A Layman’s Guide to the Super Bowl
If you’ve ever heard someone say “I’m watching the Super Bowl” and wondered what that actually means, you’re not alone. The Super Bowl can feel like this big cultural event where everybody suddenly knows exactly what’s going on — even if they don’t normally watch football.
At its simplest, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL). After months of regular games and then playoff elimination rounds, two teams are left standing. They play one final game, and whoever wins gets the championship trophy.
This year’s game — Super Bowl LX — will be played on February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s a neutral site that rotates every year, which is why the host city changes: it’s not based on where the best teams are, but where the league wants to hold the big event and all the celebrations around it.
Who’s Playing This Year
For Super Bowl LX, the matchup is:
- New England Patriots — the champions of the AFC (American Football Conference)
- Seattle Seahawks — the champions of the NFC (National Football Conference)
These two teams already played in a Super Bowl before — back in 2015 — where the Patriots won on a dramatic final play (interception when the Seahawks CLEARLY should have ran the ball.) This year’s game is a rematch of that moment, which adds a layer of story even before kickoff.
A Few Super Bowl Records and Notable Facts
You don’t need statistics to enjoy the big game, but a few figures can help explain why it matters:
Most Super Bowl Wins (Franchise):
- New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers are tied at 6 championships each.
Tom Brady alone has won seven Super Bowls — more than any individual coach or player in NFL history.
Biggest Legends:
- Quarterbacks like Joe Montana (3 Super Bowl MVPs) and Patrick Mahomes (multiple MVP seasons) are remembered not for a single play, but for how consistently they showed up on the sport’s biggest stage.
Most Losses Without a Win:
Some teams have never won a Super Bowl — for example, the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns. That’s part of why every year’s game feels like both history and possibility.
Why the Location Changes Each Year
Unlike playoffs, which are hosted by the home cities of the teams involved, the Super Bowl is planned years ahead. The league picks big stadiums in cities that can host the influx of fans, media, parties, and events that now surround the game. These arenas often have large capacities and the weather or infrastructure to support everything that comes with Super Bowl week.
Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium has hosted the game before (in 2016), and it’s back now partly because it’s in a major metro area with a big stadium and experience with large sporting events.
The Halftime Show
The Super Bowl halftime show is a huge spectacle that many people care about just as much as the game itself. This year’s headliner is Bad Bunny, a hugely popular artist whose performance is one of the most-talked-about parts of the night. It’s not just a concert — it’s timed perfectly to a global audience and often becomes part of pop culture conversation for weeks.
The Commercials
Here’s one of the most uniquely American parts of the Super Bowl: the commercials.
Advertisers pay insane amounts of money — often millions of dollars — for a 30-second spot. That’s because tens of millions of people are watching at once. The result? Companies often make funny, weird, emotional, nostalgic, or totally bizarre ads that people remember almost as much as the game itself. They feel less like commercials and more like mini-stories or jokes that show up on social media the next day.
You don’t need to care about football to enjoy the commercials — plenty of people watch just for them.
What Makes the Super Bowl Special
Even if you don’t know a touchdown from a field goal, the Super Bowl is one of those events where everyone finds something to latch onto:
There’s the game itself — competition, strategy, drama.
There’s the halftime performance — a chance to see a huge artist in a unique setting.
There’s the commercials — the creativity and sometimes absurd humor.
There are stories — rivalries, rematches, legends and legacies that stretch back years.
It’s more than a championship game.
It’s a shared cultural moment that blends sport, entertainment, and storytelling in a way few other events do.
Question for readers:
Have you ever watched the Super Bowl all the way through? What part did you enjoy most — the game, the halftime show, or the commercials?