6.10 /// "The BIG game"

Big games aren’t supposed to feel like holidays—until one does. I dive straight into what makes the Super Bowl more than a final: the clear path from two conferences to one champion, the Vince Lombardi legacy, and the simple rules that unlock the flow for first-time viewers. If four downs and ten yards sound like noise, I aim to turn it into a language you can follow in minutes, so the late night feels rewarding instead of confusing.

I go back to 1966 to unpack why the AFL-NFL merger created today’s format and how the title finally took the name Super Bowl by its third outing. From there, I explore how culture wrapped itself around the game: adverts that function as short films, trailers cut specifically for the broadcast, and a halftime show that evolved from precision marching bands to pop icons and rock royalty. Michael Jackson’s 1993 performance changed the stakes. Prince’s Purple Rain in actual rain proved the stage could be mythic. Production teams now flip a stadium into a concert and back again in minutes, and the spectacle has become a ritual shared worldwide.

Along the way, I keep the human scale. There’s a personal route into fandom—sometimes as small as a gifted keyring or a first live match that makes you tear up. We talk Philadelphia Eagles history, pre-merger titles, recent championships, and the short-yardage “tush push” that sparked league-wide debate. We also make room for what turns the night into an event anywhere: watch parties, buffalo wings, nachos, and the camaraderie of staying up late with friends. Yes, American football can run long, but once you get the basics, every graphic on screen becomes a guidepost, and the stop-start rhythm starts to sing.

Whether you’re hosting a party or sampling the sport for the first time, this guide helps you enjoy the Super Bowl like a local while watching from abroad. If it clicks, you’ll see why people plan their February around it. Enjoy the game, rate your favourite ads, and tell me who you’re backing this year. If this helped, tap follow, share it with a mate, and leave a quick review—I read them all and they keep the prattle going!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Episode Setup
• 0:55 What The Super Bowl Actually Is
• 2:30 League History And The 1966 Merger
• 5:16 Eagles Fandom And Early Championships
• 6:20 Pro Bowl And Season Timing
• 7:00 Lombardi Trophy And World Champions Debate
• 8:00 Adverts, Trailers, And Global Hype
• 10:10 Playing The Game: Downs And Yardage
• 13:00 The Tush Push And Rule Debates
• 15:20 Getting Into The Sport As A UK Fan
• 17:20 Halftime Shows: From Bands To Pop Icons
• 20:10 Audience Size And International Expansion
• 22:10 Personal Stories, London Game, And 2018
• 24:00 Why The Game Feels Long And How To Enjoy It
• 26:00 Party Food, Watch Parties, And Traditions

Transcript

Stephen: 0:05

Hello, welcome to Infinite Battle. On today's episode, I'm going to explain to you a little bit about the history and the culture around the big game. Now that means if you don't, stay tuned. Hi, welcome back to Infinite Brattle. Bit of a rush we've cutting this we've gotten this sesh today. This sesh? I've never said that in my life. But not referring to the podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about the big game, as I've said in the intro. And the big game, I I'm referring to the Super Bowl, as you can tell from my apparel today. Wearing a blacked-out Philadelphia Eagles winner's Super Bowl hat. And a new newly acquired kind of varsity jacket from Primark of all places for£55, which is frankly a bargain. And I don't normally buy stuff that you can get in this country. I normally like to shop in the American stores, but you know, you've got to take the wins while you can. I think this hat was the price, it was nearly the same price as this jacket, which is incredible. So anyway, the big game is the Super Bowl that I'm talking about. I'm recording this on the day of the Super Bowl, uh the 8th of February, uh 2026. Uh, and I just wanted to go through um kind of like a beginner's guide to the Super Bowl and to American football in some sense as well. I'll explain the basics of American football. Um, hopefully I don't get anything wrong. Um so yeah, so anyone that can is listening to this podcast or watching this podcast before the game tonight can kind of watch the game if they want to and have a little bit more of an understanding. A little bit more of an understanding about you know what it was in what how is how it's come to be. God my words today. I've been really struggling with words recently, uh, which is bad when you when you have a podcast. Um yeah, so just about big background, what it is, um, how it came to be and uh you know some facts and stuff. And I've actually done I've actually done research. Ah so um yeah, so the Super Bowl, the big game. Um it wasn't always called the Super Bowl, the Super Bowl has been its name uh since the two divisions of of the NFL merged. So prior to the Super Bowl, there's there's always been separation in in the American Football Leagues in America. Um it'd almost be like having two two premierships in in in in the UK. And in um 19, I've got to get the date right, because I won't get anything wrong because I'll get slated in the comments. So in 1966, um National Football League decided to merge the two two sides, which was the American Football League and the National Football League, um the conference leagues, basically, into one NFL thing, where there's 32 teams uh as there are today. Um so that became what is known as um the it became the the NFL championship uh game, which it was, which it is now, but the Super Bowl. And prior to that, it was just like a championship game for whatever division you're in. And it was really in the early days of American football as well, they didn't really count um how many games you'd kind of won. It wasn't really counting on wins and losses and the overall stuff, it was like they didn't count draws and stuff like that. It was a really weird system. I've learned stuff today on the internet. Um if you want to go and look at that, I've used Wikipedia and the NFL website and stuff like that, so just go and Google that yourself and have a read if you're interested. But basically, in a nutshell, um the Super Bowl's a massive worldwide phenomenon. Um it's worldwide now, it's worldwide. Like the I've been into it for I don't know, um, probably I don't know for like 17 years or so I would say. Where is it? Yeah, it probably is about that since probably longer than that, actually. It's probably a bit longer than that. Um before probably like 2007-ish, 2006, 2005, I don't know. Uh yeah, probably like nearly 20 years actually, uh, scarily enough. Um and I spot the Philadelphia Eagles, if you can't tell. And you know, the Philadelphia Eagles have been reasonably comp reasonably uh successful prior to the formation of uh the National Football League as it is today, um, which contains the 32 teams, 16 from the AFC, 16 from the NFC, all under the umbrella of the National Football League. And these two divisions basically they play each other through the seasons, and then one team from each division will win their conference, and then them two teams fight it out in the Super Bowl. So that's kind of how it works. So it'd almost be like if there was like two premiership tables in the UK for regular football running at the same time, and them two teams then basically fought it out for the ultimate the ultimate team of the whole league. Uh that's probably the simplest way I can uh explain it to people. But Philadelphia was quite popular prior to the Super Bowl, they won three uh three championships in 48, 49, and then 1960, and then say the Super Bowl kind of was created in 66. I don't think it was officially from what I've seen on the internet, it wasn't officially called the Super Bowl till the Super Bowl number three when it was referred to as the Super Bowl. Um yeah, it's and and the Eagles have won two Super Bowls, um, which I'm immensely proud of since I've been supporting them. I mean I'm quite lucky that in the 20 years or 19 years I've been supporting them probably, uh I've seen them win two Super Bowls. But it was a long time coming, even for me, not even not being a supporter since birth. Um it was a long time coming, and I'm not I'm not gonna lie, it was emotional, and I cried. So the first one is in 2017, and the second one is in 2024, but they they play the Super Bowl the following year, so this season starts. So when they won it in 2017, they actually played the Super Bowl in 2018, uh, the February in 2018. And the Super Bowl always takes place on the first Sunday of February every year. Uh, and the week before they have a Pro Bowl. So the Pro Bowl is like the best players of the league basically go and have a bit of a fun game, it's not as hard contact, uh, and it's basically the teams that aren't really in the Super Bowl go and have that that Pro Bowl game, and it's normally done for charity and stuff like that. Uh it's pretty pretty good though. It's still good to watch because um it's a little bit more laid back, uh not nothing riding on it, and they pick two team team names, and yeah, it's all good fun. It's quite cool to watch all the super all the superstars from all the different teams actually play together. Kind of uh as a what do you call it, like a fantasy football league almost. Um so like what is the Super Bowl? Well, I've kind of told you, it's basically the conference championship, it's the head-to-head between the AFC and the NFC, and the winners of that become world champions. It's a bit convoluted because they are it's a sport kind of only in America, it's only American teams. But that's what they call it. Same with the World Series in baseball, be the world champions. Um so yeah, it's uh they win the Lombardi trophy, and the Lombardi trophy was created um for the Super Bowl, but after the first couple of wins, basically uh Green Bay won the first Ever Super Bowl and they won the second Ever Super Bowl uh under the NFC NFL Championship. Um and then the Vince Lombardi Trophy was created to celebrate Vince Lombardi, who was the coach of Green Bay, um, and led them to them two victories. So that that's that's what stuck. And the the Lombardi Trophy is quite impressive, it's uh quite a large thing with a football on the top, and um as I say, the Eagles have two of them, so go birds. Um and it's just it's just a massive, massive thing, the Super Bowl now. Um I I think it's inherent in culture throughout the world, even if you're not American and you've never seen American football, you you have heard of the Super Bowl, you've probably heard of the Super Bowl adverts, which I think is how I first came into it, watching film trailers. Uh, you'd see the Super Bowl film trailer, and um you'd be like, I was like, I don't know, what's the Super Bowl? And I just thought it was like this weird name that film companies put on it to make it to try and make it out that it was a special trailer. Um but it wasn't, it was because of the Super Bowl. Uh, and they play these exclusive trailers and adverts and stuff during the Super Bowl advert breaks. Because if you've never watched American football, a lot of advert breaks. Um yeah, so that's that's how I came into American football. And I'll do a separate episode about my career as as a linebacker, the shortest linebacker ever. Um I played American football for a very short time and it was really enjoyable, and I just wish I'd have got into it a lot younger, because I it would have increased my fitness loads, and I really enjoyed my very short stint at it, and um yeah, I'm just a bit disappointed that it was never really a thing in schools. I think if I was if I had been a student in America, I most definitely would have would have been on top of uh trying to do everything football that I could. Um and the rules of American football. So I'll cover a little bit of the rules, because if you if you're gonna watch it after this video and listening to this podcast, you're gonna want to know the rules. So basically, it's not really like rugby, but it is. So in rugby, you've got to score a try, and uh you get an extra point after the try. And pretty much American football is the same, apart from the flow of it's slightly different. So it's a lot of tactics and a lot of a lot of um positions and knowing your knowing your plays. So basically the the fundamental is the offense when you're on the field trying to score, there's an offence and there's a defence. So the defence are trying to stop you scoring and the offence are trying to score a touchdown, which is a try in rugby. So the whole premise of it is we have downs in American football. Excuse me. Let me get my PC tea that I made. I made this cup of tea, and I think it's the worst cup of tea I've ever made. I didn't boil the cow properly because my wife had just made one. And uh oh Christ. And excuse, excuse you, is I'm sorry. And it's weak as hell, probably because I didn't use f fully bullying water. I feel like I shouldn't shouldn't call myself British British anymore after making such an abhorrent cup of tea. Anyway, so the the idea is obviously to get all the way down the field from one end zone to the other, uh, and your end zone is where you you score the touchdowns. So if I was on the offence for one team and you were the defence for the other team, you'd be trying to stop me score, which is basically fair enough. Same in most sports. So there's such a thing as a down, and there's four downs in each in each in each round. So the offence would play the first down, and they have to try and at least get ten yards in that down. So if they get ten yards in that down, they get a fresh set of downs. They get another four tries. So all it is is I've got to get at least ten yards, and I've got four tries to do that. Four goes at it basically. So you have your first go, and say you manage to move the ball two yards. So your second go is second and eight, because you manage to get two. Uh if you in the in the second in the third down, if you get another two yards, it'd be it'd be third and six, and so on, until you actually score uh the the full ten yards and get a fresh set of downs, or you don't score the fresh set of downs and you get to you get to the fourth down, which is if you've only got one yard to go, you might risk it and try and get that extra yard, or you might just kick it away for the safety. Basically, you you want to you want to you wanna play safe and you just kick it away to the other team. Um and that's that's basically the premise. So you get four downs and you're trying to score at least ten yards with with them four downs, and if you don't, you probably just kick it away, depending on how close you are. Philadelphia Eagles, they've got such a thing called the push, uh the tush push or the brotherly shove, and we've been really effective with that with that the last few seasons. Basically, when we've got a yard to go, we just basically use brought brute force and ignorance to get that ball one yard, and uh it's caused a bit of problems in the division actually, because a lot of people don't like us using it. I love it. You know what? Adapt or die, I say. Um, some teams are getting a lot better at defending that now, and some teams are trying to use it, so uh, some people say it isn't fair and it's taking a football away from what it should be, which is trying to pass the ball or run the ball. Adapt, you know what I mean? Anyway, I'm not gonna have a rant about uh the rules of American football and how the Philadelphia Eagles use it and uh how I am on the side of Philly, obviously. Um I think I'm pretty fair in my judgments though. Like when I'm watching a game, if if there's a it's the bad call or whatever and it goes for the Philly, Philly Eagles or up against them. I think I'm pretty fair. Um it's give and taking sport a lot of the time, like you sometimes have luck on your side and sometimes you don't. Um I think last season there was a few dodgy calls, maybe because we were the Super Bowl champions, I'm not sure. Uh but yeah, that's the premise of football. There's loads of other rules, um, but yeah, give it a go, have a watch. Um you've got to get 10 yards in four goes, and that's that's pretty much the premise. Uh so if you do watch it tonight, you you'll kind of know what they're all about when they say first down, second down, second and three, third and fi fifth, and all that sort of stuff. All it means is they're on the second go to get that many yards. So second and two means they're on the second go and they've got two yards left to get. Does that make sense? I'm hoping I'm explaining that okay. It makes sense in my brain. Um which doesn't mean a lot really. Um I'm just looking at my notes because I really want to make sure I'm getting everything out there. I've said that, I've said that, I've said that, I've said that. Oh my god. Making notes is hard. Maybe should maybe should have I should have put them up in some sort of um whiteboard. I do have a whiteboard actually, I could have written them out on a whiteboard, some facts. Um anyway. You know kind of like where the Super Bowl's birth was, briefly. Go and have a look on Wikipedia where I've got most of the data from. And now you know pretty much um some basic rules of the Super Bowl, and the fact that it is a massive phenomenon. Now I talked about adverts a little bit earlier, and adverts are a massive thing in the Super Bowl. Um, and that's it, that's where I first kind of like knew about the Super Bowl, knew about American football when I was a kid. That's how I got into Philly. I got uh a little um keyring off my brother when I was a kid, and it was the Philly Eagles, and um I was just like when I when I got into American football, I was like, well I'm gonna support them. Didn't check to see if they're any goods, was no glory supporter here, and um I've stuck with them ever since and I love them. I've been to see them in America, travelled there um in 2015, I think it was, was it 2015? Yeah, 2015, I think it was travelled there, and it was just it was just the best time. Um had had a wail of a time, watched them live. It was a dream, it was really surreal actually. And I was in the state again. I cried, I was in the stadium, and I think it hit me that I was there watching a game live. Um yeah, and I cried, I couldn't keep it in. It was really it was really crazy. Um but yeah, um adverts cost a lot of money on the Super Bowl. Um according to an internet search, uh one second, I think it was last year, cost$266,000 per second, which is crazy money. And if you wanted to run a 30-second advert, it could cost about in the region of$10 million. So lucrative considering again if you've ever watched an American football game, how many bloody adverts there are. So these companies put in so much time and effort into these adverts, millions and millions and millions of pounds. They get Hollywood Stars, they do skits, they will run a series of adverts throughout the game that link into each other with stories, etc. Um they release exclusive trailers during the Super Bowl, which are cut specifically for the Super Bowl. And some of these trailers are sometimes like a minute and a half long, so you're talking like that's$30 million to put that trailer on. Um but the reason it's so expensive is because it's watched, as I said, worldwide, it's a phenomenon. Uh people have watch parties, they go to people's house people's houses, they go to um public spaces like pubs, restaurants, and they watch the Super Bowl, and obviously they could they go to the game. But we'll get back to that maybe, if I think, if I remember. Um and I'm having a Super Bowl party tonight. Say I'm recording this on the day of the Super Bowl, and I'm having my own little mini Super Bowl party tonight. Got a couple of friends coming around, uh, and I'm making some food, and that's a big thing of it as well, is I mean food advertising during the game is mad anyway, but that's a big part of it is is the food involved. So I'm making um buffalo wings and nachos and fajitas and um my mates bringing some desserts around, so we're gonna have a pretty good time, really. Uh, and watch the game, have a laugh, maybe have a couple of beers, and uh yeah, just have a jolly good time. Uh and food's food's massively important, like some of the buffets I've seen people put on is is insane. Um but yeah, I I I get how it's become such a thing, you know. It's it's almost like a holiday now. Um I mean I've taken it's it's Sunday today. I say that the City Bowl's always on the first Sunday of of February, and um I I just um Yeah, I just I just love the whole build-up to it. Even if my team's not in it, I'll still stay up and watch it. And mainly, not just for the adverts, which I like to stream the American broadcast of it, but for the the bands and stuff that it's been become synonymous with halftime show. Um and the halftime show didn't used to be how it is today in the early days of the Super Bowl. Um just look it on again, Wikipedia. Um a lot of the early shows seem to be uh marching bands, which are amazing anyway. If you ever see get a chance to go and Google some marching bands or like go on YouTube, like some of their formations and stuff are amazing. So a lot of the early ones seem to be all marching bands. Um and then a couple of a couple of from Super Bowl six, there was a salute to Louis Armstrong in 1972. Um yeah, and then they started getting a few more people involved that which were famous, but they were still kind of doing drill teams and and and bands. And I think probably from from from just scrolling through um on Wikipedia, I think what probably changed it was was 1993. Michael Jackson performed at the Rose Bowl uh Pasadena, and I think he came in, he can't remember if he came in on with a jetpack or exited with the jetpack, but he kind of blew the doors off. And from that point on, um there were a couple of celebration-y things as well, they've all had kind of themes, um, but pretty much from that point on there's been like pop stars, rock stars and stuff involved in the entertainment at the halftime show. And uh, yeah, is it a halftime show? I mean it's it's pretty impressive that the the production value because obviously these guys have just been playing American football and then they change the whole field into this stage and lighting rigs and everything that goes with that, dances, and then there's a con there's basically a mini concert, and then they clear it all away, and the football starts again. It's incredible to watch. I mean, if you just stay up and watch it for this for the halftime show, like do um I can't remember who's on it this year, Bad Bunny is doing it, and there's a rumour that Green Day may may make an appearance as well. But just some of the names over the years, um so you've got obviously you've got Michael Jackson, um, Gloria Estefan, uh Stevie Wonders, Smokey Robinson, Boys to Men, uh The Blues Brothers, Z Z Top. Some of these were were together as a collective. Weirdly enough, Disney have produced quite a few of them. Um when they've done it especially in the early days, uh but say one of them for Super Bowl um 34, it was produced by Disney, and it the the theme was Tapestry of Nations. And say some of the names involved in that was Christine Aguilera, Tony Braxton, Enrique Inglesius, Phil Collins, um, and an 80-person choir. So you've had Aerosmith and Sync, you too, Shania Twain, no doubt, and then obviously a very notorious one in 2004, uh, with the uh Justin Tim Blake Janet Jackson incident where there was a wardrobe malfunction, let's just say. Um yeah, but so many, and and and if you do get to see any of them as well, if you go onto YouTube, I think a lot of them are available on YouTube on the official NFL website on on the NFL channel. Um Purple Rain by Prince, uh 2007, um from the I think it was from the Miami Delph Dolphins Stadium, yes it was, Miami Dolphins, and wow, like just wow. So it was just insane. The the the production value in that um and the fact that he sang Purple Rain and it started to rain and he was singing it and ugh the man was an absolute legend. Absolute legend. Um and I'll go back to obviously the reason they do all this is to gain more views and the advertisement views as well. Uh because like 127 million people watch this on average. 127 million people. And it's only going to increase because they're doing international games now, the NFL. Love it or hate it. Might do a podcast on that because I know my American friends don't particularly like it. Uh it's great for me if I want to see American football, although the Eagles have only come across once. It was in their Super Bowl the year after the Super Bowl winning year, technically, even though it was the year they won it. It's very confusing. They were in London 2018. It was a good year that year because the Eagles won the Super Bowl in February. I had some other stuff going on in my life, which was which was very good. We bought a house, uh, or we were doing a house up and it was it was finished that year. We we went to London to see the Eagles. It was on Sarah's birthday as well, which is very nice of it to accommodate me. And um we got married, so it was a it was a good year, 2018. Um yeah, it's just it's just crazy, you know, erm how big an event it is. I can't describe it to you. It's everywhere, it's only gonna get bigger, say with this international stuff. So I think you either have to shut yourself in a cupboard um for a couple of days or embrace it. And I I say embrace it, it it is a global thing. Um even though it's not a global thing. Again, it's very confusing. They they're not the world champions really, are they? They're they're they're the champions of America, American football. Uh and that's that's coming from someone that's a fan of American football. Um and I I just call it football, weirdly enough. Well not weirdly, I just call it football. For me, football is American football. Um Yeah, I just I can't wait. I mean you I I'm I'm mixing my words up just because I'm excited talking about it. Um and I think that some people would probably watch it and not get it. But I think if you support a team and you watch the game, and the games can be hard. When you first start getting into it, the games can be hard to get through. Um watching something for three and a half hours, four hours can be it's unusual for a UK audience because we we are used to like soccer, like English football, um, lasting 90 minutes and really not much longer. There's a bit of injury time and stuff, but that's pretty much it. You know exactly pretty much roughly when it's gonna start and finish. Whereas American football, you know, you you really don't. You really you really don't. Like, there's four quarters and they're only meant to be 15 minutes long, but because of the start-start nature of the time timing of the game, um, with the down system, uh that that 15 minutes could last an hour, which is crazy if you think about it. Um but yeah, if you can get through that and understand the basics of the rules, because I think that's what helped me out. Them basic rules I've just told you, I I didn't understand before. And I sat down one night, came in drunk, and turned the telly on, and I just googled what the basic rules of American football were, and I was like, oh, is that it? Is that it? Is that all it is? When they're saying all these downs and fourth and one and three and two, and that's all it is. Um and it became much more enjoyable because obviously if you understand something, you can get into it, and you can enjoy it more. And I think for me that's that was the entry into it, and um Super Bowls became a thing after that. Um yeah, so I'm I'm looking forward to tonight's game. Uh I'm gonna be egging on the Seattle Seahawks. My palate's coming around tonight, or one of my pals coming around tonight, uh, is a Seattle Seahawks fan. Recently a new NFL supporter, chose the Seahawks, and good choice, they're in the Super Bowl already, so I think he must be a good look charm to them. Uh anyway, we're gonna leave it there. I'm rambling a little bit. I'm excited, my words aren't coming out right. Really appreciate you listening to this podcast. I hope it's cleared some stuff up for you. Uh I hope it's kind of explained some stuff. Uh, I've called it the big game in the title because apparently the NFL don't like using the word Super Bowl for anything, so I didn't want to get like this video taken down. So I've called it the big game. So if you're wondering why, I didn't just call it the Super Bowl uh episode, that's that's why. Um Yeah. There you go. So yeah, thank you for listening. Um I am gonna get the uh episode 7 uploaded soon. I I I haven't had a chance to re-edit it and stuff and start again on it. So priorities, the new episodes going up, making sure they're on. So um I'll do that at some point. I will I will get around to it, sorry, I promise I promise. Um but thank you for listening to everything and listening to me rap prattle on. If you can give me a like and a subscribe, that'd be ace. Uh I've had my head anyway this sign all the way through the video as well, so if you're watching the video, my sign has been playing Eagle stuff and NFL stuff all the way through. And it was for nothing because my big fat head was in the way. Oh, and Pepsi adverts. Not a sponsor. Not quite yet. Um one can hope. Um yeah, so thanks very much for listening. Even the ending was prattly. And you know, look after yourselves and and just keep prattling. Thanks for listening to Infinite Prattle! With your host Steven. Follow me on the social networks at InfinitePrattle. And don't forget to subscribe. Thanks very much.