Superbowl LIV San Francisco at Kansas City
Every year, football fans around America rejoice as the Super Bowl lights up screens across the nation. It is no wonder as to why millions of Americans tune in; from the spectacular half-time shows right down to the thrilling gameplay itself, the Super Bowl calls for lots of promising action.
Over the years, it may appear that Americans have been losing interest in one of their favorite national pastimes, with the average TV audience throughout Super Bowl LIII dropping 12 percent from Super Bowl LII. But the average TV audience from 2019 was 98.2 million viewers, indicating that the Super Bowl still holds a large viewership.
Either way, one must not forget the Super Bowl’s humble beginnings. Originally in America, from the mid-1960’s to earlier, there actually was no Super Bowl. Before the NFL, there were actually several major professional American football leagues. The NFL’s biggest competitor and business rival at the time was called the AFL. With them both being so reportedly big and powerful and better than their counterpart, there had to be a way to settle it.
It was on Sunday, Jan. 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that the tradition that effectively created the Super Bowl was started. The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs with a score of 35 points to 10 points. It was quite the event, with tickets going on sale for only 10 dollars, and the halftime show included two men on jetpacks! The two rivals decided to call the event the AFL – NFL World Championship.
It lasted from 1966 until 1969, prior to the two rival companies actually merging in 1970. They both came together to create the harmonious Super Bowl that everyone now knows and loves today.
Now, 54 years later, the legacy continues at Super Bowl LIV, which will be played on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. Unfortunately, this year’s Super Bowl halftime performance is not planned to include jetpacks, at least according to Super Bowl officials. But it will for sure include famous celebrity singers Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato and Shakira Ripoll.
Lopez and Ripoll will be singing during the halftime show this year, while Lovato will be singing the national anthem.
Many people consider this year’s Super Bowl as a momentous leap for Latin music. Especially when Hello Foros, a Latin news source said, “Will the Super Bowl Halftime Show Open New Doors for Latin Music?”
Either way, the majority of the entertainment itself comes down to the actual teams playing and their respective players down on the field, which happens to be the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
To understand how these two teams have finally come face to face with one another in both their last battle for the championship, one has to know how the NFL is designed. At the beginning of the NFL season, 32 teams start, but only one can win it all. There are two conferences, the AFL and the NFL. There are 16 teams and four divisions — North, South, East and West — in each conference.
Then, four division champions in their conference automatically go to the playoffs. Four wild card teams are chosen based off of how many wins they have.
Finally, the winners from the two conferences ultimately play against one another in the Super Bowl. The winning team gets dubbed “Super Bowl Champions” for that year.
On January 19, the San Francisco 49ers played at home against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, while the Kansas City Chiefs play at home against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship. With the winners being the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Both of them won their respective Conference championships and will now play against each other in the Super Bowl.
But the Super Bowl is never just about the football anymore; thousands of families tune in just to watch the halftime show. But what many families fail to consider is the funny and unique commercials!
Make no mistake; Super Bowl advertisement spots are by far the most expensive on commercial TV. Just buying a 30 second time slots can cost around 5.25 million dollars, which is roughly 175 thousand dollars per second. Therefore, advertisers want to make every single second worth the cost. This would up creating history’s most comedic, eye-catching and absurd advertisements. In any other circumstances, they would have most likely not been aired.
Remember the viral puppy monkey baby animal that aired during Super Bowl L for Mountain Dew’s Kickstart drink? Of course you do! It is also the birthplace of many other memorable advertising campaigns, such as Snicker’s 2010, “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” slogan and Tide’s 2018, “It’s a Tide Ad”.
Either way, good luck to the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49’ers in the Super Bowl, may the best team win!
About the Contributor
Quinten Seghers, Staff Writer
Quinten Seghers is a senior and staff writer for The Phoenix. Quinten has been in journalism for all four years and hopes to do his best in leading journalism for the papers ten year anniversary. He runs in cross-country, likes to listen to various pop songs and obsess over his stuffed animals. Besides making Instagram posts for The Phoenix, Quinten hopes to eventually become a great journalist one day.
