SETTING THE SCENE: Super Bowl LVII. The Super Bowl 2023 kicks off on Sunday night, pitting the Philadelphia Eagles against the Kansas City Chiefs in the climax of what has been a scintillating postseason in the NFL.
Ahead of the greatest American Football show of the year, we take a look at what makes the NFL Super Bowl so unique, compiling some of the most remarkable stats and records of the most popular sporting event the United States has to offer.
There really is no describing the Super Bowl as it is a spectacle that just must be witnessed. Whether first-hand in the packed stadium or catching it on TV, the fixture won’t fail to capture your imagination.
The Super Bowl is, without a doubt, the biggest sporting fixture in America and is the most talked about and anticipated event nationwide, completely dominating the country for the week leading up to kick-off.
Highlighting just how massive the championship match is, is a stat that could only be achieved in America; the jaw-dropping amount of chicken wings that they consume over the weekend. The staple accompaniment of the Super Bowl weekend is one of America’s favourite snacks, and it comes out in sheer volume for the match, with the National Chicken Council finding that over 1.42 billion wings were consumed over the 2022 Super Bowl weekend.
If that doesn’t tell you how significant this day in the calendar is, perhaps the eye-watering price for just a 30-second advert during the Super Bowl will hammer it home. Advertisers looking to get airtime during the huge event will have to fork out, on average, $5.5 million to land just a 30-second advert, making each second of a Super Bowl advert cost $183,333.
The Super Bowl is, of course, all about football, despite the madness that surrounds it, and there has been many great champions over the years. Helping his teams to win seven Super Bowls throughout his illustrious career, Tom Brady is one of the icons of the NFL and a household name for every fan in the world.
On his course to his many triumphs, Brady won more Super Bowl MVPs than anyone else in the history of the sport. Claiming five of the coveted awards in 2002, 2004, 2015, 2017 and 2021, Brady is often considered the best quarterback of all time and certainly made the Super Bowl his stomping ground for a whole generation.
Talking of the best of a generation, Tom Brady played primarily for the New England Patriots during his career and helped them to become one of the greatest NFL sides of all time. During his career with the franchise, he helped them become the team with the most Super Bowl appearances of all time. Reaching 11 Super Bowls and winning six, the New England Patriots have become one the most recognisable NFL franchises in the world.
During Tom Brady’s domination of the Super Bowl over the last decade, there has also been another dominant force, but not one that you would expect. In eight of the last 10 Super Bowls, a team wearing white has emerged as the victor, adding to a trend of 15 of the last 18 champions donning the white jersey.
While the Super Bowl is a sporting spectacle, some tune in just for the Halftime Show and since its inception has become as popular as the match itself, with the very best musical acts invited to perform.
In 1993, the NFL made history when the performance itself attracted more viewers than the match for the only time ever, with Michael Jackson drawing 133 million viewers to his 15-minute performance, the first two minutes of which were just him standing dead still on the stage. It is one of the star’s most iconic performances and remains the highest viewership ever attracted to a Super Bowl.
