Every day that goes by means we’re a little bit closer to Super Bowl 50 or Super Bowl L, which also means it’s one day closer to the end of the 2015 NFL season. As we’re all getting ready for the big event which involves the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers, here are some important numbers, stats and bits of information to know about Super Bowl Sunday.
The Denver Broncos will make their 8th appearance in the Super Bowl, tied for the most Super Bowl games, sharing the record with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots. With a 2-5 record in the Super Bowl, the Broncos have lost more Super Bowl game than any other NFL team. The Panthers, who have one Super Bowl appearance (losing to the Patriots) are one of 13 NFL franchises without a Super Bowl title.
Peyton Manning, if he ends up winning on his fourth Super Bowl appearance, will become the oldest quarterback on the winning side of the Super Bowl. The oldest player to take part in the Super Bowl is Matt Stover, who was Manning’s teammate on the Indianapolis Colts who lost to the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV.
The Panthers share a Super Bowl record from their appearance 12 years ago, losing to the Patriots. It took both teams 26 minutes and 55 seconds, almost an entire half, before anyone scored a point. The game ended on the Patriots hitting a field goal by Adam Vinatieri, the second time a field goal of his wins a Super Bowl for the Patriots.
As for greatness in the Super Bowl, aka MVP awards, only two players have won the award three times, which happen to be two quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings: Tom Brady and Joe Montana. Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty in the 1970’s is the other quarterback with four Super Bowl wins. Like Montana, he won it every time he went there, unlike Brady who is 4-2 in the Super Bowls with the Patriots. Brady, along with Mike Lodish (a defensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills and later the Denver Broncos), are the only two players to have played in six different Super Bowl games.
The most watched Super Bowl of all-time in terms of total viewers was Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, with 162.9 million watching in the United States. The highest Nielsen rating for a Super Bowl game was in 1982 with Super Bowl XVI between the San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The highest market share came in Super Bowl X (Dallas Cowboys vs Pittsburgh Steelers) with a 78.
Super Bowl 50 takes place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It’s the first time the stadium has hosted the Super Bowl, but it’s interesting that it’s the first time the game has gone to California since 2003, when it was played in San Diego at Qualcomm stadium. The Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, holds the record for the most times the game has been played there with 7 Super Bowls taking place at the site, the last of them in 2013, when the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers. New Orleans holds a tie with the South Florida metropolitan area for the most times the city/area has hosted the Super Bowl, currently at 10. The only other time the Super Bowl was hosted in the San Francisco Bay Area was in 1985, held at the old Stanford Stadium.
There have been five Super Bowl games with over 100,000 in attendance. Four of those games in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, with the record being 103,985 to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV. The only other 100,000+ Super Bowl was XLV inside Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with 103,219 in attendance.