Super Bowl Fun Facts

Today was Super Bowl Media Day, which means that after a week and a half of hype, we're finally getting close.  Although, here in New York, it's been virtually nothing but the Super Bowl for that entire time, seeing as we're making history here with the first open-air, cold-weather Super Bowl.  The weather, and the will it snow or won't it discussion, has dominated a lot of that talk.

We all know that this is the first cold-weather Super Bowl, the first Super Bowl hosted by two teams/states, etc.  But there are plenty of other fun facts related to the Broncos and Seahawks.  It's time for our annual look at some random Super Bowl tidbits that are completely useless in real life.  Hopefully, you find some of them interesting.

• It's just the second time in 20 years that the two No. 1 seeds made it to the Super Bowl.  The last time that happened was Super Bowl XLIV, when the Saints beat Peyton Manning and the Colts.
• They both beat the Giants at Met Life Stadium during the regular season.  The last time both Super Bowl teams won a regular season game in the Super Bowl stadium?  That would once again be the Saints and Colts, who both beat the Dolphins in Miami during the 2009 season.
• We've also got the No. 1 offense (Denver) against the No. 1 defense (Seattle).  That hasn't happened in the Super Bowl in 11 years, since the Bucs crushed the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.
• Speaking of the Bucs and Raiders, they were in the same division way back in 1976, Tampa Bay's first year in the NFL.  Seattle, of course, was the other '76 expansion team, and they moved to the AFC West the next season, staying there until they joined the NFC West in 2002.  What all this means is that we have a Super Bowl matchup of former division rivals.  The last time that happened was five years ago, when the Steelers beat the Cardinals.  Pittsburgh and Arizona were rivals in the old NFL Century Division from 1967-69.  (There was also Super Bowl III, which featured future division rivals--the Jets and the Colts.)
• As coincidence would have it, the Seahawks' first-ever playoff game in 1983 was against the Broncos.
• Once again, we've got a Steelers-Cardinals connection.  Peyton Manning is the first quarterback to start the Super Bowl for two different teams since Kurt Warner.  He's, of course, looking to become the first to win the Super Bowl with two different teams.
• No coach has won the Super Bowl with two different teams, either.  John Fox is the sixth different coach to make it with two different franchises.  The last coach to do it was Mike Holmgren, who led Seattle to its only other Super Bowl appearance (XL) after the back-to-back appearances with Green Bay in 1996-97.
• Current Seahawks coach Pete Carroll can become the first coach to win both a National Championship in college and a Super Bowl title since Barry Switzer, who won three national titles at Oklahoma and Super Bowl XXX with the Cowboys.  The only other coach to do this was Switzer's predecessor in Dallas, Jimmy Johnson, who'll be on the set with the FOX crew during the pregame show.
• Russell Wilson will be just the fourth black quarterback to start the Super Bowl.  Doug Williams (XXII) is still the only black QB to win one.  Steve McNair's Titans lost Super Bowl XXXIV, and Donovan McNabb was the last black quarterback to start the Super Bowl, with the Eagles (XXXIX).
• A stat that certainly works in Seattle's favor, the team wearing white has won two straight Super Bowls and eight of the last nine.  The only colorful champion of the last decade was the Packers in Super Bowl XLV.
• Continuing an odd trend, this is the seventh Super Bowl on FOX, and all of them have included either the Packers (XXXI, XLV), Patriots (XXXI, XXXVI, XXXIX, XLII) or Broncos (XXXIII, XLVIII).
• This one is obvious and has been brought up repeatedly, but it's cool nonetheless, Eli Manning won Super Bowl XLVI in Peyton's home stadium in Indianapolis.  Two years later, Peyton is looking to win the Super Bowl in Eli's home stadium.
• Since the 2002 realignment when Houston came into the league, neither Western Division has won the Super Bowl.  In fact, it hasn't happened this century.  The last team from the West to win the Super Bowl was the 1999 Rams.  The last team from west of the Mississippi to win was actually the Broncos, with their back-to-back titles in 1997-98.
• This is just the third time that two western-based franchises are meeting in the Super Bowl.  The 49ers beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV and the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.  (The last West vs. West Super Bowl was Super Bowl XXXIII, when Denver beat Atlanta, but that doesn't really count, since Atlanta's located on the East coast.)
• Denver's making its seventh Super Bowl appearance, tying New England for third-most all-time.  Only Dallas and Pittsburgh have been to more.  The Cowboys and Steelers have both played in the Super Bowl eight times (including three against each other).  If you add up the appearances of Pittsburgh, Denver and New England, they've won almost half of all AFL/AFC championships in the Super Bowl era (22 of 48, which is actually 22 of the last 40 since Pittsburgh's first appearance in Super Bowl IX).  (Dallas, meanwhile, went to eight of the first 30 and hasn't been back since.)
• It's the third time in four years that the Super Bowl stadium is hosting the game for the first time.
• Lastly, if Seattle wins, they'll become the 19th different franchise to win the Super Bowl.  They'd be the first team to win the Super Bowl for the first time since the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV to conclude the 2009 season.