Random Super Bowl Facts

Sorry I haven't been around for a while.  I've been busy.  But today I'm back, and I've decided to do a Super Bowl version of random facts like the one I did for the World Series way back in my early blogging days (you know, October).

• The Packers are the 10th different team to win the NFC title in the last 10 years.  Of the six that haven't, three of them (Dallas, San Francisco and Washington) have won a combined 13 Super Bowl titles.
• In that same 10-year span, only four different teams have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl (Patriots 4, Steelers 3, Colts 2, Raiders 1).
• The Steelers and Packers have combined for more championships (9) than any other opponents in Super Bowl history.  The previous record for total championships was eight, when the Steelers (4) played the Cowboys (4) in Super Bowl XXX.  Super Bowl XXX was Dallas's eighth appearance and Pittsburgh's fifth, and that record will be tied this year (it's the Steelers' eighth appearance and the Packers' fifth).
• Pittsburgh and Green Bay have a combined Super Bowl winning percentage of .833, easily the best combined record (10-2) for Super Bowl opponents in history.
• If the Steelers win, Ben Roethlisberger will become just the fifth quarterback to win three Super Bowls as a starter.  Three of the other four (Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman) are in the Hall of Fame, and the fourth (Tom Brady) will be.  The five have a combined record of 16-1 in the Super Bowl.
• If the Packers win, they'll become the third wild card team in six years to win the Super Bowl.  Just like the 2005 Steelers and 2007 Giants, they had to win three road playoff games to reach the Super Bowl.  In the 36 years before the eight-division format, only four wild card teams (1969 Chiefs, 1980 Raiders, 1997 Broncos, 2000 Ravens) won the Super Bowl.  Of those four, only the 1969 Chiefs (an AFL wild card team) didn't host a playoff game.
• Packers linebacker Clay Mattews, and his hair, reached the Super Bowl for the first time in his second season as a pro.  That gives him the same number of Super Bowl appearances as his father, Clay, and uncle, Hall of Famer Bruce, combined--and they both played 19 seasons in the NFL!
• This is the sixth Super Bowl on FOX, and only one (Broncos-Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII) hasn't involved the Patriots and/or Packers.  Green Bay beat New England in FOX's first Super Bowl, Super Bowl XXXI.
• When the Packers won Super Bowl XXXI in January 1997, the MVP was Desmond Howard, who won the 1991 Heisman Trophy at Michigan.  The 1997 Heisman Trophy winner was Michigan's Charles Woodson, who'll be starting at cornerback for the Packers on Sunday.
• Speaking of FOX, the Steelers are the second team to play in a Super Bowl on all four networks, joining the Broncos, and can become the first team to win one on all four.  (I can't take credit for that one.  I saw it on Wikipedia and liked it.)
• The Super Bowl and World Series are being played in the same city in the same season (Super Bowl the following January/February) for the fifth time (1966-Los Angeles, 1991-Minneapolis, 1999-Atlanta, 2008-Tampa Bay).  The Super Bowl and World Series were both played in San Diego in 1998 and Detroit in 2006, but in both of those cases, it was the Super Bowl for the prior year's football season.  Both Super Bowl XXVI and the 1991 World Series were in the Metrodome, and Super Bowl XXXII and the 1998 World Series were both in Qualcomm Stadium, but this is the first time that the games are being played in separate stadiums that share a parking lot.
• This final stat bodes very well for the Steelers.  As the "visiting" team, Pittsburgh will be wearing white.  The team wearing white has won the last six Super Bowls, including the Steelers twice (Super Bowl XLIII against the Cardinals and Super Bowl XL against the Seahawks, when they were the "home" team but decided to wear white).  The 2007 Giants also wore white four times including the Super Bowl, meaning the Packers will be the only one of the three to wear their dark jersey in a playoff game during their Super Bowl season.  (Green Bay's last home playoff game was their 2007 NFC Championship Game loss to that Giants team.)