Welcome to the Deep Dive. This is where we take
these huge cultural things and really break them
down. You know, the history, the money, the kind
of weird logistics behind it all. Exactly. And
today we're tackling a giant. Yeah. The Super
Bowl. It basically stops the entire U .S. every
year. It really does. And the sources we've got
today. Wow. It's a huge stack. decades of history,
viewership numbers that are just staggering and
all the rules about where and how this game even
gets played. Right. So our mission today, it
isn't just about, you know, who won or lost.
We want to understand how this game, the NFL
championship that took over from the old NFL
championship game back in 66, how it became this.
This national holiday almost, this global thing.
It's a really dense topic, absolutely. But the
history is just, it's fascinating. So many twists
and turns people don't realize. Okay, so let's
start with something that really shows how much
the league's changed, the actual date of the
game. It hasn't always been when it is now, right?
No, not at all. It's a great way to see how the
schedule has stretched out. If you look back
at the very beginning, say 1967 up to about 1978,
the Super Bowl was way earlier, like first or
second week of January. Wow, January. Seems early
now. Doesn't it? Then, yeah, the season got a
bit longer, so it shifted. Late January became
the norm from 79 all the way through 2003. Okay.
And then for a long time, like nearly 20 years,
2004 to 2021. We all got used to it being that
first Sunday in February. That felt like the
spot. That was the tradition for a good while.
But then, you know, the league expanded the season
again. Added that 17th regular season game. Right.
That changed everything. It really did. The whole
calendar had to shift. So since the 2022 season,
the Super Bowl got bumped back another week.
Now it's officially the second Sunday in February.
So that small change, just one week, it actually
tells you a lot about the league's growth and
how much longer the season is now. Exactly. It's
a direct reflection. OK, let's rewind. Mid -60s.
How did this whole thing even start? Because
it wasn't some grand design, was it? It was more
like a necessity. That's the perfect word. It
was born out of this really bitter business fight.
Right. You had the NFL, the established league,
right? And then comes the AFL, the American Football
League. Started in 1960. And they were competing
hard. Oh, yeah. Directly for players, for fans.
It was driving up salaries. Costs were exploding
for everybody. The only real way to stop that
financial drain was... Well, they had to merge.
So the 66 merger agreement, that basically forced
their hand. They needed one big championship
game. Pretty much pit the, you know, the best
team from the NFL against the best from the AFL.
Yeah. But the official name back then was a mouthful.
The AFL -NFL World Championship Game. Right.
Not exactly catchy. Not at all. They played four
games under that name before the whole league
structure really merged in 1970. And that merge
agreement, that's what created the AFC and NFC
we have today. OK, break that down. How did the
teams get split? So the 10 original AFL teams
plus three NFL teams that agreed to switch over,
that was the Colts, the Steelers, and the Browns,
they became the new American Football Conference,
the AFC. Gotcha. So the AFC has that AFL heritage.
Exactly. And then the other 13 NFL teams that
were left, they formed the National Football
Conference, the NFC. So ever since Super Bowl
V, which was 1971, it's been the AFC champ versus
the NFC champ. And that rivalry conference versus
conference, it's still super close, isn't it?
Incredibly close. If you look at the wins, the
NFC, which kind of inherited the old NFL line,
they've won 30 times. The AFC, the AFL successor,
they've won 29. It's almost perfectly balanced
after all these decades. That's amazing. Now,
the name. Super Bowl. The league didn't even
like it at first, did they? This is a great story.
It's fantastic. The name came from Lamar Hunt.
He owned the Kansas City Chiefs, was a huge player
in getting the merger done. And he just needed
a shorthand way to refer to this new championship
game in his notes, you know. And the inspiration
wasn't some high -level marketing meeting. No,
definitely not. It was his kids. They were playing
with this really popular toy back then called
a Super Bowl, just a bouncy rubber ball. So the
name of this massive billion dollar event came
from a kid's bouncy ball. Isn't that unbelievable?
And Hunt himself was almost embarrassed by it.
He wrote this letter to the NFL commissioner,
Pete Rozelle, back in July 66. And he actually
said, let me get the quote right. I have kiddingly
called it the Super Bowl, which obviously can
be improved upon. He apologized for it. He did.
But the media. They heard Super Bowl and thought,
yeah, that's way better than NFL World Championship
game. They ran with it immediately. And it just
stuck. Instantly. By the time Super Bowl III
came around in 1969, the league had no choice,
really. They just made it official. And then
there's the Roman numerals. That adds a certain
weight to it, doesn't it? Why did they start
doing that? It really does give it that sense
of history. Like, it's timeless. They officially
started using Roman numerals with Super Bowl
V in 1971. It helps avoid confusion, too, because
the game is played in the calendar year after
the season it crowns. So Super Bowl V was for
the 1970 season, but played in 71. Right. That
makes sense. But they did drop it once, didn't
they? Yeah, for Super Bowl 50. That was in 2016.
They used the regular number 50. Marketing decision
probably looked cleaner. But, you know, tradition
won out. People missed the Roman numeral, so
they went right back to L .I. the next year.
And the trophy itself, the Vince Lombardi trophy.
That naming also tells a story about the early
days, right? Definitely. Lombardi, the legendary
Packers coach, won the first two Super Bowls.
But the trophy wasn't named after him immediately.
That only happened after he sadly passed away
in September 1970. So the first time it was actually
awarded as the Lombardi trophy was for Super
Bowl V. And those first couple of games were
pretty tense for the league, weren't they? Because
the Packers just dominated. Oh, yeah. Lombardi's
Packers won Super Bowl I and II pretty easily.
There was real fear that the AFL just wasn't
on the same level. People were questioning if
the merger would even work, if the competition
was real. The whole thing could have fizzled.
It could have. But then came the AFL pushback.
Super Bowl III, Joe Namath famously guarantees
a win for his New York Jets, an AFL team, against
the Baltimore Colts, who were huge favorites,
like 19 .5 points. And the Jets won. They won.
And then the very next year, Lamar Hunt's Kansas
City Chiefs. Another AFL team won Super Bowl
four. Those two wins back to back were absolutely
crucial. They proved the AFL could hang, that
the leagues were competitive. It basically saved
the merger right as it was becoming official
in 1970. OK, so the foundation is set. Let's
walk through the decades now. How did the balance
of power shift? Starting with those first four
games, the late 60s. Right. Super Bowl is one
through four. This is really about the NFL trying
to assert dominance and the AFL trying to prove
it belonged. The Packers under Lombardi, they
were the NFL's dynasty, won the first two, like
we said. Bart Starr, the QB, got MVP twice. It
capped off this incredible run for Green Bay
five titles in seven years if you include their
pre -Super Bowl NFL championships. But the game
changer was Super Bowl III, Namath's guarantee.
Absolutely seismic. The Jets beating the Colts
16 -7. It wasn't just an upset, it changed the
whole perception of the AFL overnight. It validated
the league, validated the merger. Truly a pivotal
moment in football history. Okay, moving into
the 70s, Super Bowls V through 14. What defined
this decade? Dynasties. This is where we see
teams really stringing wins together. But it
started weirdly. Super Bowl V 1971. Chuck Howley,
a linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. They lost
the game, but he won the MVP. Seriously? The
only time that's ever happened? The only time
ever. Still stands. Bizarre. Wow. And then Kim
Perfection. The 72 Miami Dolphins. Yeah. The
perfect season. 17 wins, zero losses, regular
season and playoffs combined. Won Super Bowl
VII. Still the only team in the Super Bowl era
to go completely undefeated all the way through.
And they won again the next year too, right?
Super Bowl VIII. They did. Back to back. An amazing
short -lived dynasty. But the real dynasty of
the 70s. That was Pittsburgh. Steelers, the steel
curtain. Exactly. Coach Chuck Knoll, QB Terry
Bradshaw, running back Franco Harris, and that
defense, legendary. They won four Super Bowls
in just six years. 9, X, 13th, and 14th. First
team to do that. And that 1974 draft class they
had? It's still talked about? Oh, it's maybe
the best single draft class ever. In one draft,
they picked four guys who ended up in the Hall
of Fame. Lin Swan, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth,
Mike Webster. And then they signed Donnie Schell,
another Hall of Famer, as an undrafted free agent
that same year. Insane talent acquisition. Incredible.
But while the Steelers were racking up rings,
there was another team having a very different
70s Super Bowl experience. Ah, yes. The poor
Minnesota Vikings. They went to four Super Bowls
in that decade, 4 -8 INX and CS7, and they lost
every single one. Ouch. Four losses, no wins.
That's tough. Brutal. Set an early standard for
Super Bowl heartbreak. OK, so if the 70s saw
the rise of AFC powers like the Dolphins and
Steelers, the 80s and 90s flipped the script
completely, right? This was the NFC's time. Oh,
absolutely. Total domination. Yeah. Across those
two decades, the NFC won 16 out of 20 Super Bowls.
16. And get this. There was a stretch where they
won 13 games in a row from Super Bowl XLX all
the way through. 13 straight wins for one conference.
That's unbelievable. It really is. And it started
with the San Francisco 49ers, Bill Walsh, the
coach, Joe Montana at QB, Jerry Rice at receiver.
The West Coast offense, they changed the game.
How many did they win in the 80s? Four titles,
just in the 80s. Montana won MVP three times.
And their win in Super Bowl X is 40 against the
Broncos. 55 -10. Still the biggest blowout ever
in a Super Bowl. Just total dominance. But it
wasn't just the Niners, right? Other NFC teams
were strong, too. Yeah, yeah. Some iconic teams.
The 85 Chicago Bears, maybe one of those famous
teams ever, went 18 -1. Just dominant defense.
And then you had the Washington Redskins and
the New York Giants winning multiple titles,
too. Often with different quarterbacks, which
showed real... organizational depth. So who broke
up this NFC party? Anyone from the AFC win during
that stretch? Only the Raiders. They managed
to win Super Bowl XVIII. They were the only AFC
team to hoist the trophy during that dominant
NFC run in the 80s. Okay, then the 90s. The NFC
streak continues. Yep. Led by the Dallas Cowboys
this time. The triplets era. Troy Aikman at QB.
Emmitt Smith running the ball. Michael Irvin
at receiver. They won three titles in four years.
XC7, XD8, and XASX. Another dynasty. But we have
to talk about the flip side of the 90s dynasty
coin. The Buffalo Bills. Oh, the Bills. It's
just painful to even talk about. They made it
to four Super Bowls in a row. Four consecutive
appearances from X6V to XE8. An incredible achievement.
And lost all four. Lost all four. It's a record
nobody wants. Just absolutely heartbreaking for
that team and city. Unprecedented. So when did
this epic NFC winning streak finally end? Late
90s. Super Bowl XXII, the Dindra Broncos, led
by John Elway, finally broke through for the
AFC, and then Elway won again the next year's
Super Bowl XXIII and retired on top. That really
marked the turning point. And set the stage for
the 2000s and 2010s, the AFC resurgence, largely
thanks to one team. The New England Patriots.
Absolutely. Under Bill Belichick and Tom Brady,
they just took over. Won three titles in four
years, right at the start of the 2000s. Eck E6,
XA6, XX89, matched what the 90s Cowboys did.
Brady got his first MVP in a Dick XA6. And the
AFC quarterback play during this era was just...
It's astonishing when you look at it from 2001
through the 2018 season. Think about this. In
15 out of those 17 Super Bowls, the starting
quarterback for the AFC team was either Tom Brady,
Ben Roethlisberger or Peyton Manning. 15 out
of 17. That's wow. Generational talent concentrated
in one conference. Unbelievable dominance at
the QB position. Even the Patriots dynasty had
its kryptonite, right? They did. The New York
Giants, led by Eli Manning, they beat the Patriots
twice in the Super Bowl. The most famous one,
of course, was Super Bowl XL2, ruining the Patriots'
perfect 18 -0 season. That 2007 Patriots team
was statistically dominant, maybe the best ever,
and the Giants pulled off one of the biggest
upsets in sports history. Those games were classics.
The 2010s also had some memorable moments, let's
say, like the blackout game. Oh, yeah. Super
Bowl XL7 in New Orleans. The Harbaugh Bowl, brothers
coaching against each other, Ravens versus 49ers.
Great game, but everyone remembered the power
outage. Lights went out in the Superdome for
34 minutes. Did that actually change the game?
Maybe. The Ravens were rolling, then the lights
go out. The 49ers regrouped, made a huge comeback
attempt after the delay, but fell just short.
The blackout became the story. And then there's
the scoreline everyone knows, 28 -3. Super Bowl
LI. 2017. Atlanta Falcons versus the Patriots.
Falcons are up 28 -3 late in the third quarter.
Looked totally over. And then Brady happened.
And then Brady happened. The Patriots peeled
off the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.
Erased that 25 -point deficit, forced the first
-ever Super Bowl overtime, and won. Just cemented
Brady's legacy. Unbelievable game. The end of
that decade had some weird scoring contrasts
too, right? Yeah, it was kind of funny. Super
Bowl, LII, the Eagles beat the Patriots. The
Patriots scored 33 points in the loss, which
was the highest score ever for a losing team.
team at that time. OK, high scoring loss. Then
the next year. Totally opposite. Super Bowl healthy.
Patriots beat the Rams 13 to 3. Lowest scoring
Super Bowl ever. A real defensive grind. And
Brady got his sixth ring in that one, right?
Yeah. Age 41. Yep. Oldest player to win a Super
Bowl MVP. And Belichick at 66 became the oldest
coach to win. Really capped off their dominant
era. Which brings us to now, the 2020s. And it
feels like we're already in the middle of another
potential dynasty. The Kansas City Chiefs, for
sure. Patrick Mahomes. They won Super Bowl as
a fee, broke their 50 -year drought. And that
win was actually significant. Historically, it
tied the AFC and NFC for total Super Bowl wins,
27 each at the time, for the first time since
way back in 1991. Wow. Leveled the score. Then
the pandemic year, Super Bowl LV, that was unique,
too. Totally unique. Tom Brady, now with the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, leads them to victory in
their home stadium in Tampa. First time that
ever happened, a team winning at home. First
time a team played and won in their home stadium
in the modern era. Required some rule tweaks
even to make it possible. And Brady got his seventh
ring, winning at age 43. Just keeps breaking
his own records. And since then, it's been pretty
much all Chiefs, hasn't it? They've been dominant.
Four Super Bowl appearances in the last five
years. Won three of them, Liverin, Thilvery,
and Doley eighth. They won back -to -back in
22 and 23. The first team to do that since the
Patriots, back in 03 -04. Until this past year,
Super Bowl LAX. Right. The Eagles got their revenge
for the El Rey loss, beat the Chiefs 40 -22,
stopped Kansas City from getting that historic
three -peat. But still. For Mahomes, that was
his fifth Super Bowl appearance in just six years.
That kind of run puts you in the all -time great
conversation immediately. Okay, let's dive into
the record books. Some of these numbers are just
mind -blowing when you look at team success.
Who's at the top for wins? It's a tie right now.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots
both have six Lombardi trophies, six wins each.
But who's been there the most often? That's the
Patriots. They've made it to the Super Bowl 11
times, most appearances by far. 11 times. Incredible
consistency. Any teams that are perfect when
they get there. There are two, actually, with
multiple appearances. The Baltimore Ravens and
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both are 2 -0 in Super
Bowls. Perfect record. Nice. Now the other side.
Teams that have never even made it. That's got
to sting. Yeah, there are four current NFL franchises
that have never played in a Super Bowl. That's
the Cleveland Browns, the Detroit Lions, the
Houston Texans, and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Now, important context for the... Browns and
Lions, right? They won championships before the
Super Bowl existed. Exactly. Both have pre -1966
NFL titles, so they have championship history,
just not Super Bowl history. The Texans and Jaguars
are younger expansion teams, still trying to
reach that peak. Okay, what about individuals?
Who holds the records there? The coaching record
is probably untouchable. Bill Belichick, he has
eight Super Bowl rings total. Eight. That's from
nine appearances as the Patriots head coach,
plus he won rings as an assistant coach with
the Giants earlier in his career. Just amazing.
And the player record has to be Brady. It is.
Tom Brady. Ten Super Bowl starts, seven wins.
Yeah. Those numbers just seem impossible to beat.
Anyone else notable for multiple wins, not a
quarterback? Yeah, Charles Haley. Defensive end,
played for the 49ers and Cowboys during their
dynasty years. He ended up with five Super Bowl
rings. Most for a non -QB. Five rings. Wow. OK,
now the records nobody really wants. Most losses.
That's another tie, actually. The New England
Patriots and the Denver Broncos are tied for
the most Super Bowl defeats with five losses
each. So the Patriots have the most appearances.
A and D are tied for the most losses. High highs,
low lows. Exactly. And then you have those infamous
losing streaks we mentioned. The Minnesota Vikings,
the first team to lose four without winning any.
And of course, the Buffalo Bills. Losing four
straight, that's just a uniquely painful record
in sports history. All right, let's shift gears.
Because the Super Bowl, it's more than just the
game on the field, isn't it? The whole cultural
event around it, the commercials, the halftime,
sometimes that feels even bigger. Oh, absolutely.
The scale is just hard to wrap your head around.
Globally, it's huge, second only to the UEFA
Champions League final for most -watched annual
club sporting event. But here in the U .S., nothing
even comes close. Like, the most watched TV shows
ever. Get this. The seven most watched television
broadcasts in American history are all Super
Bowls. All seven. That's insane. What were the
numbers for the last one? Super Bowl -eloped.
Record -breaking. Average U .S. viewers, 123
.7 million people. Just staggering. And it's
not just the game, the halftime show for that
same Super Bowl. It pulled in 129 .2 million
viewers. More people watched halftime than the
game average. Wow. So the show is a bigger draw
than the game itself for some people. It seems
so. Now, technically, the highest rated game,
meaning the percentage of households watching,
was way back in 1982, Super Bowl X66. That game
reached 49 .1 % of all American homes with a
TV. Almost half the country watching one thing.
And that massive captive audience. That's why
the commercials cost so much, right? Exactly.
It's the most expensive advertising time of the
year, period. We saw spots hitting, what, $7
million for just 30 seconds during Super Bowl
LVI? $7 million for 30 seconds. Incredible. And
here's the kicker that proves your point about
the spectacle. Nielsen actually reported back
in 2010 that 51 % of viewers tune in specifically
for the commercials. More than half the audience
is there for the ads. They're not just something
to sit through. They're part of the main event
for a lot of people. And we remember the iconic
ones, don't we? Like the Apple 1984 ad introducing
the Macintosh or those Budweiser Bud Bowl campaigns.
They become cultural touchstones. They really
do. They're aiming for that water cooler talk
the next day. It's become its own sort of creative
competition. And the halftime show. is the ultimate
example of that commercial evolution. It wasn't
always this massive pop star concert, was it?
Oh, definitely not. In the early Super Bowls,
halftime was very traditional, like college games.
You'd see local college marching bands, high
school bands sometimes, very low -key, relatively
speaking. So what changed? When did it become
Michael Jackson and Prince and Beyonce? The turning
point was Super Bowl X66 back in 92. Another
network, Fox I think it was, decided to try and
steal viewers during halftime. They aired a special
live episode of the comedy show In Living Color.
Seriously? They counter -programmed the Super
Bowl halftime? They did. And it worked. A significant
number of viewers actually switched channels
during halftime. The NFL ratings took a noticeable
dip during the break. Uh -oh. The NFL must have
panicked. Big time. They saw those numbers and
realized they couldn't just put marching bands
out there anymore. They needed huge stars to
keep people glued to the screen. So the very
next year, Super Bowl X -7, they booked Michael
Jackson. And his performance was huge, right?
Massive. Reportedly drew even higher ratings
than the game itself. That set the standard.
From then on, it was A -list global superstars
only for halftime. But that strategy hit a snag
too, didn't it? The infamous wardrobe malfunction.
Ah, yes. Super Bowl XXVIII, 2004. Justin Timberlake
and Janet Jackson performing. The incident at
the end caused a massive controversy. Huge FCC
fines were levied. And the NFL reacted pretty
strongly. Very strongly. They got scared off
pop music for a while. There's this sort of unofficial
moratorium. For the next several years, they
booked older, safer. veteran rock acts. Paul
McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty,
Bruce Springsteen, The Who. Right, I remember
that run of classic rockers. Exactly, but he
played it safe until things cooled down. Finally
going back to contemporary pop acts around Super
Bowl XLV with the Black Eyed Peas. It showed
how sensitive the league is to controlling the
narrative and avoiding controversy. OK, before
the game even kicks off, there's a whole pregame
ritual now, too. What does that involve? It's
pretty structured these days. Usually starts
with presenting past Super Bowl MVPs. Then since
2021, they've included Lift Every Voice and Sing.
After that, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the
Year Award is presented. Then usually America
the Beautiful, followed by the National Anthem.
And the anthem performance itself can be a huge
moment. Whitney Houston. Oh, Whitney at Super
Bowl XXV in 1991 during the Gulf War. Still gives
you chills. It's kind of the benchmark performance
everyone gets compared to. Interestingly, though,
they didn't always do the anthem. Back at Super
Bowl Exide, Vicky Carr just sang America the
Beautiful. Huh. And it all wraps up with the
coin toss, right? Which isn't just a coin toss
anymore. Right. Since about 78, they started
making it a little ceremony. Usually bring out
former players, maybe a celebrity, someone with
ties to the host city to do the toss. Adds a
bit more fanfare. Now, all this spectacle comes
with some... Aggressive branding control, doesn't
it? The NFL is famously protective of its trademarks.
Extremely protective. They go after any unauthorized
commercial use of Super Bowl or even Super Bowl
Sunday. It's why you see so many businesses resorting
to wink wink generic phrases. Like the big game.
Exactly. Yeah. The big game is the classic workaround.
Critics say the NFL goes way too far trying to
control language that's basically entered the
public domain. Didn't Stephen Colbert make fun
of this with the superb owl? He did. The superb
owl became this running gag. And here's how intense
the NFL is. In 2015, some small nonprofit in
Arizona actually tried to trademark the phrase
superb owl for an event, and the NFL filed an
opposition against it. They tried to stop someone
from using superb owl. They did. That's how protective
they are of anything even remotely close to their
brand. They even tried to trademark the big game
itself back in 2006. No way. Did they get it?
No. They withdrew the application after about
a year. Stanford University and UC Berkeley strongly
opposed it because their annual rivalry football
game has been officially called the big game
since way back in 1892. Good thing they backed
down on that one. Yeah. But the restrictions
are still pretty intense. The NFL has claimed,
for example, that churches or other non -sports
venues can't show the Super Bowl on screens larger
than 55 inches. Critics argue that's a massive
overreach and probably violates fair use laws
for private viewing parties. Wow. OK, one last
piece of the cultural puzzle. The presidential
interview. When did that become a regular thing?
It really started consistently during Barack
Obama's presidency. George W. Bush did one back
in 2004, but Obama made it an annual tradition
during his two terms. And the tone of those interviews
has changed, hasn't it? Definitely. Before about
2014, they were usually pretty light. Football
talk, maybe some easy policy questions. But then
Bill O 'Reilly did a much more confrontational
interview with Obama before Super Bowl XL8. And
that set a new precedent. It seemed to. Since
then, whether it was Trump or Biden, the pre
-Super Bowl interview has become a much more
standard, often politically charged media appearance.
It just highlights what an unparalleled platform
the game is to reach tens of millions of Americans
all at once. All right, let's talk logistics.
Hosting the Super Bowl, it sounds glamorous,
but the requirements the NFL puts on a city are
intense. Intense is an understatement. It's a
massive, expensive undertaking. And historically,
it's been very concentrated. Think about it.
Out of 59 Super Bowls played so far, 30 of them,
more than half, have been in just three places.
Miami, New Orleans, and L .A. Why those three
so often? Primarily weather and infrastructure.
Miami and New Orleans are tied with 11 hosting
gigs each. Greater Los Angeles has hosted eight
times. They have the facilities, the hotel space,
and usually the reliable warm weather the NFL
traditionally prefers. And you need an NFL team
in the city to host, right? Yeah, that's a key
requirement now, yes. The host city has to have
an active NFL franchise. Although, interestingly,
the stadium itself hasn't always been the home
team stadium, especially in the early years or
in L .A. before the Rams and Chargers returned.
Okay, so what are some of those specific requirements?
You mentioned the league. details. Yeah. Back
in 2014, some of the bid requirements got out.
They're pretty wild. The stadium itself needs
at least 70 ,000 seats. 70 ,000 minimum. Yep.
And they do allow temporary seating to reach
that number. But the stuff outside the stadium
is just as demanding. They require 35 ,000 parking
spaces within a one mile radius of the stadium.
Imagine coordinating that. 35 ,000 parking spots.
Wow. And then there's the NFL experience. That's
the big fan festival thing they do all week.
It needs a huge amount of space, at least 850
,000 square feet if it's indoors, or even a million
square feet if it's outdoors. That's like 15
football fields of space just for the Fan Fest.
That's enormous. And hotels. Thousands of rooms
needed. Specifically, the requirement was hotel
space equivalent to 35 % of the stadium's capacity,
all located within a one -hour drive. Plus massive
needs for security, media centers, power grids.
The cost to the host city can easily run into
the hundreds of millions, sometimes more. And
the weather thing. Traditionally, they wanted
warm weather or a dome, right? That was the longstanding
rule, yeah. Average game day temp needed to be
50 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer or you needed
a roof. That's why Miami, New Orleans, L .A.
Phoenix, Tampa, places like that, hosted so often.
But they have waived that rule sometimes, played
in colder cities. They have. Six northern cities
have hosted. Detroit, Minneapolis, Indianapolis
all have domes, so that met the requirement.
But then there were waivers. Like New York, New
Jersey. Exactly. MetLife Stadium in New Jersey
hosted Super Bowl XL8. That was the big one the
first time the game was held outdoors, in a cold
-weather city without a roof. The league had
to grant a special waiver and make all sorts
of contingency plans for snow. It showed they
were willing to bend the rules for a major market.
Have they ever taken a Super Bowl away from a
city after awarding it? Yes, that's happened
a couple of times. Most famously, Super Bowl
XC7 was supposed to be in Arizona, but it got
moved to Pasadena, California because Arizona
voters had initially rejected making Martin Luther
King Jr. Day a paid state holiday. The NFL pulled
the game in protest. Wow. Political pressure.
Any more recent examples? Yeah. Just a few years
ago. Super Bowl Heavy 8th was originally awarded
to New Orleans. But then the NFL expanded the
regular season to 17 games. That pushed the Super
Bowl date back a week right into the middle of
Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Whoa, that's a conflict.
Huge conflict. Logistically impossible to host
both massive events at the same time. So the
NFL moved Super Bowl L8 to Las Vegas instead.
New Orleans got LAX this past year's game as
compensation. Okay, last topic. Home field advantage
and jerseys. Does playing at home even matter?
Statistically, not really. The home team designation
just alternates each year. NFC gets it for odd
numbers, Super Bowls, AFC for even. But the designated
away team has actually won 32 of the 59 games.
That's about 54%. So no real advantage there.
But the home team does get to choose their jersey
color, right? And that seems to matter. Ah, yes.
Since Super Bowl XIII, the home team picks wear
your normal color jerseys or wear white. And
this is where superstition takes over because
there's this really strong, weird trend. The
white jersey curse or blessing. Blessing, definitely.
Teams wearing white jerseys have won 37 out of
59 Super Bowls. That's 63%. It's a statistically
significant trend, way higher than 50 -50. 63%.
That's huge. So teams actually choose white even
if they're home. Oh, yeah. It happens quite a
bit now because of that stat. The Cowboys did
it back in 13th and accent. The Steelers chose
white for Super Bowl XL. They'd won all their
playoff games on the road wearing white that
year and wanted to keep the mojo going. Didn't
the Broncos do it recently, too? They did, very
explicitly, for Super Bowl 50. John Elway, their
GM, basically came out and said, we're wearing
white because we've had Super Bowl success in
white. They were 0 -4 wearing orange in previous
Super Bowls. They wore white and they won. And
the Bucs when they won at home. Wore white too.
Super Bowl LV, even though they were the home
team in their home stadium, they opted for the
white jerseys. And they won. So that trend, that
superstition, it's clearly something teams think
about. It actually influences decisions. Absolutely.
Whether it's real magic or just psychology, that
63 percent win rate for white jerseys is too
big for teams to ignore when they're preparing
for the biggest game of the year. Hashtag tag
outro. Wow. OK, so wrapping this up. The steep
dive really shows the Super Bowl is just this
incredible mix of things. We started with it's
like almost accidental origins named after a
toy, then tracked decades of dominance swinging
back and forth between the AFC and NFC and the
logistics. Just the sheer scale required to host
the square footage, the hotels. It's mind boggling.
It really is. Yeah. And what strikes me is how
managed the whole experience is. Yeah. It's so
meticulously crafted. Yeah. You know, using Roman
numerals to give it historical weight, changing
the whole halftime show strategy because of one
ratings dip, fiercely protecting the name Super
Bowl. It's all so intentional. Yeah, it's not
just a football game that happens to be popular.
It's this giant, perfectly tuned machine of sports,
business and culture. Exactly. Where even the
color of the jersey a team wears is tangled up
in decades of statistics and frankly, superstition.
A truly amazing spectacle. So next time you're
watching, maybe you hear someone call it the
big game or you see one of those superb owl posts.
Right. Hopefully you can appreciate all the layers
underneath, the history, the money, the planning,
this whole massive ecosystem that makes the Super
Bowl what it is. Yeah, exactly. We hope you look
at that huge global audience, the crazy cost
of a 30 second ad, or even just notice who's
wearing white and think about the incredible
journey this game has been on. It's just fascinating
how much goes into making something seem so seamless
for just a few hours on a Sunday night.