Super Bowl

Super Bowl, annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the major professional football league in the United States. The game is played between the champions of the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC).

The Super Bowl is typically held in early February to conclude the NFL season that began the previous year. It is one of the most popular sporting events in the United States, and attracts a huge television audience from across the country and around the world. The Super Bowl is often referred to with Roman numerals, such as Super Bowl XL (the 40th Super Bowl, held in 2006).

During the early 1960s there were two major American professional football leagues: the NFL and the American Football League (AFL). The first Super Bowl, held in 1967, was played between the champions of these two leagues. In that game, the Green Bay Packers of the NFL beat the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL, 35-10. However, the championship was not officially called the Super Bowl until 1970, when the two leagues merged to form the modern NFL.

The Green Bay Packers, led by coach Vince Lombardi, also won the second Super Bowl in 1968. The surprise victory in the 1969 Super Bowl, in which the New York Jets of the AFL defeated the Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts) of the NFL, generated greater interest in the championship game. In that contest, New York quarterback Joe Namath became famous when he brashly “guaranteed” the Jets' upset victory.

When the current NFL was formed in 1970, some teams of the former NFL were moved to the AFC, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, which became one of the league's dominant franchises during the 1970s. The Steelers, led by quarterback Terry Bradshaw, receiver Lynn Swann, and a powerful defense known as the Steel Curtain, won the Super Bowl in 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980.

During the 1980s the San Francisco 49ers were the NFL's most successful team. Star quarterback Joe Montana led the 49ers to Super Bowl victories in 1982, 1985, 1989, and 1990, under the coaching of Bill Walsh in all but the last game, when George Seifert coached the team.

During the early 1990s, Super Bowl competition was marked by a record four consecutive losses by the Buffalo Bills of the AFC, in 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994. The Dallas Cowboys emerged as one of the league's best teams during this time, winning the 1993 and 1994 Super Bowls. The 49ers won the 1995 Super Bowl, but in the 1996 Super Bowl the Cowboys defeated the Steelers 27-17, becoming the first team to win the game three times in a four-year period.

In 1997 the Packers returned to glory with a Super Bowl championship, marking the 13th straight year that the NFC champion had triumphed in the game. In 1998 quarterback John Elway and the Denver Broncos of the AFC broke this string by defeating the Packers. The following year the Broncos repeated as champions, and in 2000 the St. Louis Rams of the NFC won that franchise’s first Super Bowl. In 2001 the AFC’s Baltimore Ravens won their first Super Bowl title. The New England Patriots made it four out of five titles for the AFC, upsetting the Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl for their first NFL championship. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers also became first-time Super Bowl champions by beating the Oakland Raiders for the title in 2003.

The Patriots won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005, defeating the Carolina Panthers and the Philadelphia Eagles. New England, coached by Bill Belichick and led by quarterback Tom Brady, became the second franchise to capture three Super Bowls in four years; each time the Patriots won by a margin of three points. In 2006 the Pittsburgh Steelers won their first Super Bowl title in more than 25 years, defeating the Seattle Seahawks, a franchise making its first appearance in the title game. With their fifth championship the Steelers tied the Cowboys and 49ers for the most titles by one team during the Super Bowl era.