Super Bowl XLVIII


Super Bowl XLVIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Denver Broncos and National Football Conference champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League champion for the 2013 season. The underdog Seahawks defeated the favored Broncos 43–8 to win their first Super Bowl. It is the largest margin of victory for an underdog and tied with Super Bowl XXVII for the third largest point differential overall in Super Bowl history. The game was played on February 2, 2014, at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the first Super Bowl played outdoors in a cold-weather city. Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith, who returned an interception 69 yards for a touchdown, recovered a fumble and made nine tackles, was named Super Bowl MVP.
The Seahawks posted a 13–3 record and were making their second Super Bowl appearance in nine years. The Broncos were making their seventh Super Bowl appearance after also posting a 13–3 record. The game became the first Super Bowl victory for the Seahawks and the fifth Super Bowl loss for the Broncos, at the time a league record for the most of any team. This marked one of the few times that two former divisional rivals met in a Super Bowl, as the Seahawks and Broncos were in the same division from 1977 to 2001.
Seattle led 22–0 at halftime and ultimately went up 36–0 before allowing Denver's first and only score on the final play of the third quarter. The Seahawks set a record by making the first seven scores of the game; previously the record was four. The 36–0 lead was by far the largest shutout lead in Super Bowl history; the previous record was 24–0, shared by the Miami Dolphins over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII and the Washington Redskins over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril scored a safety on the first play from scrimmage. They became the first team in a Super Bowl to score on a safety, a kickoff return for a touchdown, and an interception return for a touchdown. The Broncos were held to almost 30 points below their scoring average. Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, a five-time NFL Most Valuable Player award winner, one of which during the 2013 season, threw two interceptions in the first half.
The game was the first time since Super Bowl XXV 23 years prior that the #1 scoring offense went up against the #1 scoring defense. It was the fifth Super Bowl where the winning team outscored the losing team in every quarter. In addition, it was the first time the winning team scored over 40 points while holding the opponent team to under 10 in the Super Bowl. Seattle also tied the 1992 Dallas Cowboys for the third-largest blowout in Super Bowl history.
In retrospect, Super Bowl XLVIII is considered among the worst Super Bowls due to the game's one-sidedness from start to finish. However, the Seahawks' 2013 defense is often regarded as one of the greatest defenses in NFL history following the game. In the United States, the game was televised by Fox; with an average audience of 111.5 million viewers that peaked at 115.3 million during the halftime show featuring Bruno Mars. The game was briefly the most-watched U.S. television broadcast of all time, until it was surpassed by Super Bowl XLIX the following year. The game's inaugural Spanish-language telecast on Fox Deportes was also the highest-rated Spanish-language cable telecast outside of soccer.
The Seahawks would make their third Super Bowl appearance the following year, and ultimately lost to the Patriots 28-24.

Background

Previous plans for a Super Bowl in the New York City area

Efforts to see the New York City area host a Super Bowl predate MetLife Stadium's planning.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., those metro areas' business communities separately discussed seeking to host a future Super Bowl. The general thought was that either of these cities being the location of a Super Bowl would symbolize national recovery in the aftermath of the attacks. There was belief that if New York were awarded a Super Bowl, it might assist the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics in the same vein that awarding Super Bowl XXVIII to the city of Atlanta may have assisted the prospects of Atlanta's ultimately successful bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Both New York City and Washington, D.C. were, at one point, seen as likely to bid in 2003 for either 2008's Super Bowl XLII or 2009's Super Bowl XLIII. However, the prospect of the New York City region hosting a Super Bowl proved challenging due not only to the non-ideal cold weather climate, but also due to the difficulty in delivering an appropriate host venue. The city of New York and the New York Jets failed to secure a deal to build a new West Side Stadium in Manhattan. Proposed renovations to the aging Giants Stadium were still subject to dispute between stakeholders. Giants Stadium lacked a roof, as did the city's two Major League Baseball stadiums. The lack of a venue with a roof was also seen as an obstacle due to the NFL having never played an outdoor Super Bowl in a cold weather climate.
File:PennStation.jpg|thumb|The proposed site of the canceled West Side Stadium in New York City, which had initially been selected as the host of 2010's Super Bowl XLIV
New York City ultimately bid in 2005 for a Super Bowl. The NFL voted on March 23, 2005, to award New York City the rights to host 2010's Super Bowl XLIV, contingent on the proposed West Side Stadium being completed by 2008. In August 2005, after New York state government officials declined to approve $400 million for the stadium, the NFL decided to revoke New York City's hosting rights, and reopen the bidding for the game's site.

Host selection process

Three stadiums were part of the bidding to host the game:
  1. MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, New Jersey
  2. Raymond James Stadium – Tampa, Florida
  3. Sun Life Stadium – Miami Gardens, Florida
Tampa had hosted four Super Bowls, while South Florida / Miami had hosted ten Super Bowls.
During the voting process by the league owners, the South Florida/Miami bid was eliminated in the second round of voting, but it eventually took the fourth round of voting for New Jersey's bid to beat Tampa's. The game was awarded on May 26, 2010, at the NFL owners meetings in Irving, Texas.
Super Bowl XLVIII was the first Super Bowl held at an open-air stadium in a "cold-weather" city; previous Super Bowls in cold-weather cities were held at indoor stadiums. However, the temperature at kickoff was a mild, making this only the third-coldest Super Bowl. A major snow storm hit the area the very next day. According to Weather.com, the average high and low temperatures for East Rutherford on February 2 were and, respectively. The coldest outdoor Super Bowl of the first 47 games was Super Bowl VI, held at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans on January 16, 1972, with a kickoff temperature of . However, New Orleans usually has a humid subtropical climate, with January morning lows averaging around and daily highs around ; also, all New Orleans Super Bowls since XII have been played at the indoor Superdome. Since Super Bowl X in 1976, all but one outdoor Super Bowl has been played in either California or Florida, the exception being Super Bowl XXX in Tempe, Arizona. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated that if Super Bowl XLVIII was successful, additional "cold-weather" Super Bowls would be considered.
Super Bowl XLVIII was the first NFL championship game to be held in the New York metropolitan area since December 30, 1962, when the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants in the original Yankee Stadium, 16–7. Since then, two other major pro football leagues have held title games in the area:
MetLife Stadium was the first Super Bowl venue that was simultaneously home to two NFL teams: the New York Giants and the New York Jets, and thus was the first championship game to have two host teams. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum served as the home of the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Raiders, but not at the same time.
This was also the first Super Bowl played outdoors on artificial turf since Super Bowl X at the Miami Orange Bowl. It was also the first in which two U.S. states, New York and New Jersey, shared hosting duties. This was also the first Super Bowl to be played outdoors since Super Bowl XLIV was played in Miami Gardens.

Winter outlook and contingency plans

The choice of holding the Super Bowl outdoors in a cold weather environment generated some controversy. When it was released in August 2013, the "Winter Outlook" section in the 2014 Farmers' Almanac predicted that a winter storm would hit just about the time Super Bowl XLVIII kicked off; this generated the attention of several media sources, including ESPN's Rick Reilly in a piece that aired on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown on October 21, 2013. In a radio interview broadcast on WFAN, Fox studio analyst Terry Bradshaw stated that he opposes the idea of a cold Super Bowl, stating "I don't want it to be bad... What if we get two passing teams?" In a piece published on Sports Illustrated's "Monday Morning Quarterback" site, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman also opposed holding the game at MetLife Stadium, stating that "it's the league's responsibility to show its audience the best possible product, and this can't happen in the snow." The decision to play the game in New Jersey was made even more controversial by the fact that the NFL informed the Miami Dolphins that Sun Life Stadium would never host another Super Bowl until they put a roof over the stadium for fear of rain.
The NFL announced on December 18, 2013, that in the event of a forecast of heavy snow, the game would be rescheduled for the Saturday before, or for the Monday or Tuesday after.
One day before the Super Bowl, weather conditions for the game were forecast to be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the low to mid-40s Fahrenheit.
A winter storm arrived 6 hours after the game ended, dropping of snow on the region. The inclement weather canceled a quarter of the flights available at the area's three major airports, stranding thousands.