Super Bowl XLV - Wikipedia

Host selection process

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NFL owners voted to award Super Bowl XLV to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas (part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex) during their May 22, 2007 meeting in Nashville. Three cities submitted bids: North Texas (Cowboys Stadium), Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium) and Glendale, Arizona (University of Phoenix Stadium). Of the three finalists, the Phoenix area was the only one which had previously hosted a Super Bowl. Both Lucas Oil Stadium and Cowboys Stadium were under construction at the time of the vote. The new home of the Colts was scheduled to open in 2008, and the new home of the Cowboys was scheduled to open in 2009. All three candidate stadiums had retractable roofs, but only one (Arizona) was located in a traditionally "warm" weather climate. It was the first time since the balloting for XXVI (the selection of which took place in May 1989) that a Super Bowl host site facing a competitive vote had zero bids from either California or Florida. A fourth bid by New Orleans never materialized.

Glendale was already scheduled to host XLII (which had not yet occurred), which many felt diminished their chances to win this time around.[6][7] Arizona was a decided underdog, but chose to bid regardless, predicting that it would position themselves favorably for future consideration.[8][9][10] Both Indianapolis and the Dallas–Fort Worth area had bid on previous Super Bowls with older stadiums, but neither had been successful. Indianapolis (Hoosier Dome) lost out on XXVI, while Dallas (Cotton Bowl) had a lengthy history of failure, with no less that twelve failed bids, and/or efforts that failed to materialize.[11][12][13][14] The selection of either Indianapolis or Arlington represented a fresh market for the game, and a reward to the franchises and the respective areas for constructing new stadiums.

The chairman of the North Texas host committee was former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, a hall of famer and Super Bowl VI MVP.[15] The North Texas contingent touted stadium size, potential revenue, and stressed that due to convention schedules, XLV would be better for them logistically than XLVI.[16] The Indianapolis host committee was co-chaired by Colts owner Jim Irsay, mayor Bart Peterson, governor Mitch Daniels, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George.[17] Irsay pledged $1 million towards the bid, which touted the new stadium, suitable venues around town,[18][19] and a history of hosting large events such as the Final Four and the Indianapolis 500.[20][21]

Bid were due on April 2, and the vote was scheduled for late May. Prior to the vote, the NFL issued a new memorandum which banned elected officials from attending the pitch meetings in person. As a result, Peterson and Daniels (both co-chairs of the Indianapolis committee), were not allowed to attend.[22] The presentation by Indianapolis included a Top Ten list by David Letterman, and remarks by Tony Dungy. Dallas countered by telling the rich history of football in the state of Texas, and placed emphasis on stadium capacity, which they suggested might break the Super Bowl attendance record. The vote was arranged for a maximum of four rounds. A city receiving 3⁄4 of the votes during any round would win outright. If no city received the necessary votes during the first round, the vote would be repeated. If no city won during the second round, the third place vote-getter would be eliminated. If the fourth round was reached, the vote would change to a simple majority. Arizona was eliminated on the second ballot. Neither North Texas nor Indianapolis received enough votes in the second or third rounds, so the fourth round was decided by simple majority. Dallas won the vote, by a reported razor-thin 17–15 margin.[23][24] A dejected Indianapolis contingent would eventually land XLVI.[25][26]

Teams

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Pittsburgh Steelers

edit Main article: 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers season

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the 2010 season with a 12–4 record. They earned the AFC North division title, and the second seed in the AFC and advanced to their 8th Super Bowl, tying the Dallas Cowboys' record of most Super Bowl appearances.[27][28]

After missing the first four games of the year on suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy (during which the Steelers went 3–1), quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returned for his seventh season as the Steelers starting quarterback, finishing the season with 3,200 yards and 17 touchdowns, with just five interceptions, for a 97 passer rating. He also rushed for 176 yards and two touchdowns.[29] The team's top receiver was Mike Wallace who caught 60 passes for 1,257 yards and 10 touchdowns, giving him a 21 yards per catch average. Other reliable options included 13-year veteran Hines Ward (59 receptions for 755 yards and 5 touchdowns), the Steelers all-time leading receiver, and tight end Heath Miller who caught 42 passes for 512 yards. Halfback Rashard Mendenhall was the team's leading rusher, gaining 1,273 yards and 13 touchdowns while also catching 23 passes. The line was led by rookie center Maurkice Pouncey, the Steelers only Pro Bowl selection on offense. However, Pouncey was injured in the AFC championship game and would be inactive for Super Bowl XLV.[30]

The Steelers had one of the league's top defenses, leading the NFL in sacks (48), and fewest points (14.5) and rushing yards (62.8) allowed per game, while ranking second in fewest total yards (276.8).[31] The line was anchored by Pro Bowl end Brett Keisel. The Steelers also had four excellent linebackers: LaMarr Woodley, James Harrison, James Farrior, and Lawrence Timmons. For the third consecutive year, Woodley and Harrison each recorded at least 10 sacks. Woodley also forced three fumbles and Harrison forced six. Farrior had 109 total tackles and six sacks. Timmons led the team with 135 total tackles, while also recording three sacks and two interceptions. The secondary was led by Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu, who won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award, tying his career-best seven interceptions and returning them for 101 yards and a touchdown.[32]

Coach Mike Tomlin, already the youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl, became the youngest coach ever to make it to the Super Bowl twice at age 38. The Steelers also continued their streak of reaching the Super Bowl in five different decades, and in every decade since the post AFL-NFL merger (1970s: 1975, 1976, and 1979; 1980s: 1980; 1990s: 1996; 2000s: 2006 and 2009; 2010s: 2011).

Green Bay Packers

edit Main article: 2010 Green Bay Packers season

The Green Bay Packers finished the season with a 10–6 record and became the first sixth-seeded team in the NFC to compete in the Super Bowl.[33] They are only the second sixth-seeded team to reach the Super Bowl, with the only other number 6 seed to accomplish this feat, coincidentally, being the Pittsburgh Steelers, who won Super Bowl XL following the 2005 season. Green Bay also joined the 2005 Steelers as the only teams ever to defeat the top three seeded teams on the road in the playoffs. In order to secure their fifth Super Bowl bid they defeated their longtime rivals, the Chicago Bears, in the NFC Championship Game at Soldier Field.

The offense was led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was in his third year as a starter after taking over for the team's all-time leading passer Brett Favre. Rodgers finished the season completing 65.7% of his passes for 3,922 yards and 28 touchdowns, with only eleven interceptions, giving him his second consecutive season with a triple digit passer rating (101.2). He was also a good rusher, adding 356 yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground.[34] His top target was Pro Bowl receiver Greg Jennings, who caught 76 passes for 1,265 yards and 12 touchdowns, giving him a 16.6 yards per catch average while also ranking him fourth in the NFL in yards and second in touchdown catches. Other reliable targets included receivers James Jones (50 receptions, 676 yards, 5 touchdowns), Donald Driver (51 receptions, 565 yards, 4 touchdowns), and Jordy Nelson (45 receptions, 582 yards, 496 kick return yards). The Packers lost star tight end Jermichael Finley (21 receptions 301 yards, 1 touchdown) to injury in week five who was their leading receiver at the time. The Packers ground game was crippled by injuries, especially the Week 1 loss of Ryan Grant, who had rushed for over 1,200 yards in each of the last two seasons. In his absence, the team relied prominently on Brandon Jackson, who rushed for 703 yards and caught 43 passes for 342, and fullback John Kuhn, who added 281 yards on the ground. The team's offensive line was anchored by pro bowl tackle Chad Clifton, an 11-year veteran.

The Packers defense ranked second in the league in fewest points allowed per game (15). The line was led by Cullen Jenkins, who recorded seven sacks in just eleven games, and 338-pound defensive tackle B. J. Raji, who had 6.5. The linebackers were led by Pro Bowler Clay Matthews and A. J. Hawk. Matthews ranked fourth in the NFL with 13.5 sacks, while Hawk led the team in combined tackles (111) and intercepted three passes. Three of the Packers starters in the secondary also made the Pro Bowl. Tramon Williams led the team with a career-high 6 interceptions, while adding 326 punt return yards. Other Pro Bowl selections included safety Nick Collins (4 interceptions and 70 combined tackles) and hard hitting 13-year veteran cornerback Charles Woodson, who recorded 92 total tackles and forced five fumbles, while also intercepting two passes.

The Packers entered the Super Bowl never having trailed by more than 7 points at any point during the season—a feat that had never been accomplished during a complete season in the Super Bowl era. The last team to complete a season with this distinction was the Detroit Lions in 1962.[35] In the Super Bowl game itself, the Packers never trailed.

Of note, this was Green Bay's first Super Bowl against an AFC team that was not one of the "Original 8" American Football League franchises. The Packers had played Kansas City, Oakland, New England, and Denver in their four previous Super Bowl match-ups, defeating the Chiefs, Raiders and Patriots, and losing to the Broncos. The Steelers, like the Packers, predated the AFL's launch, having begun play in 1933 (12 years after the Packers joined the NFL after two years as an independent team), and moved to the AFC in 1970 as a result of the AFL–NFL merger to even out the two conferences.

Playoffs

edit Main article: 2010–11 NFL playoffs

The Steelers advanced to the Super Bowl with two close wins in the playoffs. After a first-round bye, the Steelers defeated their division rival, the number 5 seeded Baltimore Ravens 31–24, with Ben Roethlisberger's 58-yard completion to Antonio Brown on third down and 19 setting up Rashard Mendenhall's game winning 2-yard touchdown run with 1:33 left in the game. Roethlisberger finished with 226 passing yards and two touchdowns, while the defense forced three turnovers and sacked Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco five times, three by James Harrison.[36]

Then the Steelers defeated the number 6 seeded New York Jets 24–19 in the AFC Championship Game. The Steelers seemed to be in complete control at first, taking a 24–0 lead in the first half. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez rallied his team back, cutting the score to 24–10 going into the fourth quarter. The Jets then drove to the Steelers 2-yard line on a 17-play drive, but the Steelers defense made a key stand, keeping them out of the end zone on four consecutive plays near the goal-line to force a turnover. The Jets subsequently forced a safety and scored a touchdown with just over three minutes left, but Roethlisberger's 14-yard completions to Brown and Heath Miller allowed the Steelers to hang onto the ball until time expired. Mendenhall finished with 121 rushing yards and a touchdown, along with 2 catches for 32 yards.[37]

The Packers started off their postseason with a 21–16 win over the number 3 seeded Philadelphia Eagles after Tramon Williams intercepted a pass from Michael Vick in the end zone with less than a minute left to play. Aaron Rodgers threw for 180 yards and three touchdowns while James Starks, who only rushed for 101 yards during the season, rushed for 123 yards in the game.[38]

The Packers then went to Atlanta, where the top-seeded 13–3 Atlanta Falcons were waiting. Although the Falcons took advantage of an early turnover and a kick return touchdown to build a 14–7 lead, the Packers quickly buried the Falcons with 35 straight points. By the end of the first half, the Packers held a 28–14 lead, and went on to win comfortably, 48–21. Rodgers was nearly perfect, completing 31 of 36 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns, while adding another score on the ground. Jordy Nelson and James Jones both had touchdown catches, while John Kuhn added scores by air and ground and Tramon Williams returned one of his two interceptions 70 yards for a touchdown. The Packers' special teams unit never had to punt the ball, while Mason Crosby contributed two field goals.[39]

The Packers next faced their rival, the number 2 Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game, defeating them 21–14. This time Rodgers had a rougher day than his previous two games, throwing no touchdown passes and being intercepted twice. But he still threw for 244 yards and scored a 1-yard touchdown run, while Starks added 74 rushing yards, including a touchdown run in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Packers' defense knocked Bears quarterback Jay Cutler out of the game and intercepted three passes, one of which was returned 18 yards for a touchdown by B. J. Raji.[40] The other two were made by rookie Sam Shields, who recorded his second interception near his own end zone with 37 seconds left to put the game away.[41]

Super Bowl pregame notes

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Both teams are known to have sizable fanbases that often travel to away games, largely due to season tickets for home games having decades-long waiting lists.[42] In August 2008, ESPN.com ranked the two teams tied as having the best fans in the NFL.[43] ESPN's own John Clayton, a Pittsburgh native, broke the tie in favor of the Steelers.

As the Packers were the designated home team in the annual rotation between AFC and NFC teams, the team elected to wear their green jerseys.[44] Although both teams are known to wear their colored jerseys at home and have rarely worn white at home, the Packers decision contrasted with the Steelers decision as the home team in Super Bowl XL to wear white jerseys. Both the 2005 Steelers and 2010 Packers were number 6 seeded teams when they reached the Super Bowl, forcing them to play all of their postseason games on the road and wearing their respective white jerseys in those games.[45]

The retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium was closed for the game.[46]

A severe winter storm blanketed the Dallas–Fort Worth area in hard ice and snow the week before the game, threatening to disrupt game preparations. Snow fell from the roof of Cowboys Stadium's East end on February 4, injuring six people.[47] Over 3,000 tickets were sold to watch the game in the stadium's East Plaza, which experienced the falling ice tragedy earlier in the week. However, the snow had melted by game time and fans who paid $200 per ticket were allowed to watch the game outside Cowboys Stadium, in the open air, as the weather turned from sleet to sun.

Since the Steelers and Packers were two of the six teams that did not have cheerleaders during the 2010 NFL season (the others being the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, and New York Giants), this marked the first Super Bowl without cheerleaders.[48]

Packers lineman, Bryan Bulaga, became the youngest player to start in a Super Bowl, at the age of 21 years and 322 days old. Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey would have been the youngest player (21 years, 197 days), but he could not play because of a high ankle sprain.

Possible presidential appearance

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During a press conference on January 19, 2011, President Barack Obama (a longtime Chicago Bears fan) said he would attend Super Bowl XLV if Chicago defeated Green Bay, saying "If Chicago wins, I'm going no doubt".[49] Chicago ended up losing the NFC Championship game a few days later on January 23 to Green Bay 21–14. In a post-game locker-room speech, Green Bay Packers corner Charles Woodson poked fun at the President's comment saying "The President don't want to come watch us at the Super Bowl, guess what? We'll go see him" (implying that Green Bay would win the Super Bowl and visit the White House as the winning team usually does each year; a statement that would come true). Woodson then broke the Packers meeting with a team cheer of "White House!".[50] On January 26 President Obama visited Green Bay and was greeted by Mayor Jim Schmitt and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who presented the President with two Green Bay Packers Jerseys. The first had Obama's name on the back with the number 1 and the second was an autographed Charles Woodson jersey with the message "See you at the White House. Go Packers!" written on the back by Woodson.[51]

On August 12, 2011, Woodson's promise came true and the Packers visited the White House and met with President Obama.[52] Their visit was delayed because of the NFL lockout and took place a day before the Packers first preseason game against the Cleveland Browns.[53] President Obama was presented with a Packers jersey with the number 1 and the words Commander-In-Chief on the back. He was also presented with a stock share of the Packers organization, thus making him a part owner of the Packers. When Obama jokingly asked if this meant he could trade Aaron Rodgers to the Bears, Woodson responded that Obama was just "a minority owner".

Obama, who is also a Steelers fan and considers the team to be his second-favorite after the Bears, openly supported the Steelers two years earlier in Super Bowl XLIII after the Rooney family helped with his campaigning work and later appointed Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, an ethnic Irish Catholic, the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.[54] He did not attend the game; instead, he hosted a 100-person Super Bowl party at the White House. Attendees included his family, elected leaders from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, DNC member Andres Lopez of Puerto Rico, Buffalo, New York mayor Byron Brown, Buffalo deputy mayor Steve Casey, Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker, Jennifer Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony, both actors/singers, ESPN columnist Michael Wilbon, and Tony Kornheiser.[55][56]

Although the sitting president did not attend the game, former president and former Texas governor George W. Bush was present, along with his wife Laura and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[57]

Local commemoration

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From June 15, 2010, through February 6, 2011, the 30-mile section of Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth along which Cowboys Stadium is situated had been temporarily designated as the "Tom Landry Super Bowl Highway" in commemoration of Super Bowl XLV.[58] The former Dallas–Fort Worth Turnpike is normally known as the "Tom Landry Highway" in honor of former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry.[58]

Logo

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While past Super Bowl games used their own unique logo designs that changed yearly and featured imagery which reflected the host city, Super Bowl XLV introduced a new standardized, silver-colored emblem, featuring an image of the Vince Lombardi Trophy sitting atop the traditional Roman numerals used to denote each edition, with a stylized image of the host stadium shown in the background. It was introduced as part of a new, standardized branding scheme for the NFL's postseason games, which also saw the redesign of the conference championship trophies.[59][60]

The only changes made to the logo for future games, until Super Bowl 50, was to change the number and the stadium depicted.[61][60] Super Bowl 50 deviated slightly from the standard design to emphasize the game's "golden anniversary", featuring the number "50" in large gold numbering on each side of the trophy rather than below it in Roman numerals.[62] This modified layout, but with Roman numerals, no stadium, and different accent colors, has been used for subsequent Super Bowl games. Super Bowl LVI in 2022 later established a compromise, in which scenery or other designs reflective of the host city would appear within the numerals.[63][64][65]