Hey you! YES you! Have you always wanted to get involved with one of the world’s (America’s) biggest sporting pop-culture phenomenons? Well now you can with our handy guide to the Super Bowl. You’re a newbie at this so you’re going to want to know the basics at least right?
BASICS
This video breaks it down nicely, but the basics are: it’s like rugby but with more padding and measurements – also everything is in imperial measurements so the metrics kids are going to have to get used to this unfortunately! An average game lasts around 3 hours or more, but if you add up the amount of time that the ball is actually in play, the action only amounts to about 11 minutes. That’s a whole lot of stopping and starting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLxC0QdBKeQ
HISTORY
Now you have the basics of the game down you’re going to want to know what the hell the Super Bowl is and why it’s such a big deal. It breaks down like this:
The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. Super Bowl I was played on January 15, 1967, following the 1966 regular season.
The game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues’ champion teams would play in the AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a “conference”, and the game was then played between the conference champions. Currently, the National Football Conference (NFC) leads the league with 26 wins to 22 wins for the American Football Conference (AFC). ThePittsburgh Steelers hold the record for Super Bowl victories with six.
So this year we have the AFC champs – ‘New England Patriots’ taking on the NFC Champs ‘Seattle Seahawks’ playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Arizona!
HALF TIME
As the casual fan this is what you’re really here for right? The whole thing with Janet Jackson and her ‘wardrobe malfunction’ got bigger press around the world than any winning touchdown and this year we have the wonderfully weird mix of Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz. Expect a mad rush whilst a huge stage and hundreds of people from rent-a-crowd invade the pitch at half time. There will be fireworks (no pun intended Katy) and people pretending to play instruments. It’s usually good craic and often has a few surprises!
FOOD
The American’s love their food and the Super Bowl is a great example of the U-U-USA going all out to showcase their signature dishes. They have a tradition called tailgating and basically it’s people who open up the tailgate of their pickup trucks and have a party off the back of it. They drink booze, have food and watch the game. You can find tailgaters in the car parks of the stadiums having their own game parties, either because they can’t get in and want to soak up the atmosphere or they just refer to be in the car park tailgating! This is where a lot of the tradition of food and particularly BBQ associated with Super Bowl Sunday comes from, so chicken wings, burgers, hot dogs, nachos and chilli are definitely the order of the day. Click here for some great recipes.
CELEBRATE IN BELFAST
The Belfast Trojans – 3 times (2014,2013 and 2012) IAFA Shamrock Bowl Champions – hold an annual Super Bowl party at Madisons and this year is no exception. You can get down, have a bud and watch the game with a bunch of guys who will definitely have the answers to your in-game questions!
Failing that, if you want to watch at home then Channel 4 or Sky Sports are your ports of call. Tune in on Sun 1st Feb at 11:30Pm and enjoy the big game!
ROUND UP
What: Super Bowl XLIX (49) at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona
When: Sun 1st Feb 11:30Pm
Where: Channel 4 or Sky Sports
Who: ‘New England Patriots’ vs ‘Seattle Seahawks’
