10 fun facts about the Super Bowl
I bet you know Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest sporting events, but did you know the players get their own special car to drive around that week?
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The best day of the year is coming up this Sunday and there are some surprising things to know about this epic day. It’s common knowledge that the Super Bowl commercials are pretty expensive, but some of these may come as new information to you.
1. The Super Bowl is the second-highest eating day for Americans (behind Thanksgiving)
The Super Bowl food is one of the best parts of this day. How much do people eat exactly? Well, just as one example, about 8 million pounds of guacamole is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday. That’s a lot of avocados!
2. The Green Bay Packers were the first team to ever win a Super Bowl
In 1967, the first Super Bowl was held and the Packers won over the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The first Super Bowl MVP was Packers quarterback Bart Starr. The game was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and about 60 million people watched the broadcast on TV. Today, that number is around 100 million.
3. 12 NFL teams have never won the Super Bowl (4 have never even been)
The list of teams that have never won the Super Bowl includes last year’s title contender, the Cincinnati Bengals. The four teams that have never even been to a Super Bowl are the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions, and Cleveland Browns. The other seven teams who have been and lost are the Minnesota Vikings (4 appearances), Buffalo Bills (4), Atlanta Falcons (2), Carolina Panthers (2), Arizona Cardinals (1), Tennessee Titans (1), and Los Angeles Chargers (1).
More facts you might not know about the Super Bowl:
4. The players in the Super Bowl get fancy cars
Marlin Jackson played for the Indianapolis Colts and sent them to Super Bowl XLI (which they won over the Chicago Bears) by intercepting a pass by Tom Brady in the playoffs. He told Reader’s Digest that every player on both teams in the Super Bowl gets a fancy loaner car to drive around all week. He says that he drove a Cadillac Escalade the week of Super Bowl XLI.
5. The University of California is the school which produced the most Super Bowl QBs
The University of California at Berkeley is the top school for producing quarterbacks that start in the Super Bowl. The most recent was Jared Goff in 2019 (Rams) and before that was Joe Kapp, Craig Morton, Vince Ferragamo, and Aaron Rodgers. Alabama (Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Kenny Stabler), Notre Dame (Daryle Lamonica, Joe Montana, Joe Theismann), and Purdue (Len Dawson, Bob Griese, Drew Brees) rank second with three Super Bowl quarterbacks each.
6. The NFL doesn’t pay bands/artists for performing at the halftime show
You would think artists would be paid big for a gig like this, but nay. The NFL only covers the expenses and production costs, but does not pay the performers themselves. Even Queen Bee herself was not paid a penny to perform in the Super Bowl. What they do get is exposure, and lots of it. Millions of people are tuned in, often even more so than to the actual game. After the 2020 halftime show, Shakira’s Spotify streams went up by 230% and Jennifer Lopez’ went up by 335%. So, the artists end up benefitting quite a bit anyway.
And didn’t get paid for it.
7. In 2013, the first brother coaches competed against each other
Super Bowl XLVII saw two brothers coaching against each other for the first time ever. Jim Harbaugh, with the San Francisco 49ers and John Harbaugh, with the Baltimore Ravens made history in 2013. It was also known as the Harbaugh Bowl or the Har-Bowl. John’s team won 34-31, giving Jim’s team their first Super Bowl loss in franchise history.
8. The NFL won’t hold Super Bowls in cold stadiums
The NFL has traditionally not held the Super Bowl in stadiums with a climate of less than 50 degrees Farenheit unless it is covered or has a retractable roof. That is why most of them are held in warm-weather cities, 11 of the 55 being in Miami. Only four have been held in northern cities.
9. Each team gets a lot of footballs
And by lots, I mean 108 total footballs per team. 54 of those are meant for practice and 54 are meant for the actual game. On average during the Super Bowl, 120 footballs are used with the rest used for the kickers. (Imagine all the deflating that had to be done to please Tom Brady!)
10. A special coin is used for the coin toss
This is the Super Bowl we’re talking about. Everything is over-the-top and that includes the coin toss. A quarter simply will not do, I say! Thus, Highland Mint crafts a specific unique coin to use for the toss, with an image of the Lombardi Trophy to signify “heads” and another image representing the current Super Bowl for “tails”.