Educate yourself before heading to a superbowl party this Sunday! Especially if it's ours... hope to see you at Jakk Tuesdays (We'll be there around 5ish, kick off is at 6)
Super Bowl XLIII: The Basics
This year, the Arizona Cardinals play the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa Bay, Florida.
This is familiar territory for the Steelers -- they've been to the Super Bowl six times, winning five of those games (if they win another, it'll be a record -- they're now tied with Dallas for most wins ever). The Cardinals, however, have never before made it to the Big Dance. But after an improbable win over the Philadelphia Eagles, fans everywhere came to terms with the previously unthinkable: Arizona's going to the Super Bowl.
BLACK & GOLD: The Pittsburgh Steelers
The team's name is a reference to Pittsburgh's steel industry history, and the team's mascot is a laborer named Steely McBeam. Random fact: The Steelers are the only NFL team that puts its logo on only one side of the helmet (it's the right side, if you care).
Who to Watch: Team quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is great, but wide receiver Hines Ward was MVP in the Steelers' last Super Bowl win. Plot twist: He got a knee injury, but swears he's going to play on Sunday (so Kerri Strug of him!).
Root for Them if: You like working-class heroes, grinders and teams who always win.
RED & WHITE: The Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals move around like military brats. They started in Chicago in 1920, relocated to St. Louis in 1960, and and then moved to Glendale, Arizona, in 1988. The team currently holds the NFL record for the longest championship drought.
Who To Watch: Quarterback (and one of the most religious dudes in the NFL) Kurt Warner. Recruited in 1998 to play for one of the worst teams of the decade (St. Louis Rams), he MVP'd them to their first Super Bowl championship in 2000 ... a pretty big success story considering he was working at a grocery store before that. Now the Cardinals have made it to the Super Bowl for their first time ever. Coincidence, or Kurt?
Root for Them If: You like underdogs, surprise endings and pretty birds.
How the Game Is Played. Literally.
Here are the basics: Each team has 11 players on the field. The team with possession of the ball -- the offense -- gets four tries (called downs) to go ten yards, with the ultimate goal of making it into the end zone for a touchdown. If they do go ten yards, they get four more downs. If they get a touchdown during that time or use up all their tries, the other team gets the ball.
A touchdown is worth 6 points. If a team scores a touchdown, they try to kick the ball through the uprights for an extra point. (They can also try a two point conversion, but that gets complicated.) If a team doesn't think they can make a touchdown -- because they have used their first three downs and still have a lot of yards to go on fourth down -- they can punt (aka, kick) the ball from wherever they are to the other team.
If they are close to scoring a touchdown, but have used up their first three downs, they may choose to try to kick a field goal through the uprights, which is worth 3 points.
STATISTICS:
Number of Super Bowl parties held each year, more than any other at-home party: 141.4 million
Average calorie intake during a Sunday football session: 1,200 calories
Potato chips: The most popular football snack, accounting for 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion grams of fat on Super Bowl Sunday alone.
20 percent: Increase in antacid sales on the day after the Super Bowl.
13,333: Number of NFL linemen, at 300 pounds each, it would take to balance the 4 million pounds of fat consumed from potato chips alone by Americans on Super Bowl Sunday.
10 feet: Depth to which the 43.8 million pounds of avocados consumed on Super Bowl Sunday would fill a stadium.
1.5 million: Number of television sets sold the week before the Super Bowl.
30 million: Pounds of five popular snack foods Americans consume on Super Bowl Sunday (11.2 million pounds of potato chips, 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4.3 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn, and 2.5 million pounds of nuts) -- Snack Food Association
28 percent: Increase in number of fatal heart attacks among men on days when their football team lost at home (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health)