Saw my first-ever Superbowl match last week!
- Thread starter SandStorm
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- SolidFro
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The Super Bowl is the last regular season NFL game of the year. The best American Football Conference (AFC) team plays against the best National Football Conference (NFC) team. The team that wins receives the Vince Lombardi trophy and are named Super Bowl Champions for that year. Each year, the Super Bowl is held at a different neutral stadium. Coverage of the Super Bowl usually starts 3 hours before the actual game with pre-game shows. During commercials, companies pay over $1 Million dollars for 30 seconds of air time to showcase the products and at Half Time, music stars sing for the audience. Basically, it's a holiday for sports fans. 
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Sorry if this is stuff you already know, SandStorm...I apologize if it sounds "dumbed down".
The AFC used to be a part of another football league (AFL) in the mid-1960's, and a deal was struck from them to join the National Football League. The original NFL teams were thus part of the NFC (National Football Confrence). The best AFL team played the best NFL team, and the orginal "Super Bowl" was just a meeting between the two "leagues". In 1969, they called the matchup the Super Bowl, so as to call more attention to it from the college-level football "bowl games" that play every year around January 1st (or so).
They leagues merged offically in 1970, but they were known as the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference). The conference title means next to nothing; it merely denotes which other opponents a certain team will play against during the course of the regular season. The 2 conferences are separated into 4 Divisions, with 4 teams in each: a team in a division will play the other 3 teams on two different occasions (home and away); the other 10 games they play all season are other opponents taken into consideration (old rivalries, former playoff matchups, a band is using their arena, etc.)...all teams play a total of 16 games a year.
Got that so far? Well, the best 6 teams from each conference play one another in the playoffs. The best team in each division is the Division winner; for example, this year, the New York Jets were the AFC East Division winner. The 2 teams with the best records (or any other considerations like previous matchups, points scored, etc.) from each conference get to rest for a week. But the other four in each conference have to battle it out, the following week you have 4 teams, and a tournament-style of play begins. Eventually, you have a matchup of the best AFC teams (Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans) and NFC teams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles). Tampa and Oakland won their respective games, and they play each other in the Super Bowl.
Every football player dreams of playing in the Super Bowl...no American on GTP has ever not dreamt for even a moment that they wouldn't mind being in that big game for a play or two! It's just that big...unfortunately, it's usually quite over-hyped. This year was no exception, but 2002 wasn't bad, 2000 was a great matchup that went down to the wire, 1998 was the most interesting one for many years. But usually, one team dominates the other so badly, the teams becomes the butt of many jokes for weeks to come.
Hope you enjoyed it, the next games you'll see are the exhibition games the teams play in late July. Which usually aren't all that interseting...but that's another story.
The AFC used to be a part of another football league (AFL) in the mid-1960's, and a deal was struck from them to join the National Football League. The original NFL teams were thus part of the NFC (National Football Confrence). The best AFL team played the best NFL team, and the orginal "Super Bowl" was just a meeting between the two "leagues". In 1969, they called the matchup the Super Bowl, so as to call more attention to it from the college-level football "bowl games" that play every year around January 1st (or so).
They leagues merged offically in 1970, but they were known as the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference). The conference title means next to nothing; it merely denotes which other opponents a certain team will play against during the course of the regular season. The 2 conferences are separated into 4 Divisions, with 4 teams in each: a team in a division will play the other 3 teams on two different occasions (home and away); the other 10 games they play all season are other opponents taken into consideration (old rivalries, former playoff matchups, a band is using their arena, etc.)...all teams play a total of 16 games a year.
Got that so far? Well, the best 6 teams from each conference play one another in the playoffs. The best team in each division is the Division winner; for example, this year, the New York Jets were the AFC East Division winner. The 2 teams with the best records (or any other considerations like previous matchups, points scored, etc.) from each conference get to rest for a week. But the other four in each conference have to battle it out, the following week you have 4 teams, and a tournament-style of play begins. Eventually, you have a matchup of the best AFC teams (Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans) and NFC teams (Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles). Tampa and Oakland won their respective games, and they play each other in the Super Bowl.
Every football player dreams of playing in the Super Bowl...no American on GTP has ever not dreamt for even a moment that they wouldn't mind being in that big game for a play or two! It's just that big...unfortunately, it's usually quite over-hyped. This year was no exception, but 2002 wasn't bad, 2000 was a great matchup that went down to the wire, 1998 was the most interesting one for many years. But usually, one team dominates the other so badly, the teams becomes the butt of many jokes for weeks to come.
Hope you enjoyed it, the next games you'll see are the exhibition games the teams play in late July. Which usually aren't all that interseting...but that's another story.
