Abrar Hannan from NJ has sent us the following essay about the Super Bowl. Thanks Abrar!
What is the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American Football in the United States. There has been a total of 48 Super Bowls, each identified with roman numerals. The Super Bowl holds the 2nd most food consumption for the U.S (The first is Thanksgiving). The Super Bowl occurs on the first Sunday of February. There are two conferences. They are the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each conference holds sixteen teams. In each conference, there are divisions. There are four teams in each division. Only one, sometimes two teams from each division make it to the playoffs. But first, there is the season. The team with the best record moves on to the playoffs, while the other three teams in the division don’t. However, one other team can make it by snatching a wild card from another team with the same record. Twelve teams make it to the playoffs. The playoffs is a tournament bracket.
How did it begin?.
For four decades after its 1920 inception, the NFL successfully fended off several rival leagues. However, in 1960, it encountered its most serious competitor when the American Football League (AFL) formed.The AFL vied heavily with the NFL for both players and fans, but by the middle of the decade the strain of competition led to serious merger talks between the two leagues. Prior to the 1966 season, the NFL and AFL reached a merger agreement that was to take effect for the 1970 season. As part of the merger, the champions of the two leagues agreed to meet in a “world” championship game for professional American football until the merger was effected. Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas city Chiefs (AFL) named the championship “Super Bowl.”The NFL’s Green Bay Packers won the first Super Bowl. As a result, the conferences were called the AFC and the NFC. During the playoffs, the best AFC teams face each other first, same for the NFC.Then, the best AFC team and the best NFC team face off in the super bowl. Here was the 2014 playoffs:
Abrar Hannan, Crossroads South Middle School, NJ