They don’t call the Super Bowl the greatest sporting event on the planet for no reason. The NFL’s showpiece end-of-season game, involving the winner of the NFC and AFC Championship games, attracts hundreds of millions of viewers from all four corners of the globe. With the 2021 NFL draft just days away, which sees the NFL franchises compete to draft in the best young talent in US college football, the excitement is already building about which teams will be challenging for next year’s Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl has been the final game of the NFL season for every campaign since 1966. The winner of the NFC and AFC Championship games compete for the coveted silver Vince Lombardi Trophy. The showpiece has been staged on the first Sunday in February every season since 2004. However, it’s worth noting that this tradition will change from next year when it moves to the second Sunday of February.
The Super Bowl Half-Time Show
Another of the biggest traditions of the Super Bowl is the Halftime Show. Between 1966 and the early 1990s, the Halftime Show previously consisted of college marching bands. Since then, many of the world’s biggest pop music acts have been invited to take to the field and entertain the millions during the interval. The likes of New Kids on the Block and Gloria Estefan were some of the first names invited. Michael Jackson even agreed to headline the Halftime Show at the Super Bowl in January 1993. More recent acts include Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, Maroon Five and Justin Timberlake.
The scoring system of the Super Bowl and the NFL
If you are completely new to the concept of American Football, let’s discuss the scoring system of the NFL and what you are likely to see in a Super Bowl. First and foremost, there teams can score ‘touchdowns’. This requires offensive players to run the ball into the ‘end zone’, which is the opponent’s end of the pitch. It’s rather like a ‘try’ in rugby. Each touchdown is worth six points. Teams can also score ‘field goals’ by kicking the ball between the posts. Field goals are worth three points apiece.
What to expect in the Super Bowl LVI?
The Super Bowl culmination of the 2021 NFL season will be staged at the SoFi Stadium on February 13 2022. It will be the first major sporting event likely to be hosted here, given that this new arena is inching closer to completion in the Inglewood area of LA.
There are several NFL franchises that will be eyeing up a place at Super Bowl LVI. This includes the Kansas City Chiefs, who won back in February 2020 for the first time in 50 years. The Chiefs are in the process of building a dynasty, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes the centrepiece of their offense. It’s therefore no surprise that lUS online sportsbook FOX Bet has the Chiefs priced as +550 favourites in their futures NFL betting market for Super Bowl LVI.
The Chiefs are followed closely by last season’s Super Bowl winners, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were indebted to veteran quarterback Tom Brady. The former New England Patriots icon joined at the start of the 2020 NFL season and teamed up with former colleague Rob Gronkowski to good effect.
The San Francisco 49ers, who the Chiefs defeated in February 2020, are still considered fifth or sixth favourites for next season, while the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers have been quietly improving their rosters in recent seasons with a bold bid expected in the 2021 NFL campaign.
The commercial aspect of the Super Bowl
The seven most-watched television broadcasts in American history are in fact Super Bowl games. This demonstrates just how much of a nationwide phenomenon that this sporting event is for US-based sports fans, with the NFL arguably the biggest major league sport ahead of the NBA basketball league and the MLB baseball league. The 2015 Super Bowl had an eye-watering 114.4 million viewers in the US alone.
It’s therefore no surprise that the Super Bowl is one of the most expensive times of the year to broadcast commercials. Brands very often develop plans for their most significant advertising campaigns to be launched on the day of the Super Bowl.
