Superballs: for the Super Bowl each year, there are 72 regulation footballs used in the big game. Each and every football is specially made just for the Super Bowl.
The 12 years between Ray Lewis's two Super Bowl victories are the longest between wins in any player's career.
Super Bowl 50 was the first big game to not feature roman numerals in its title. The NFL uses roman numerals to "clarify any confusion that may occur because the NFL Championship Game -- the Super Bowl -- is played in the year following a chronologically recorded season."
Many believe that Super Bowl Sunday should be its own holiday. Approximately 1.5 million people will call in sick to work the day after the big game.
Did you know the first two Super Bowls weren't even called by that moniker? It gained the name in the third Super Bowl. The first two were called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Catchy.
Behind only Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is the second largest day for food consumption in the United States.
Super Bowls are known for their commercials. In 2014, a 30-second ad has a price tag of $4.5 million. This year, $6.5 million.
Phil Simms, winner of Super Bowl XXI, was the first to ever say the phrase, "I'm going to Disney World!"
The average ticket price at Super Bowl XLIX was a cool $6,500. That is 110 percent more expensive than the previous year.
A flashy Super Bowl ring is not cheap. The jewelry costs approximately $5,000 each. A team usually gets around 150 for each Super Bowl victory.
The NFL might be an American sport, but Super Bowl Sunday is worldwide. The big game is broadcast around the globe in 34 different languages.
After his Colts defeated the Bears in Super Bowl XLI, Tony Dungy became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl. The opposing coach, Lovie Smith, was also an African American.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Americans will drink an estimated 325.5 million gallons of beer and devour 1.25 billion chicken wings.
The first two Super Bowls were almost lost to soap operas. Back in 1967 and 1968, the big games were not broadcasted live, and the only known footage of them was thought to have been erased. (According to NFL Films' Steve Sabol, "they were erased to film soap operas.") Luckily, a single fan was found to have recorded the events, preserving the Super Bowls for posterity.
The Patriots' last-second victory over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX was the most watched telecast in television history. The 49th Super Bowl was viewed by 114.4 million viewers.
More fun facts:
- This is my tenth year of blogging about the Super Bowl on Super Bowl Sunday.
- If you are reading this blog, you have access to “The Internet”
- In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world's population, would be online by the end of the year. Of them, about 2 billion would be from developing countries, including 89 million from least developed countries.
- In 2017, the number is closer to 4 billion.
- So, therefore, BILLIONS of people could watch the Super Bowl today from a TV, smartphone, laptop, tablet - if they were so inclined. Or they could be watching Netflix. Or a TED.com talk. Or receive a tweet from the President of the United States. Or, they can enroll in an online class.
When we really, really want something, the universe conspires for it to come true.
I was born in 1960. My dad was friends with a man by the name of Leon Hess, the founder of the Hess Corporation and the owner of the New York Jets. On January 12, 1969 my dad took me to Super Bowl III at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. To this day, this game is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in American sports history. The heavy underdog American Football League (AFL) champion New York Jets defeated the National Football League (NFL) champion Baltimore Colts by a score of 16–7. This was the first Super Bowl victory for the AFL.
If the NY Jets never won that game, the “Super Bowl” might have never become - super. And I would have ten less blogs in my archive.
NOW: why 72 balls you ask? Scroll up. Why 72 regulation “Superballs” and not 70? First 10 people who email me with the right answer shall win a $25 gift card. Seriously, I have ten $25 Amazon Gift Cards looking for new homes.
Ah yes, the power of the Internet.
If you are reading this blog, you have all the power you need to get the answer. When we really, really want something, the universe conspires for it to come true.
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