It’s Super Bowl week, and after 298 games, it comes down to one final battle between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks.
Haven’t exactly been keeping up with the stats this season? Want to impress all your friends with your football extensive knowledge? Or do you just want to convince your friends that you know something about America’s favorite game? Here is what you need to know for Sunday’s game on the teams, players, owners, coaches, betting and other storylines.
1. First the basics: when and where. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:25 ET on Feb. 2 from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. For those that don’t have a TV in your room, Fox is streaming the game online and to mobile devices!
2. This is the Broncos’ seventh Super Bowl appearance and the Seahawks’ second.
3. The Super Bowl features the NFL’s top-ranked defense in both scoring and yards (Seahawks) versus the top-ranked offense in both scoring and yards (Broncos). Queue the suspense…Want more trivia? The last time the top defense faced the top offense was in 1990, when the defense of the NY Giants dominated the offense of the Buffalo Bills.
4. The main “Hollywood-esque story” of this year’s game is Peyton Manning’s chance to further his legacy with a second Super Bowl win and put his name in the short conversation of the best two or three QBs of all-time (if he is not there already). Manning is the NFL’s most marketable player. His off-field income of $12 million ranks first in the NFL and 21st overall across all sports. Manning is shooting to be first QB to win the Super Bowl as starter for two different teams, and he is expected to win a record fifth regular season MVP award in a landslide after throwing a record 55 regular season TD passes.
5. So who’s that Richard Sherman guy? Maybe you heard the name once or twice last week? Sherman made himself one of the game’s biggest storylines and nearly blew up the Internet after his unforgettable post-game interviews with Erin Andrews after the Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Fransisco 49ers (http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/01/richard-sherman-erin-andrews-interview/ ). Sherman ranted like a maniac before 56 million people a week ago, so you’d never guess that he graduated second in his high school class and finished his time at Stanford with a 3.9 GPA!
6. Complaining about walking to class in this cold weather? Well, try playing a football game in it (or even more chilly, standing in the stadium watching it)! The most recent forecast includes temperatures in the low 30s with mild winds and low chance of precipitation. The previous coldest Super Bowl was in 1972 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans where the temperature was 39 degrees.
7. Seattle definitely has its fingers crossed for a Super Bowl win—the city of Seattle has not celebrated a championship in a major pro sport since the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979.
8. The Broncos and Seahawks were both the top seeds in their conference during the playoffs. In the past two decades, this has only occurred once (Colts-Saints after the 2009 season).
9. Bruno Mars is the featured artist for the halftime show (I know, ladies are swooning everywhere). He has sold 10 million records in just three years, and he had the two biggest hits of 2011, as both “Just The Way You Are” and “Grenade” were the only singles of the year with more than 10 million digital downloads. He was nominated for four Grammy Awards this year and picked up one trophy for Best Pop Vocal Album. However, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are also scheduled to play at halftime. No doubt this duo will attract a wide variety of musical tastes and general demographics.
10. Aaand the most comical piece of trivia—this year’s game has been dubbed “the Weed Bowl.” Colorado and Washington are the only two states in the U.S. where marijuana is legal for recreational use. In fact, the states also have two of the brightest and healthiest workforces in the nation.
So grab your friends, don your team of choice’s colors, and munch on some Mexican seven-layer dip and wings—it’s Super Bowl weekend!