then,
the game has been played annually on a Sunday as
the final game of the
the 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).
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 extends beyond New Year's
Eve, 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.
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.[11]
