Behind the Curtain: Football’s Biggest Game

The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons are preparing for their appearance in football's biggest game so we wanted to make sure our readers were just as prepared to watch it. We've pulled together a little history on the big game.

The first Super Bowl took place in 1967 as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and the AFL. In 1971, when the merger was complete, we saw the first use of Roman numerals in Super Bowl V. The games were given ordinal numbers since the football season spans two calendar years. This year's game, Super Bowl LI, takes place February 5 in Houston, Texas. Lady Gaga will provide the halftime entertainment.[Tweet "A little history on the big game. #GovEventsBlog #Falcons #Patriots #SB51"]

Official Super Bowl events have already begun. The Touchdown Tour has 12 stops around the Houston area before game day. Super Bowl Live free fan festival will be held in and around Discovery Green for the nine days leading up to Super Bowl LI. Charity drives, poker tournaments, concerts, and awards ceremonies are all taking place in and around Houston leading up to the game.[Tweet "The Touchdown Tour has 12 stops around the Houston area before #SB51. #GovEventsBlog"]

You may notice that many brands and media outlets do not use the term, "Super Bowl." The NFL holds the trademark for the phrase as well as the copyright to the broadcast of the game and actively monitors its use to ensure that no one is using it to align themselves with the game or the general brand unfairly. Only those who are official sponsors can use the phrase freely in advertising and social media. Organizers planning events around the big game cannot use the phrase unless the event is an official event. In 2006, the NFL took legal action against a church for using "Super Bowl" on flyers for a watch party on a screen larger than 55 inches. It was deemed that this event was large enough to infringe on the trademark. This strict enforcement is why you'll see a lot of strange references to the game in social media and advertising.

The official broadcast of the game draws a huge television audience. Of the top 10 most watched American television programs of all time, nine of them are Super Bowls. This time in front of the TV leads to a lot of eating. The day of the Super Bowl is the second largest day for food consumption in the United States ranking just behind Thanksgiving. Americans will eat 1.25 billion chicken wings, 8 million pounds of guacamole, and dip 14,500 tons of chips in that guacamole. That will be washed down with an estimated 325.5 million gallons of beer.

We found some other interesting numbers related to the game:

• Each year, 72 footballs are produced by Wilson specifically for the Super Bowl.
• The Super Bowl halftime break is 30 minutes during which a stage is constructed, the halftime show is performed and the stage is deconstructed.
• The first celebrity halftime show took place during Super Bowl VI in 1972.
• Halftime performers are not paid.
• The average viewer spends $82.19 on the game between food and merchandise.
• Americans buy an estimated 6 million new televisions to watch the game
• The average price of a 30-second commercial during this year's game is estimated to be $5 million
• Commercials made up 22% of the 2016 broadcast - that's almost 53 minutes of the four hour broadcast!

[Tweet "Average viewer spends $80+ for the game between food & merchandise. #GovEventsBlog #SB51"]Enjoy this year's game and the surrounding festivities! Let us know which of these stats and facts you'll be a part of.