Super Bowl Gifts At Great Prices
|
In professional American football, the Super Bowl is the name of the
championship game of the National Football League (NFL) in the United States.
The game and its ancillary festivities constitute Super Bowl Sunday which over
the years has become a de facto U.S. national holiday.
The first game was played on January 15, 1967 as the "Super Bowl" (See New York
Times Sports section January 1st and 15th, 1967 - and not simply the AFL-NFL
World Championship Game' as has been reported), in which the NFL championship
team played against the champion of the younger, rival American Football League
(AFL) for the "World Championship of Professional Football". After both leagues
merged the Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game. Since then, the game
has been played annually on a Sunday following the playoffs, originally early to
mid-January, then late January, and in recent years, the first Sunday in
February.
The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched U.S. television broadcasts of the
year, attracting many companies to spend millions of dollars on commercials.
This has caused the starting time of the game to be pushed back later and later,
to ensure the Sunday night prime time audience on the East Coast. The last true
day game (which ended before local sunset) of the series was Super Bowl XI in
January 1977.
In addition, many popular singers and musicians have performed during the Super
Bowl's pre-game and halftime ceremonies. This is the second-largest U.S. food
consumption day, following Thanksgiving.
The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year
it was held. The NFL season spreads over two calendar years, so identifying the
games by the year of the Super Bowl could cause some confusion. For example, the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winners of Super Bowl XXXVII are the champions of the 2002
NFL season, even though the championship game was played in January 2003.
|