History YMMV / SuperBowl

* PeripheryDemographic: The largest ones ever, as many, ''many'' people watch only for the commercials and a smaller, yet significant group watch for the halftime show.

*** Hindsight will probably point to the second, given the Falcons' growing reputation as "Chokelanta" in the years since, with an actual 28-3 lead being among MANY that Atlanta threw away in 2020 alone. However, another school of thought is that it's the other way around -- that the ShockingDefeatLegacy of this Super Bowl rattled the team so hard that they can't seem to get rid of the yips of having "28-3" in their heads every time they have a lead (even in the many games where they've choked since then, there were moments where they regained the lead in more games than not). The argument in favor of this version is that Brady had to play essentially flawless football to come anywhere within reach of a tie, let alone a win, setting records for passing efficiency and yards, and even then the Patriots still needed a few bounces to go their way; if Brady hadn't been able to pull off a literally unprecedented performance, this would have been a commanding Atlanta win.

** Super Bowl XLVIII, between the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, was one of the most hyped Super Bowls of all time, but went down in history as one of the very worst. The matchup between Seattle's legendary ''Legion of Boom'' defense and the best offense ''of all time'' ended in a 43-8 massacre in favor of Seattle. The next year, XLIX saw the Seahawks take on the New England Patriots, and it was lauded as an instant classic, consistently ranking in most lists' top 3 Super Bowls even today.

* ToughActToFollow: The reason why there are only a few teams that make back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, especially with the salary cap and free agency in effect. Only 14 teams have played as the defending champion, and only eight of them won. The last team to win back to back Super Bowls was the Patriots in 2004 and 2005. The most recent team to make back to back appearances is the Kansas City Chiefs in 2023 (won against the Philadelphia Eagles) and 2024. A number of teams have gone twice in three years; the Pats won Super Bowls in 2015 and 2017. The last team to win three Super Bowls in four years was the Pats (2002, 2004 and 2005), and they also won three Super Bowls in five years (2015, 2017, 2019) and appeared in four in the same timespan (2015 to 2019, missing 2016). The Mahomes-era Chiefs are currently on a similar run, also with four appearances in five years (2020 to 2024, missing 2022) and a chance to win three in five years (2020, 2023 and their upcoming appearance in 2024). There's a reason why the "dynasty" label is so rarely used.

* ToughActToFollow: The reason why there are only a few teams that make back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, especially with the salary cap and free agency in effect. Only 14 teams have played as the defending champion, and only eight of them won. The last team to win back to back Super Bowls was the Patriots in 2004 and 2005. The most recent team to make back to back appearances is the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020 (won against San Francisco 49ers) and 2021 (lost to Tampa Bay Buccaneers). A number of teams have gone twice in three years; the Pats won Super Bowls in 2015 and 2017. The last team to win three Super Bowls in four years was the Pats (2002, 2004 and 2005), and they also won three Super Bowls in five years (2015, 2017, 2019) and appeared in four in the same timespan (2015 to 2019, missing 2016). There's a reason why the "dynasty" label is so rarely used.

::: In short, the fact that this defensive stand resulted in an interception required precise timing and communication on the part of the Patriots, two cornerbacks independently making the correct read, and Butler finally coming through on a play that had repeatedly stymied him in training.

** It is arguably hard to repeat a championship in any sport due to uncontrollable factors like injuries and luck. But the NFL makes it harder through a detailed parity system of a hard salary cap—making it difficult to keep every great player you have—and a rookie draft that favors losing teams who then draft the better incoming talent. Throw in a free agency system where other teams pilfer your decent backups and a coaching carousel where the best assistant coordinators get head coaching jobs elsewhere, and you have a recipe for few back-to-back postseason visits.

** Super Bowl LI: Patriots running back James White had his finest hour on the game's biggest stage. He was the Patriots' leading receiver with 14 receptions for 110 yards and one TD, while rushing for 29 yards on six carries for two [=TDs=], as well as scoring a two-point conversion. His second rushing touchdown was also the very first overtime TD in Super Bowl history. In any other game, with any other team, his accomplishments would make him a lock, but he was playing on the same team as Tom Brady, who had an equally glorious night, especially in the fourth quarter.

** Was the Patriots' victory in Super Bowl LI a result of them using their skills to pull off a true MiracleRally and achieve the greatest comeback in the game's history? Or was it more of a result of the Falcons grabbing the IdiotBall in the second half and making many questionable decisions that allowed New England to catch up to them?
*** Hindsight will probably point to the latter, given the Falcons' growing reputation as "Chokelanta" in the years since, with an actual 28-3 lead being among MANY that Atlanta threw away in 2020 alone. However, another school of thought is that it's the other way around -- that the ShockingDefeatLegacy of this Super Bowl rattled the team so hard that they can't seem to get rid of the yips of having "28-3" in their heads every time they have a lead (even in the many games where they've choked since then, there were moments where they regained the lead in more games than not). The argument in favor of this version is that Brady had to play essentially flawless football to come anywhere within reach of a tie, let alone a win, setting records for passing efficiency and yards, and even then the Patriots still needed a few bounces to go their way; if Brady hadn't been able to pull off a literally unprecedented performance, this would have been a commanding Atlanta win.

At this point, the Seahawks attempted a BatmanGambit[[note]]this is the one link in the chain that probably ''can'' be considered a mistake regardless of the rest[[/note]]: they ran a run play that got them to the 1-yard line and deliberately let the clock run down, hoping to bait Patriots head coach Bill Belichick into using one of ''his'' two remaining time-outs to stop the clock, which in turn would give the Seahawks time to swap out players for goal line running personnel without having to burn a timeout of their own. When Belichick didn't react as expected, they were stuck in a dilemma of their own making: they could use their time out, but then that would show their hand and Belichick would know it was a run, and without a timeout left, they might only get one shot at it, as the time it would take to disengage from the scrum, mark the spot, and get back up to the line of scrimmage could have run the clock out before they had a chance to try again. They could call the run anyway, but the chance of success would be minimal and a failure would have likely left them no choice but to burn their last timeout, so they'd in essence be most likely throwing away a down and burning a timeout right when they couldn't afford to lose either. They could spike the ball to stop the clock and make the personnel switch, but that would also let Belichick know what they were planning ''and'' cost them a down. The pass seemed like the obvious remedy -- an incompletion stops the clock, the risk of anything worse than an incompletion was statistically minimal, the specific play they called up had a very high success rate, it would take advantage of a defensive mismatch in personnel, and it did not rely on Lynch suddenly becoming good at goal-line running.

* WhatAnIdiot: In XXXI, the Patriots are down 21-35 against the Packers late in the third quarter. To allow their tight end Ben Coates to get open quicker, they leave offensive tackle Max Lane one-on-one against perennial All-Pro defensive end Reggie White, a player who has to be double-teamed every single snap (and even that wasn't a guarantee of stopping him, it just made it at least possible). The result is that Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe is sacked three times by White, including a sack late in the fourth quarter, one of two plays that seal the game for the Packers.

* Super Bowl LVI: Both Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald delivered MVP-worthy performances on the big stage, and each was key in a critical moment that determined the game's outcome (Kupp caught the game-winning touchdown, Donald made a fourth-down stop on the subsequent Bengals drive to seal the Rams' lead). Kupp ended up edging out Donald for the honor, but whichever of them had won, there would have been an argument that the other deserved it equally as much.

*** Hindsight will probably point to the latter, given the Falcons' growing reputation as "Chokelanta" in the years since, with an actual 28-3 lead being among MANY that Atlanta threw away in 2020 alone. However, another school of thought is that it's the other way around -- that the ShockingDefeatLegacy of this Super Bowl rattled the team so hard that they can't seem to get rid of the yips of having "28-3" in their heads every time they have a lead (even in the many games where they've choked since then, there were moments where they regained the lead in more games than not); the argument in favor of this version is that Brady had to play essentially flawless football to come anywhere within reach of a tie, let alone a win, setting records for passing efficiency and yards, and if Atlanta had been playing against a quarterback who couldn't do that (even Brady on an off day), this would have been a commanding Atlanta win.

** Super Bowl LI: Patriots running back James White had his finest hour on the game's biggest stage. He was the Patriots' leading receiver with 14 receptions for 110 yards and 1 TD, while rushing for 29 yards on six carries for 2 [=TDs=], as well as scoring a 2-point conversion. His second rushing touchdown was also the very first overtime TD in Super Bowl history. In any other game, with any other team, his accomplishments would make him a lock, but he was playing on the same team as Tom Brady, who had an equally glorious night, especially in the fourth quarter.
** Super Bowl LIII: No member of the Patriots defense received serious consideration for MVP, despite stifling the Los Angeles Rams' top-scoring offense and holding them to just a single field goal. This might have been because the Patriots D emerged as a true BadassCrew -- how do you pick just one player from this unit that seemed to work seamlessly together like a well-oiled machine? Julian Edelman, meanwhile, was the linchpin for the entire Pats offense and was outgaining the combined yardage of the Rams receiving corps for a significant portion of the game. Still, there were standouts who could have made a strong case for MVP. One was Jason [=McCourty=], who made a mad dash from outside the numbers to seal up a bust in coverage and breakup a deep pass from Jared Goff to Brandin Cooks that would have otherwise been a guaranteed touchdown. The second was Stephon Gilmore, whose late-game interception iced the game in New England's favor.

** Super Bowl LIII's halftime show was infamous for multiple reasons. Music/JayZ, Music/CardiB, and Music/{{Rihanna}} reportedly declined to headline the show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, who accused the NFL of blacklisting him over his kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. This lead to the artists that did perform being compared to strikebreakers and a petition for headline act Music/Maroon5 to drop out of the show. Then there was the outrage that ensued from ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' fans when "Sicko Mode" by Music/TravisScott was played instead of "Sweet Victory" from the fan favorite episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E15TheSecretBoxBandGeeks Band Geeks]]" as a tribute to the show's recently deceased creator Stephen Hillenburg, thanks to them implying that the latter was going to be played by showing an animation of Squidward introducing the show beforehand. These seem to be the only things anyone remembers about not just the halftime show, but that entire Super Bowl.

* SelfImposedChallenge: The [[http://www.lastman.us/ #lastman contest]] is a game played by some people trying to push back at the ubiquity of the Super Bowl. The goal is to go the longest without learning either the winner or the final score of the game (referred to as "the knowledge"). Considering the mammoth role it plays in American culture, it can be extremely difficult to even use the internet for days or weeks afterwards while playing and players have resorted to "safe" Twitter lists and websites.

** Super Bowl XXXI: Packers QB Brett Favre and DE Reggie White both had the game of their lives, set Super Bowl records (Favre for the longest touchdown pass, White for the most sacks by a single player), and would likely have battled it out for Super Bowl MVP if not for the heroics of special teams returner Desmond Howard, who clinched the award over both of them with his 99-yard kick return touchdown.

** It is arguably hard to repeat a championship in any sport due to uncontrollable factors like injuries and luck. But the NFL makes it harder through a detailed parity system of a hard salary cap - making it difficult to keep every great player you have - and a rookie draft that favors losing teams who then draft the better incoming talent. Throw in a free agency system where other teams pilfer your decent backups and a coaching carousel where the best assistant coordinators get head coaching jobs elsewhere, and you have a recipe for few back-to-back postseason visits.
** It's widely agreed that part of the reason that Music/JustinTimberlake's halftime show was viewed so negatively was that his extremely safe and simple show had to follow the complete spectacle that was Music/LadyGaga's show the previous year, which, among other things, began with her ''preforming on the roof of the stadium, following by rappelling onto the stage''.

* ShockingMoments: In a game that was already highly shocking beforehand, what happened in the last two minutes of play in Super Bowl XLIX (described in the NeverLiveItDown page linked above) was nothing short of insane. Then the same team that won XLIX topped ''that'' two years later in LI with their comeback from 25 points winning in overtime, with Julian Edelman making an unbelievable diving catch that rivals David Tyree's helmet catch (which ruined the Pats back in Super Bowl XLII).

* ShockingMoments: In a game that was already highly shocking beforehand, what happened in the last two minutes of play in Super Bowl XLIX (described in the Never Live It Down page linked above) was nothing short of insane. Then the same team that won XLIX topped ''that'' two years later in LI with their comeback from 25 points winning in overtime, with Julian Edelman making an unbelievable diving catch that rivals David Tyree's helmet catch (which ruined the Pats back in Super Bowl XLII).