Beginner’s Guide to the Super Bowl

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On Feb. 3, 2019, the 53rd installment of the Super Bowl will decide the ultimate champion of the 2018 National Football League (NFL) season. The Super Bowl event is the most-watched event every year. On Jan. 20, 2019, the final games before the Super Bowl took place, deciding who would play who in the championship game between the two NFL divisions—the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The Los Angeles Rams beat the New Orleans Saints by a small margin in the NFC, while the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC. On Super Bowl Sunday, the Rams—who haven’t made the playoffs since they moved from St. Louis to Southern California in 2016—will now be facing the 2014 and 2016 Super Bowl champions the Patriots. On the Rams is quarterback Jared Goff, a relatively new player who was first picked in 2016 and has played for the Rams since. On the other hand, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is one of the most famous quarterbacks playing in the NFL. He was drafted by the Patriots in 2000 and has stayed loyal since. The Super Bowl is a popular event across the nation, even for those who don’t follow American football.

 

How to Watch

This year’s Super Bowl will be at the Atlanta Falcon’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The main event begins at 6:30 p.m. EST (3:30 p.m. for the West Coast). Don’t know how to watch the event? CBS Sports will be both televising and streaming the event. If you don’t have a TV, you can watch Super Bowl LIII for free at CBSSports.com, where they will be live streaming the entirety of the event. The world-famous halftime show performance will, like the name suggests, occur halfway through the actual game and will star pop band Maroon 5 and rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi. The average NFL game length is over three hours, so if you can’t make it right at kickoff, you have lots of leeway to still catch the half-time show and some major plays in the last quarters.

 

Party Etiquette

Besides the actual gameplay, another well-known aspect of the Super Bowl is the day itself. Known as Super Bowl Sunday, millions of Americans participate in parties or get-togethers to watch the big game, participate in friendly competitions and share food in a potluck-like fashion. Days prior to that Sunday, recipes spread like wildfire as viewers search last-minute snacks to bring to their friend’s viewing party. In terms of the most common Super Bowl snacks, buffalo wings stand at the top of the chain—more than 1.3 billion wings are expected to be consumed during Super Bowl weekend, according to the National Chicken Council. If you’re looking for something easy and classic, you can never go wrong with nachos or tortilla chips with salsa during these popular events. Whatever you do, bring something. Even bringing napkins or cups is better than arriving empty-handed.

 

Super Bowl Commercials

In addition to the star players and the halftime show performance, there is one more thing every Super Bowl viewer will be talking about for weeks: the commercials. Since 2010, the Super Bowl has had over 100 million viewers live, causing advertisement prices to skyrocket. As a result, major corporations spend millions of dollars to show off their brands. According to Business Insider, a 30-second 2018 Super Bowl LII advertisement cost over  $5 million. With high stakes from the large viewership, brands will typically make an effort to entertain their audience to attract attention. Even people who don’t watch the event itself will know of them, as they trend across the internet for everyone to see. From Tide to Amazon, companies will surely amuse you and hundreds of millions of others with their advertisements featuring celebrity cameos. So even when the football field goes away during the breaks, you’ll still want to pay attention to your screen so you don’t miss any of the amazing commercials that are sure to air.