10 Amazing Super Bowl Facts

The Super Bowl is the biggest event in the world of American Football. The culmination of the entire season’s efforts, the match-day competition for the Vince Lombardi trophy is a huge event. The spectacle and the show are brought out in full with the two teams facing each other to a massive national and global audience.

While the match always receives plenty of attention, there is a selection of incredible Super Bowl facts that are not so well-known.

This year’s Super Bowl looks set to be as compelling as ever. Stand-out favorites Kansas City Chiefs, and the Green Bay Packers are both odds on to reach the later stages.

Other popular bets include bets on the eventual MVP, with the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes leading the race.

While you consider the latest Super Bowl betting odds, take a look at these incredible Super Bowl facts that you may not be aware of.

Half Time performers do not get paid by the NFL

  • There are often rumors about the insane sums that performers get paid to play at the huge half time spectacle during the Super Bowl. But the fact is, they don’t get paid for the concert.

    The huge expense of setting up the gig is covered by the NFL, and with bills sometimes in excess of $10 million, it sure don’t come cheap. But as for performers’ payment, the huge exposure and global advert for their talents is judged to be reward enough.

An MVP for a player on the losing team

  • In Super Bowl V, back in 1971, the Dallas Cowboys narrowly lost to Baltimore Colts. The Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley played a fine game, and was awarded the MVP after making two valuable interceptions.

    In an interview years later, Howley said he was “dumbfounded” that he had won. “It was just something that was hard to accept, winning and losing the ballgame.”

The Use of Roman Numerals

  • Referring to each year’s Super Bowl with a Roman numeral instead of a number goes back to Super Bowl V.

    Promoter and sports businessman Lamar Hunt is credited with the decision. It was made to avoid any confusion between the NFL season, which is named with a number, and the Super Bowl which takes place the year after.

Naming of the Super Bowl

  • Hunt was also behind the name of the Super Bowl itself.

    At first jokingly coining it inspired by his children’s toy the ‘Superball,’ which was branded as the ‘greatest ball ever created,’ the name caught on and was soon widely used. Most agreed that it was a lot catchier than the former choice, the ‘AFL-NFL Championship Game.’

 Price of Tickets for the first Super Bowl

  • The cost of attending the Super Bowl I back in 1967? An average of $12.

But even this low price – even at the rates of the day – was too high for many. It has been reported that nearly a third of the stadium was empty as fans stayed away.

The first Super Bowl was also the only time that more than on television network had rights to the match, something that may also have kept viewers at home.

Teams that have never gone to a Super Bowl 

  • Four teams have never competed at a Super Bowl.

They are The Detroit Lions, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Houston Texans, and perhaps more surprisingly, the Cleveland Browns.

Teams that have got to the last game, but never won, include the Arizona Cardinals, the Los Angeles Chargers, and the Buffalo Bills.

The deluxe creation of the Lombardi Trophy

  • Even before the trophy was named after famous coach Vince Lombardi, the winning prize has been produced by luxury jewelers Tiffany and Co.

Weighing in at 7 pounds of sterling silver, the initial design for the 22inch tall trophy was sketched on a cocktail napkin by Tiffany’s vice president Oscar Riedner during a dinner meeting with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1967.

Football fans get through a record-breaking amount of food

  • It is estimated that nearly a 1/3 of Americans tune in to watch the Superbowl. Viewers get through a lot of food during the match-up, with Superbowl Sunday second only to Thanksgiving as the nation’s most well-fed day.

Over a billion chicken wings were thought to have kept fans going last year.  It’s also a big day for pizza, with the chain Domino’s declaring it to be about 40% busier than a normal Sunday.

Half Time Commercials are hugely expensive

  • The prospect of a captive audience in the stadium and at home is too much to resist for some huge companies. Ever since 1984 and the iconic Apple commercial that received its premier at Superbowl XVIII, everyone from the Budweiser Frogs to Amazon’s Alexa have starred on match day.

The big businesses certainly trust the impact of a Super Bowl ad, with a 30 second spot costing over $5 million.

Brother against brother

  • In 2013 at Super Bowl XLVII Jim and John Harbaugh, the coaches of the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens respectively, became the first brothers to lead two competing teams.

In the end, John narrowly took the spoils with the Ravens beating his brothers’ side 34 – 31.

The Super Bowl is a massive event. With so many factors involved in the background, the gameplay is often the icing on the cake. It – and everything surrounding it – is sure to provide surprising nuggets of info for years to come.