Super Bowl Sunday isn’t technically a national holiday, but for all the attention and hype it gets across the country, it might as well be! One of the biggest sporting events of the year, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), which closes out the annual season of professional American football. (Not to be confused with association football, which is called soccer in the United States!)
The champions of each conference of the NFL compete for the Lombardi Trophy, named after legendary coach Vince Lombardi. Sunday, February 9 will mark Super Bowl LIX, the 59th annual game; Roman numerals are used to designate Super Bowl matches because they take place in the following year from the majority of the season they conclude. Each year, a different city hosts the game; see here for a history of Super Bowl results.
This year, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will play in Caesars Superdome in New Orleans before an audience of an estimated 73,000 fans, who shell out thousands upon thousands of dollars to watch the game in person. The Super Bowl is also traditionally one of the most viewed television events in the U.S., with public and private viewing parties being very common; last year’s game was watched on TV by a record-breaking 123.7 million viewers. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 PM EST, and the game typically lasts three and a half to four hours.
For much of the first half of the twentieth century, baseball was the most popular sport in the United States, and professional football was divided between the NFL and the American Football League (AFL). The first Super Bowl, then called the NFL-AFL World Championship Game, was played in 1967 as part of the two leagues’ process of merging into one, , and saw the Green Bay Packers (coached by Lombardi) defeat the Kansas City Chiefs. Super Bowl I was the only one in history that didn’t sell out: especially with the rising popularity of television, which made professional sports more accessible to home viewers, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon.
Almost as popular as the game itself are the commercials that premiere during the broadcast, with ad slots becoming only more desirable (and expensive!) every year since 1984, when Apple’s Ridley Scott-directed ad for their Macintosh computer became instantly iconic. Similarly, fans eagerly look forward to the musical performances at the Super Bowl halftime show, which this year will be headlined by Kendrick Lamar alongside SZA, with the possibility of additional guests.
Fox Sports will broadcast Super Bowl LIX on cable and stream it on Fubo, and the game will also be available to stream on Tubi (for free!) and the NFL+ subscription service.
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