What’s not to like The rise of Super Sunday is like the history of the NFL itself In the beginning it wasn’t that big a deal The first Super Bowl wasn’t even a sellout Heck it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl Back then it was the AFL-NFL World Championship Game Boring right Fans seemed to think so Even though the most expensive tickets went for 12 there were plenty of empty seats at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the Green Bay Packers crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 35 10 Though his team lost Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt came up with an idea to make the game sound cooler the next time He noticed his kids kept playing with a toy called a Super Ball
Halfback Elijah Pitts breaks through the Kansas City Chiefs defensive line during the Green Bay Packers win in the AFL NFL World Championship Game
My dad said Well we need to come up with a name something like the Super Bowl Lamar Hunt Jr said Then he said Actually that’s not a very good name We can come up with something better Turns out he didn’t have to Super Bowl sounded catchy but it needed something more So Hunt also suggested adding Roman numerals for each game so fans could tell them apart When the Baltimore Colts and Dallas Cowboys played in January 1971 it was Super Bowl V to mark the fifth Super Bowl As the numbers grew so did interest in the Super Bowl Even people who didn’t regularly watch the NFL would tune in More than 114 million people watched when Tom Brady and the New England Patriots held on to beat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX that’s 49 in February 2015 That made it the most-watched show of all time It’s a pretty safe bet that the Super Bowl will be the most-watched show of any given year
Why all the viewers Although the commercials and halftime show have something to do with it mostly fans want to watch the game's best players face off on the sport's biggest stage Quarterback Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers cemented their legacy as the team of the 1980s with four Super Bowl titles The Super Bowl gives the NFL's greatest players a chance to secure their place in history Terry Bradshaw and the Super Steelers brought four titles in six seasons to Pittsburgh beginning after the 1974 season
