Created in 1967 following the merger between the National and fledgling American Football Leagues, in which the champions of the leagues would play each other. The NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, attached Roman numerals to the games to further associate the game with a gladiatorial contest. The first contests were easy victories for the NFL team and not great spectacles (as few Superbowls end up being), but the 1969 game in which Joe Namath’s AFL New York Jets defeated the favored Baltimore Colts stimulated the public’s interest in this event.

Condensing a season into a single contest has made this game more significant than baseball’s World Series and the NBA’s Championship Series, which are spread over a week or more’s play. The fact that more than 50 percent of American people watch the game, meeting for parties and gambling furiously (adding to the statistical rise in domestic violence on this Sunday), has meant that broadcasters and advertisers have had a bonanza. The NFL charges the networks more than $20 million for the game and this money is recouped by charging upwards of $1.2 million for each 30-second commercial.