With the 56th Super Bowl coming up, many Lakers have been looking forward to seeing what teams will be facing off. A majority of the students and staff at Lake Land College were pulling for either the San Francisco 49ers because of their quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, also known as ‘Jimmy G,’ since he was the most recent star at Eastern Illinois University (EIU), or the Kansas City Chiefs, because of their charismatic quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. 

The Super Bowl, according to the Nielsen TV ratings, is the highest rated TV show of the year. The Super Bowl is known for its memorable commercials as well as the Halftime Show. The Super Bowl halftime show came into being when in Super Bowl XXVI between the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills broadcast by CBS, FOX aired a football theme program In Living Color, the popular comedy show. As a result, the NFL decided that during halftime, they will book top acts to prevent other networks from stealing viewers and interests from the game. The first halftime show feature a famous act was Michael Jackson in Super Bowl XXVII, when the Buffalo Bills, in midst of losing four straight Super Bowls, played against the Dallas Cowboys. For the past nine years, Pepsi has sponsored the Super Bowl Halftime show, but after this year’s Super Bowl their contract with the NFL will end.

The NFL survived many challenges from leagues as they fell apart mainly due to financial issues. However, the NFL would soon find another unwanted challenge, the American Football League (AFL). The AFL was started because Lamar Hunt, founder of the Dallas Texans, now the Kansas City Chiefs, petitioned the NFL to expand and the NFL refused. As a result, Hunt and seven other owners collaborated together to form the AFL. 

The NFL and many football experts referred to the AFL as the ‘Mickey Mouse League’ due to the AFL having ex-NFL players that were cut. Eventually, the AFL and NFL would get into a bidding war with unproven college players which drove up players’ salaries. Ultimately, the AFL and NFL agreed to a merger which would began during the 1970 season. 

The inaugural Super Bowl, held on January 15, 1967, between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers, was also known as the AFL-NFL Championship, was held at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, the home of the University of Southern California (USC). The first Super Bowl was the only Super Bowl broadcast simultaneously by two network stations, CBS and NBC. All the subsequent Super Bowls had been broadcast by only one network station (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC). 

After the Green Bay Packers repeated as champions and defeated the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II, known then as the AFL-NFL Championship II, the third championship game was officially named the “Super Bowl.” The New York Jets’ 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts legitimized the merger between the two leagues. 

The Jets’ victory began days early in the Miami nightclub when an intoxicated Jets’ quarterback, Joe Namath, proclaimed “We’re gonna win the game. I guarantee it” in response to the media as well as many Colts’ supporters who were letting Namath know that the Colts would win the game. Two weeks previously to Super Bowl III, the Colts shut-out the Cleveland Browns, 34-0, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, arguably the toughest home venue, in the NFL Championship Game. As a result, the Colts were 19 ½ point favorite to win the Super Bowl, which proved to be the biggest upset ever.

The first Super Bowl to incorporate the Roman numeral was in the fifth year, a game played between the Baltimore Colts and the Dallas Cowboys. Super Bowl V was known as the Blunder Bowl or the Turnover Bowl because both teams combined for eleven turnovers. The Colts turned it over seven times, the Cowboys four times. The Cowboys turned it over twice late in the fourth quarter to enable the Colts to rally to win, 16-13, on a last second field goal. 

This year’s Super Bowl, Super Bowl LVI, will be held on Sunday, February 13th at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, which serves as a home site for both the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers and will be broadcast nationally on NBC. The Rams are looking to become the second team to play in the Super Bowl in their own stadium. Super Bowl LVI will be the first Super Bowl ever to be held on the second Sunday in February. The first ever Super Bowl in February was Super Bowl XXXVI, between the St. Louis Rams and the New England Patriots at the Louisiana Superdome. The date for Super Bowl XXXVI was rescheduled due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks when the NFL postponed Week 2 of the season and pushed the regular season and playoffs back a week.

Super Bowl LVI will be the first Super Bowl in southern Calif. since Super Bowl XXXVII, held at San Diego between the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the last Super Bowl held in Jan.. In addition, the most recent Super Bowl in Calif. was Super Bowl 50 at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos. Moreover, the last Super Bowl to be held in Los Angles was Super Bowl XXVII, played between the Buffalo Bills and the Dallas Cowboys at the Rose Bowl. 

Prior to last year’s Super Bowl, Super Bowl LV, which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first NFL team to host the Super Bowl in their home stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs, the closest an NFL team got to hosting the Super Bowl was Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California, where the San Francisco 49ers were less than 20 miles away from their home stadium.