OK, let's start with the basics:
Who's playing?
The New York Giants (technically from East Rutherford, N.J.) and the
New England Patriots, from Boston. The Patriots will attempt to finish a perfect season, unbeaten in the regular season and the playoffs. One other team has done this, the
1972 Miami Dolphins, who not only ran the table during the regular season, but also went on to win
Super Bowl VII over the
Washington Redskins.
Howstuffworks.com explains everything you need to know about how the game works.
Teams can accrue lots of penalties if they break the rules of the game.
Here are some terms to know:
- Clipping -- This is a block thrown in the back of the opposing player.
- Chop block -- This is an illegal block thrown below
the waist of an opposing player. These types of blocks have been known
to cause severe leg injuries to the opposing player. The offensive team
is penalized 15 yards for this infraction.
- Encroachment -- A defending player moves into the
neutral zone and makes contact with an offensive player before the ball
is put in play. The neutral zone is a space the length of the ball that
separates the offense and defense prior to a play. The only player who
can legally enter the neutral zone is the center, who hands, or snaps,
the ball to the quarterback to start a play. The offensive team is
awarded 5 yards for this penalty.
- Excessive crowd noise -- The referee determines that the crowd is too loud. The home team can be penalized 5 yards or can lose a time-out.
- Fair catch -- A player receiving a kick or punt can
signal that he does not intend to return the ball by putting his arm in
the air. Once he signals for a fair catch, he cannot be tackled and
cannot move beyond the spot where he catches the ball.
- Intentional grounding -- A quarterback, who is in
the pocket, intentionally throws the ball away to avoid being tackled
behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of yards. The pocket is the
rounded shape formed by the offensive linemen during a play when they
are blocking for the quarterback.
- Leaping rule -- While players can block
kicks, they cannot run from more than 1 yard behind the line of
scrimmage to do so. According to NFL rules, a defensive player can
run forward and leap in attempt to block a kick if he was lined up
within 1 yard of the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. But
if the player is lined up more than 1 yard from the line of scrimmage,
he cannot run up to the line, leap to block a kick and land on other
players. A 15-yard penalty is assessed for this infraction.
- Tuck rule -- A player, typically the quarterback,
drops the ball when his arm is moving forward to tuck the ball away.
The action is considered an incomplete pass rather than a fumble
because his arm is moving forward.
- "Emmitt Smith" helmet rule -- A player cannot remove
his helmet on the field unless it is to adjust his equipment. This rule
is dubbed the "Emmitt Smith rule" because Smith,
who holds the record for most rushing touchdowns, was famous for
ripping off his helmet to celebrate a touchdown. This rule was enacted
to quell excessive celebrations. The team of t
Injuries:The teams released their "injury list" on Wednesday and didn't mention the fact that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been wearing a protective boot and limping recently. There has been some speculation that it is all for show. The team did mention Brady has an unspecified shoulder injury, but that is nothing new for him.
See the Patriots' injuries list or
the Giants' injury list.
If the conversation breaks about about whether Tom Brady is "the best quarterback of all time," you should offer this thought (
From The Boston Globe):
If the New England Patriots beat the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII
on Sunday night, their quarterback will join Montana and Bradshaw as
the only four-time winners of football's ultimate game. And since a
victory also would cap a flawless season, Brady could well be
considered the best who has ever played.
You might also suggest:
Comparing quarterbacks from different eras is an inexact science.
Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers won their four titles in the
1970s, Montana and the San Francisco 49ers in the '80s. Since then, the
NFL has added expansion teams, gone to free agency, adopted a salary
cap and changed its scheduling to promote parity. Its players are
bigger, stronger, and faster than ever.
Here is a bio of Tom Brady and
a write-up about Giants quarterback Eli Manning and his famous football family.
Even if you can't bluff your way through sports talk, you can be an expert on the commercials.
Here is a sneak preview of what will air.
The Super Bowl is the stuff of which urban myths are made. It is commonly believed that domestic violence increases on game day and that sewer systems break due to a large number of people flushing the toilet simultaneously during halftime.
It is all nonsense.
A 2003 study published in the
New England Journal of Medicine did say, however, that traffic fatalities increase sharply right after Super Bowl games.
Electronic stores report a bump in big-screen TV sales just before the Super Bowl. Of course, pizza stores see a nice increase in sales, too.
NFL Bling:
Winners of the Super Bowl get a huge NFL Ring. There is a story behind every design.
Here are some of those stories.
Final Advice:
- Never ask who is winning. Just look at the screen, it will always be up there.
- If you have to "use the facilities" while the game is on, do so just as a team is about to punt. Rarely does anything exciting happen on a punt return because the ball hangs in the air so long the defenders swarm the receiver.
- Pace yourself. Super Bowl games usually last about four hours because the halftime shows are longer than regular games.
