Super Bowl: America’s Most Viewed Sporting Event

The National Football League (N.F.L.) championship game is called the “Super Bowl.” N.F.L. is one of the most popular professional sports organizations globally. In terms of television ratings, it is the most-watched sport in the U.S. The sport started as a regional league between midwestern cities in the late 1910s and became the significant outlet for professional football. The N.F.L. assimilated the rival American Football League in 1969 and converted its status as the premier league for professional football in the United States.

The N.F.L. splits thirty-two teams between two conferences: National Football Conference (N.F.C.) and the American Football Conference (A.F.C.). It further divides each conference into four geographically based four-team divisions. Teams play a sixteen game regular-season schedule divided into divisional games, intra-conference games, and inter-conference games.

The regular season starts with the defending team’s opening game in the week following Labor Day, and the other games occur on Sunday, except for one on Monday night. Each week follows this pattern except for Thanksgiving weekend, which features three Thursday fixtures.

After the regular season, the N.F.L. schedule moves into the playoffs, leading to the Super Bowl. In the regular season, teams compete for the best win-loss records, and those teams with the best records advance to the playoffs. The playoffs, meanwhile, decide who goes on to the Super Bowl.

The first Super Bowl was held on January 15, 1967, in Los Angeles, California, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Arising out of a merger of the American Football League (A.F.L.) and the National Football League (N.F.L.), it was initially called the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game.”

This year’s edition, Super Bowl LII, had the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going up against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Marquee Matchup featured a showdown between six-time champion Tom Brady – considered by most to be the greatest of all time (G.O.A.T.), and rising superstar Patrick Mahomes who was looking to replicate his Superbowl glory from the last year and make his case as a future candidate to replace Brady as the G.O.A.T. Brady left the New England Patriots this season, having spent twenty years and won six superbowls with the team. Many critics believed he was past his prime and doubted his ability to win it all without his former New England coach Bill Bellicheck. He defied the odds and father time to beat Mahomes and the Chiefs in a thumping fashion.

Written By
Anshula Pattanayak