It’s considered the biggest sport event in the United States: the Super Bowl. This year the 48th Super Bowl took place in East Rutherford, New Jersey and it turned out to be the most viewed program in US history with 111.5 million watchers. But what exactly is the Super Bowl and how did it start?
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the NFL, the National Football League. The NFL was established in 1920 (then the American Professional Football Conference). However, the NFL changed in 1966 when it merged with a rival Football competition called the AFL (American Football League). That’s where the Super Bowl comes in. The two competitions turned into one competition with two conferences. The champions of both conferences then compete with each other for the NFL title in the Super Bowl.
American Football is a sport that is quite similar to rugby. A team on the field consists of 11 players. One team is playing offense and the other defense. The team on offense has possession off the ball and they try to score by playing the ball across the field and get it across the goal line into the area which is called the end zone. That is called a touchdown and worth 6 points. After the touchdown the scoring team can try to get another 1 or 2 points by either kicking the ball through the goalposts or by trying to get another touchdown from the two-yard line. Another way of scoring is a field goal (like the extra point goal), which is worth 3 points. If the offense thinks they aren’t able to get a touchdown they can try to score by kicking the ball through the goal posts. The last way of scoring points is a safety. The offensive team can score that way when they are tackled behind their own goal line. It is worth 2 point. The defense has to try to stop the team for scoring and see if they can get possessions of the ball, so they can become the offense team.
This first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967 in Los Angeles and was a match between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers were the first ever champions with a score of 35 – 10. A total of 51.2 million people watched the game and a 30 second commercial then cost about 42,000 dollar, which is a big difference from nowadays. Also the famous halftime show was very different back then. In the first halftime show multiple University marching bands performed.
Superbowl!