Here are craziest and most interesting Super Bowl facts to keep you going until kickoff.
Each team gets a lot of balls
Photo: MATT SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
Cover Phote: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/GETTY IMAGES
Each step is completed by hand by Wilson craftsmen and craftswomen with the aid of machines at the Wilson Football Factory, located in Ada, Ohio, according to the company. Watch one of the 10 best football movies of all time to get into the team spirit.
Each team playing in the Super Bowl gets 108 footballs, says Kristina Peterson-Lohman, of Wilson Football Factory. Of those, 54 are for practice and 54 are for the actual game. During a typical Super Bowl, 120 balls are used. (The additional ones are kicker footballs, used for all kicking plays.)
As a perk, every player in the big game gets a loaner car to drive around during the week leading up to the Super Bowl
Photo: WENDELLANDCAROLYN/GETTY IMAGES
ays Marlin Jackson, Super Bowl champion with the Indianapolis Colts, who now runs the Fight For Life Foundation Inc. “During Super Bowl XLI, I drove a Cadillac Escalade all week,” Jackson says.
Since the Super Bowl Halftime is twice as long as a usual game, ...
Photo: MICHAEL ZAGARIS/GETTY IMAGES
ackson shares that during the season, players use halftime to make adjustments and work out any muscle kinks.
But since the Super Bowl Halftime is twice as long as a usual game, players wait about 20 minutes before doing anything (warm-ups, adjustments, etc.) to time it to the start of the second half.
But not back in the day...
Tickets for the very first Super Bowl in 1967 cost an average of $6, which was apparently too pricey for many.
Photo: ICON SPORTSWIRE/GETTY IMAGES
You might have known this Super Bowl fact already, but getting to the big game isn’t cheap.
The average cost of Super Bowl 53 tickets in 2019 was over $4,650, according to SeatGeek.
Tickets for the very first Super Bowl in 1967 cost an average of $6, which was apparently too pricey for many.
According to Brisa Trinchero, founder of ticket sales site shoowin.com, there were 30,000 empty seats!
Jennifer Lopez, Bruno Mars, and even Beyoncé didn’t get paid a single dime to perform at past Super Bowls.
Photo: KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES
Don’t feel too badly for them.
Trinchero shares that although they don’t get actual cash, the exposure can be worth tens of millions of dollars, and often the halftime show scores higher ratings than the actual game.
Unlike attending most sporting events today, the Super Bowl only issues and accepts paper tickets, says Trinchero.
Photo: ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES
However, that could be changing—this year, the NFL is aiming for 10,000 mobile entries, making it an almost entirely electronic entry.
Yahoo Sports speculates that it might mean the end of an era and that the Super Bowl’s paper-ticket holdout will become a thing of the past.
“The Super Bowl wasn’t actually referred to as the Super Bowl until Super Bowl III,”
Photo: JAMES FLORES/GETTY IMAGES
“At the time, what we now know as Super Bowl I and II were just called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game.”
The words “Commissioner,” “Wilson,” and “Made in the U.S.A” have been imprinted on every single Wilson Super Bowl game football since day one
Photo: MATT SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
the football on top of the Lombardi Trophy is the exact size of an official “The Duke” football
Photo: ELSA/GETTY IMAGES
Peterson-Lohman also says that the football on top of the Lombardi Trophy is the exact size of an official “The Duke” football, which is 55 cm through the middle, 71 cm around the ends.
That’s one big trophy!
Family and friends enjoy the weekend with hotel stays, luxury vehicle loans, and exclusive events.
Photo: JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES
They also have the opportunity to attend practice the day before the game—or at least it was this way with the Indianapolis Colts.”
A ticket to the Super Bowl isn’t the only in-demand ticket that week.
Photo: PHILIP PACHECO/GETTY IMAGES
According to Trinchero, there are usually (in pre-COVID times) multiple high-profile parties all week long, most with corporate sponsors.
You can even purchase a general admission ticket to some of the biggest parties, but it won’t come cheap—Trinchero says these can go for more than $2,000!
Those ads are big money. On average, a 30-second Super Bowl spot runs in the millions.
Photo: REB IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
A 2020 Google/Google Assistant ad and a 2020 Amazon Alexa ad both cost $16.8 million.