
Super Bowl XL on February 5, 2006, in Fort Field, Detroit, marks the 40th anniversary of the NFL. This means the Super Bowl has provided America its championship football mega-event for some four decades now. Across generations of NFL football fans, Super Bowl equals the fitting culmination of a season's worth of NFL playoffs, winning teams and MVPs, winning bets and props, TV commercials and halftime shows. These are all part of the Super Bowl popular culture, every highlight of which does not escape the true fan. Super Bowl was the New England Patriots, Super Bowl was the San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl was Janet Jackson, Super Bowl was U2.
Super Bowl history dates back far more than forty years, spanning a full century, give or take three decades, now. Back in the day, not much of today's Super Bowl pop culture was true. College football players hesitated to get paid to play, and even as the National Football League started its college draft in 1936, not many of those drafted agreed to play at professional football. The slew of early Super Bowl ads and commercials, like Coke, Xerox, and Noxema ads in the 1970s, were thought to be better and are now considered as classics. It was marching bands, drill teams, dance troupes, and Up With People—who holds the record for most halftime performances—that graced the Super Bowl halftime shows.