What is the Super Bowl?
Super Bowl is the name of the championship game held by the NFL or the National Football League. The championship is essentially a culmination of one season and it’s the last game played until the next season can resume.
The National Football Conference and American Football Conference play against each other in a winner-take-all game; typically held on a neutral site.
Playoffs are how the NFL decides on the conference champions. The playoffs consist of 6 teams chosen from each conference. Since 1967, one Super Bowl game has been played each year. Winners are awarded the Vince Lombardi trophy. It’s named after Vince Lombardi, the coach who happens to be the winner of the first 2 Super Bowls.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots are two teams tied for securing the most Super Bowl victories. So far, only 4 NFL teams are there to never have made it to a Super Bowl. Those teams are – the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, Detroit Lions, and the Cleveland Browns.
The game happens exactly 5 months after the regular season’s first game has ended. This has been the norm since 2004. The site is always chosen before the season’s beginning and it’s often a neutral site.
Football Super Bowl Rules
The rules for Super Bowl games are more or less the same as that for a regular NFL season. However, some minor differences are there.
The game is typically played at a location already picked. It’s never the home team’s stadium. But, there are away and home teams. Between every year’s conferences, these teams are alternated.
Being away or at home affects a team’s jersey colour. The way the game is broadcasted is also different. There’s a big emphasis on stretching the game to make more room for entertainment such as performances by singers and bands.
Commercial Breaks
The commercials run for a longer period during Super Bowl games compared to a regular NFL season. This allows sponsors to pay huge chunks of money to run their advertisements on a large stage arranged by the Super Bowl.
Halftime Show
Like the commercials, the halftime for a typical Super Bowl game also runs longer than a regular season. In a regular season, the halftime is typically 13 minutes which is doubled for the final games. This allows for live performances by singers and music groups. Many super bowl squares allow placing bets on micro halftime events such as which band will play, the selection of song, or which advertisement will play first.
Overtime
In a regular season, ties are a possibility if the teams are levelled even after the overtime period is over. However, Super Bowl games must have a winning team and there cannot be any ties. To tackle that, the NFL introduced an overtime rule that allows for unlimited overtime until the game has an ultimate winner.
How Many Points Are a Touchdown And a Field Goal?
A field goal is worth three points while a touchdown is worth six. A team scores a touchdown when it can cross the opposing team’s line with their ball, or collect/catch the ball in the final zone.
- A field goal is when the ball goes through the uprights.
- An extra point is given to the team if it is secured after a touchdown.
- If the kicker is still within the range and no touchdown happens, the team will send their field goal squad to execute a play. During this play, the kicker can secure 3 points by kicking the ball through the uprights.
- The safety carries two points which are given to a team when its member can tackle the opposing team’s offence with a ball in their end zone.
Additional Rules
The games begin with a coin toss to decide which team will receive or kickoff first. The winner also gets to pick their preferable pitchside.
- Super Bowl games last for four 15-minute quarters with a 2-minute break given in between first and second and third and fourth quarters. Apart from that, there’s also a 15-minute rest between the second and third quarters (the halftime).
- Each team can gain ten or more yards with 4 downs. They can either run or throw the ball to secure the yards. The yardage and downs reset after the team gains the necessary yards. Failing to make the necessary yardage even after four down leads to a turnover.
- There are countless ways for players to run the play in countless routes. You can think of it as organised chaos. The quarterback or the head coach calls the on-field plays for attacking the opposing team. The defence captain calls the play for the defensive team.
How Do Teams Make it to the Super Bowl?
A team needs to win at its conference to make it to the Super Bowl. Both the conferences (NFC and AFC) send one representative each to win the playoffs. The team must qualify for the playoffs first before making it to the finals.
Division winners along with 2 more teams with the best records and wild cards participate in the finals. A team must go through 3 rounds to win the playoffs before making it to the finals.
Bottom Line
So, that was a quick and comprehensive rundown of how the Super Bowl is managed, the general guideline for the rules, and how the teams are selected.
