1 SUPER BOWL SUPERSTARS The Super Bowl is America’s party It’s practically a national holiday The championship game of the National Football League NFL is a big deal Millions of people even watch the halftime show and the TV commercials The cheapest game tickets cost approximately 850 in 2016 But it wasn’t always that way In 1966 the NFL decided to join with the rival American Football League AFL The winners of each league would play in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game Drew Brees holds the Lombardi Trophy after the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in February 2010 4 4
It’s the game we now call the Super Bowl The first one was played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The NFL champions the Green Bay Packers were a great team They trounced the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs 35 10 But the sports world didn’t pay much attention Only two-thirds of the available tickets were sold Other sports championships were more popular especially baseball’s World Series The first Super Bowl was televised by both CBS and NBC The Packers returned the next year and again throttled the AFL champion They routed the Oakland Raiders 33 14 in Miami This time the stadium was filled But after those two Packers wins people began wondering if an AFL team could Joe Namath and the New York Jets pulled off the first Super Bowl upset 7
