RED SPT JAN 19

January Edition Section B Page 4
Miami Gardens will host this year’s
Super Bowl. The NFL is always full
of surprises and memorable moments.
The big finale, the Super
Bowl, is the most-watched game
in any sport in the USA. There are
more than 100 million viewers in
person and behind the TV screens,
all of them eager to watch the most
anticipated annual game. With that
being said, here are some cool and
interesting facts about the Super
Bowls.
According to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Super Bowl Sunday
is America’s “second-largest food
consumption day.” (Only Thanksgiving
Day beats it.)
The Vince Lombardi Trophies—a
new one of which is handed out
every year—are made by Tiffany &
Co. out of sterling silver.
Fun Super Bowl Factoids
A persistent rumor says that sewage
systems in major cities occasionally
fail during Super Bowl
halftimes, because a large volume
of people supposedly all flush their
toilets simultaneously.
Peyton Manning is the only starting
quarterback to win a Super
Bowl with two different teams: the
Indianapolis Colts in 2007 and the
Denver Broncos in 2016.
Phil Simms was paid $75,000
to shout “I’m going to Disney
World” on the field moments after
his Giants won Super Bowl XXI.
Which team has lost the most
games? That would be a tie between
the Denver Broncos and
the New England Patriots, who’ve
each dropped five Super Bowl
matchups.
The priciest tickets to Super Bowl
I, which was played on January 15,
1967, cost $12. Adjusted for inflation,
that’s the equivalent of about
$89 today. Be prepared to shell
out at least $2800 per ticket this
year.
In 1980, the Pittsburgh Steelers
were the first Super Bowl-winning
team to visit the White House.
When Jacksonville, Florida, hosted
Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, the city
didn’t have enough hotel rooms
to meet the NFL’s requirements.
So in their bid to serve as the Big
Game’s host, they had to recruit
five docked cruise ships as “floating
hotels” for the event.
The Super Bowl I halftime show
consisted of two marching bands,
acclaimed trumpeter Al Hirt, two
men in jet packs, and 300 pigeons.
Bands are not paid to play
in the halfime show. “The N.F.L.
does not pay an appearance fee,
though it does cover all of the expenses
for the band and its often
ample entourage of several dozen
stagehands, family and friends.”
In 1983, 105.97 million people
tuned in to the final episode
of M*A*S*H, making it the mostwatched
TV broadcast in American
history. It took more than a quarter-century,
but in February 2010,
Super Bowl XLIV finally broke that
record when 106.5 million people
watched the game. Cleveland
is the only current NFL city
that has neither hosted a Super
Bowl nor seen its own team, the
Browns, make an appearance in
one.
As Don Shula was being carried
off the field after the Dolphins’
Super Bowl win in 1973, a fan
reached up to shake his hand—
and stole his watch.
By: Millie Jameson SLN Reporter
910-295-5555