A - Arizona
The Arizona Cardinals may have had a season to forget, winning just four games and finishing bottom of the NFC but at least they can take a semblance of solace in the fact that they're hosting the Super Bowl.
The game will be played in the Cardinal’s home ground of State Farm Stadium with an expected crowd of 73,000.
B – Blowout
Super Bowl games are usually close affairs but there have been several notable exceptions.
1990 saw the biggest ever margin of victory when the San Francisco 49ers beat the Denver Broncos 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV, while this year’s finalists Kansas City Chiefs were on the wrong end of a 31-9 hiding against Tampa Bay two years ago.
C – Commercials
Along with the half-time show, they’re the reason that people who don’t even have a passing interest in US sport get sucked in. From Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner to Larry David pushing now defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, they can be awful but they’ll get people talking.
If you want to run a 30-second commercial during half-time, it’ll run you about $7million. Money well spent for fans of Breaking Bad and/or Doritos.
D – Dungan, Myles
The face and driving force of RTÉ's efforts to bring the Super Bowl and American football to the Irish audience in the 80s.
RTÉ’s Conor Neville has written an excellent piece on the history of the NFL on RTÉ television, including Dickie Rock’s brief stint as a pundit. You can read the feature here - Harp and the Fridge: Ireland's 1980s NFL flirtation.
E - Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles go into the Super Bowl as the very slight favourites are are coming off the back off their best regular season record since 1960 - 14 wins and just three defeat.
This is only their fifth trip to the Super Bowl and with just one win under their belt - coming in 2017 - expectations are high.
F - First Amendment
A court battle over the US constitution's first amendment right to free speech isn’t something you’d usually associate with the Super Bowl but Arizona businessman Bramley Paulin has taken on the NFL and Phoenix City Council, and won.
Paulin argued that the NFL’s enforced 'clean zone’, which prevented business and property owners from running any kind of billboards or advertisement that weren’t in keeping with the NFL’s sponsors was unconstitutional.
Judges ruled in Paulin’s favour and the Phoenix City Council have been forced to amend the ordinance banning non-approved sponsors.
G - Grudge
Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni will be hoping to gain a measure of revenge on the man who fired him in 2013.
Sirianni was the Chiefs wide receivers coach when Andy Reid took charge of the Kansas side and he was quickly shown the door as the new boss brought in his own staff.
"Do you always have this little chip on your shoulder? Sure, you do," Sirianni said. "But that’s who I am as a coach, as a person. I want to make sure that I’m working my butt off to be as good as I possibly can. And sure you hold on to some of those things."
H – Half-time show
The real reason that people will be heading into work bleary eyed and sleepy on Monday is the half-time show. Rihanna will headline this year’s instalment, no doubt accompanied by a host of celebrity friends.
The real entertainment comes about when things go wrong however – think Janet Jackson’s 'wardrobe malfunction’ or Katie Perry’s dancing sharks.
I - Inches
"Life is just a game of inches, so is football."
Alright, so the Miami Sharks may not be involved in this weekend's Super Bowl and technically they're not an actual sports team, and are instead a complete work of fiction. But you just watch coach Tony D'Amato's speech and tell me you wouldn't run through a brick wall after hearing it.
J – John Madden
For many outside of the US, John Madden was their introduction to the NFL courtesy of the five decade spanning videogame series that bears his name. With Madden NFL now up to it’s 40th instalment across numerous generations of consoles, it’s the game that explained just what a first down, a wide receiver and a quarter-back sack was.
Of course the best iteration was and is Madden NFL '96 on the Sega Megadrive. Anyone else telling you otherwise is wrong.
K – Kelce
For the first in Super Bowl history two brothers, Jason and Travis Kelce, will be going head to head. Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce faces off against older brother Jason Kelce of the Eagles, making for a very interesting family dinner next time they visit their folks.
They're basically what Gary and Phil Neville would have ended up as if they had been raised in Ohio rather than Salford.
L – Losers
Everyone remembers the winners, but let’s spare a thought for the losers too. The Denver Broncos hold the dubious honour of the worst Super Bowl record. They’re level with the New England Patriots on five defeats apiece but the Pat’s have a record a 11-6-5 to the Broncos’ more painful 8-3-5.
M – Mahomes, Patrick
All eyes will be on the Kansas City Chiefs quarter-back Patrick Mahomes and his suspect ankle come kick-off.
Mahomes has been carrying a ‘high ankle sprain’, an injury which normally takes weeks to heal properly and while he came through the AFC Championship game relatively unscathed, he’ll going to be up against an Eagles defence that isn’t shy of targeting the QB.
The player admits that he hoping a combination of his medical team's work and adrenaline will get him through the game. He said: "I'm trying to continue to get the treatment and the rehab, to get to as close as I can to 100 per cent and then rely on some adrenaline to let me do a little bit extra when I'm on the field."
N – Never
Only four teams have never appeared in a Super Bowl. They’re the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jaguars went closest this year, finishing fourth in the AFC before being edged out in the play-offs by Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisonal round.
O - Officials
A team of eight officials will take charge of the game in Phoenix and for referee Carl Cheffers, this will be his third Super Bowl.
Eagles fans will be happy as the two previous times Cheffers was involved in the Super Bowl, their side beat the Patriors (2018) and the Chiefs lost to Tampa Bay (2021).
P – Party
A staple of the American social scene, the Super Bowl party traditionally features plenty of fried food, beer, chicken wings and various ‘dips’ of dubious merit. Bonus points can be awarded for nachos served in football helmets and for food platters laid out to look like stadiums.
Much like Michael Bubble at Christmas, the Super Bowl is when Guy Fieri comes out of hibernation.
Q - Quarterbacks
There will be a significant moment of history this weekend, albeit one that will leave people scratching their heads as to why and who it hasn't happened before.
When Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes line up against each other it will a history making occasion as it’s the first time every that two black quarterbacks have led their teams in the Super Bowl, despite people of colour making up 70% of the players in the NFL.
R – Rings
They're hideous. I know, you know it and they players know it but there is a certain charm to the Super Bowl winner's rings.
Awarded in place of medals to the winning and losing teams, the NFL contributes approximately $5,000-$7,000 per ring for up to 150 rings per team, with the teams making up the rest of the cost. And they can get expensive - the New England Patriot's winner's rings in 2015 reportedly cost $36,500 each.
And look, it's not like you can rock up to a nightclub with your All-Ireland medal around your neck - unless it's Coppers.
S - The Super Bowl Shuffle
While soccer supporters of a certain age will get misty eyed and reminisce about the lost art of the FA Cup song, the tradition of Super Bowl finalists releasing chart toppers never really caught.
It wasn't for the want of trying however and the 1985 Chicago Bears certainly gave it the old college try with The Super Bowl Shuffle.
Watching it now, it's hard not to think of the brilliant musical moments we've been robbed of. Who wouldn't want to have heard Tom Brady rap or an Aaron Rodgers falsetto as they try their hand at their own Super Bowl song?
T – Tickets
Should you wish to attend Super Bowl 57 in person, it’s going to cost you a pretty penny. With a face value of over $1,000 and only 17.5% of tickets going to each team, most people will be forced into the secondary market if they want to attend. At a minimum you’re looking at $7,000 after taxes up in the nosebleed seats.
U - Uniforms
What would be the players jerseys or kit to you and me are their uniforms in the NFL.
The Eagles are the nominal home team for the Super Bowl and will play in their traditional green uniform while the Chiefs will wear white for the fist time in the showpiece final, having worn red in their past three Super Bowls.
Addin' a little spice#SuperBowlLVII | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/gYESRTZQzX
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 31, 2023
V – Vince Lombardi Trophy
Named after Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to glory in the first two Super Bowl games, the 7lb piece of silverware was originally produced by Tiffany & Co in 1966.
However, despite it’s iconic stature, the Lombardi trophy has some glaring flaws. Unlike the more traditional cup style trophy, winning teams are unable to fill it with free booze from sponsors nor can they use the lid as a hat in ‘wacky’ photos.
W - Wide receiver
The position most likely to be named the MVP of the Super Bowl after the quarter-back. Okay so it’s the lime-light hogging QB’s who take all the headlines and get all of the praise but really it’s the wide-receivers putting in all the hard work and making the real difference.
Eight times a wide-receiver has been the MVP compared to 31 for the quarter-backs with Cooper Kupp of the LA Rams taking last year’s honours with 8 catches, 92 yards and 2 touch-downs.
X - X-Rays
Yeah it’s the obvious one, but come on, you trying coming up with something sports related that starts with X.
Anyway for once, it actually fits. The biggest more highly pressured game of the season in a sport that’s famous for high impact hits, the medical departments of both sides are going to working overtime after the game.
From Charles Woodson’s broken collarbone at Super Bowl XLV to Jeremy Lane’s broken arm after his first ever career interception – against Tom Brady no less – bones get broken at the Super Bowl.
Y - Youth
American football is a young man's game and outside of quarter-backs and special teams, there aren't too many people who play into their 30s. Conversely the high physical demands and collegiate draft system mean that there's no precocious young teenagers lining up in the Super Bowl.
The youngest ever winner of the Super Bowl was Jamal Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens who was 21 years and 152 days old when his side triumphed in 2001, while Ben Roethlisberger is the youngest quarter-back to lift the Lombardi Trophy at 23 years, 11 months, 3 days.
Z – Zzzzzzz
See X.
But let’s face it by the time everything finishes up at roughly 3am Irish time, you’ll be slumped asleep in front of the TV.
