9781422283097

There were 19 such “Super Bowl rematches” on the 2015 regular-season schedule, and the league used those opportunities to celebrate. It also found time to honor some of the 43 former Super Bowl MVPs, and held ceremonies at some of the 15 cities or regions that have hosted past Super Bowls. The San Francisco Bay Area—Santa Clara is 45 miles south of San Francisco—hosted the Super Bowl for the second time in the 2015 season. (The first time was in the 1984 season, when the game was played at Stanford.) The area known for the famous California gold rush of the 1800s was a perfect place to celebrate the Super Bowl’s golden anniversary. Just as northern California grew incred‑ ibly over time once the gold rush began, that’s exactly what happened when the NFL struck gold with the Super Bowl. It didn’t happen overnight, but it didn’t take long. The All-American Event Pete Rozelle, the NFL’s commissioner from 1960 through 1989, admitted there was “a conscious effort

10