- To 49ers fans, it seems like an eternity since the Red and Gold won its last Super Bowl. But 30 years isn’t so bad compared to some other droughts. The Jets have gone 55 years since “Broadway” Joe Namath delivered on his guarantee to win Super Bowl III. It’s also been a longer wait for the Miami Dolphins (51), Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders (41), Chicago Bears (39) and Washington Commanders (33). If it’s any consolation, 49ers fans, the Dallas Cowboys have gone 29 years without another Super Bowl win, and the Pittsburgh Steelers have gone 16 years since they won their record sixth ring.
- On the other hand, there are four franchises still looking to play in the Big Game: The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars. (All are on the 49ers’ 2025 schedule.)
- What’s worse, never getting to the Super Bowl or never winning it? Eight teams took their shot and missed – a couple several times. The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings have had four chances each and have yet to come home with the trophy. Also on the miss list are the Cincinnati Bengals (0-3), Atlanta Falcons (0-2), Carolina Panthers (0-2), Arizona Cardinals (0-1), Los Angeles Chargers (0-1) and Tennessee Titans (0-1).
- Losing a Super Bowl is never easy. The Denver Broncos and New England Patriots have done it more than any other team: five losses each. The Bills and Vikings have lost four Super Bowls, and three-time losers include the 49ers, Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Bengals, Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles.
- Pittsburgh and New England have won the title six times: The Steelers in 1975, ‘76, ‘79, ‘80, 2006 and ‘09, and the Patriots in 2002, ‘04, ‘05, ‘15, ‘17 and ‘19. One behind, with five, are the 49ers (1982, ’85, ’89, ’90 and ’95) and the Cowboys (1972, ’78, ’93, ’94 and ’96).
- It is difficult enough to reach the Super Bowl. But to string together consecutive appearances is something special. Nobody did it better than the Bills, who went to four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93. But the cruel twist was that they lost each time.
- The Chiefs lost in last year’s game after winning the previous two, and the only other teams to play in three straight Super Bowls are the Dolphins (1972-74) and the Patriots (2017-19).
- Levi’s Stadium is hosting the Super Bowl for the second time, and it’s somewhat rare when the game isn’t played in a Southern state. The New Orleans Superdome has been the most popular site, with eight Super Bowls. Miami Gardens’ Hard Rock Stadium has hosted six, followed by Miami’s Orange Bowl (5), Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium (5) and Pasadena’s Rose Bowl (5).
- Among the cities in the West, the Los Angeles area has hosted the most Super Bowls, eight. That’s a distant third to Miami and New Orleans (11 each).
- Santa Clara will come off the list of one-time Super Bowl cities in February, 10 years after hosting Super Bowl 50. The sites of the 49ers’ first two Super Bowl wins – Palo Alto (the game was played at Stanford Stadium in 1985) and Pontiac, Michigan (1982) – are among the one-timers, along with Arlington, Texas (2011); Detroit (2006); East Rutherford, New Jersey (2014); Indianapolis (2012); Inglewood (2022); Jacksonville, Florida (2005); and Tempe, Arizona (1996).
- If it seems like the Super Bowl used to be played earlier, you are right. The Oakland Raiders beat the Vikings at the Rose Bowl in a Super Bowl that was played on Jan. 9, 1977.
- This year’s game will be played on Feb. 8, but that’s not the latest date a Super Bowl has been played. In 2022, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals the day before Valentine’s Day: Feb. 13. A Super Bowl hasn’t been played this “early” in February in five years.
- Super Bowl Sunday can be a significant time commitment for fans considering all the breaks for commercials and the pageantry. For the most part, the action on the field moves at the usual pace. The game has gone into overtime just twice, when the Patriots beat the Falcons in Super Bowl 51 and the Chiefs’ comeback win over the 49ers in Super Bowl 58.
- The Super Bowl attracts more than 100 million viewers worldwide, but what about fans in the stands? The Guinness World Records lists the largest crowd as the 103,985 fans who watched the Steelers beat the Rams in Super Bowl 14 at the Rose Bowl in 1980. The largest in the last 30 years was at Super Bowl 45, 103,219 at Cowboys Stadium for the Packers-Steelers in 2011.
- Super Bowl attendance records are safe for at least another year: Capacity at Levi’s Stadium for the game is 75,000.
- The lowest-attended Super Bowl was in 2021, when 24,835 fans showed up at 65,890-seat Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to watch the Buccaneers beat the Chiefs. Attendance was limited to 25,000 fans – and 30,000 cardboard cutouts – because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The 49ers could join an exclusive group if they win the Super Bowl this year. Only the Buccaneers (in 2021) and Los Angeles Rams (in 2022) have won a Super Bowl on their home field.
- Levi’s Stadium’s typical capacity is 68,500 but it can be expanded to 75,000 for special events. Attendance for Super Bowl 50 was 71,088 (under sunny skies and 76 degrees at 3:39 p.m. kickoff).
- Even with a completely packed house, Levi’s attendance record probably won’t be broken: An Ed Sheeran concert attracted 78,881 fans in September 2023.
- If the 49ers make the Super Bowl, the home-field advantage could be significant. The 49ers clinched the NFC Championship and an accompanying Super Bowl berth twice at Levi’s Stadium, in the 2019 season (37-20 over Green Bay before 72,211 fans) and 2023 season (34-31 over Detroit before 71,824 fans).
- Levi’s Stadium will be the first venue to host a Super Bowl and World Cup soccer games in the same year. Group-stage games are set for June 13, 16, 19, 22 and 25, plus a July 1 Round of 32 game. Ten other NFL stadiums will also host World Cup action next summer.
- The 49ers are entering their 12th season at Levi’s Stadium, after playing from 1970-2013 at Candlestick Park and 1946-70 at Kezar Stadium.
- Super Bowl 50 generated $250 million for the Bay Area economy, and this Super Bowl is expected to generate close to $370 million, according to the 49ers.
- Nobody has spent more time in the end zone during Super Bowls than Jerry Rice. The Hall of Fame receiver has scored a Super Bowl record eight touchdowns, the first seven with the 49ers and then one with the Raiders in their Super Bowl 37 loss to Tampa Bay.
- Six players have scored three touchdowns in one Super Bowl, and three of them were with the 49ers. Rice did it twice (Super Bowls 24 and 29), and Roger Craig (Super Bowl 19) and Rickey Watters (Super Bowl 29) did it once. The other three-TD scorers were Terrell Davis for the Broncos in Super Bowl 32, the Patriots’ James White in Super Bowl 51 and the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts in Super Bowl 57.
(Michael Rondou/Staff Archives)
- According to legend, then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to call the just-established AFC-NFC championship game “The Big One.” But late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt offered up “Super Bowl,” a play off the bouncy Super Ball toy. The name, and the game, stuck.
- Rice has three Super Bowl rings and no receiver can match his impact. Rice holds nine Super Bowl records: career touchdowns (8), touchdowns in a game (3), career receiving yards (589), receiving yards in a game (215), receiving touchdowns (career and game), career yards from scrimmage (604) and career points 48).
- Legendary 49ers quarterback Joe Montana couldn’t have been much more efficient in his Super Bowl appearances. Montana guided his teams to wins in all four of his appearances and holds the career passer rating record of 127.8 (a perfect rating is 158.3). His streak of 122 consecutive passes without an interception likely never will be broken.
- Do quarterbacks get too much of the blame for a Super Bowl loss and too much credit for a win? Through the first 59 games, a quarterback has been named the MVP 34 times – and that includes a stretch of six straight games from 1973-78 when the award went to a non-QB.
- Of the six players with multiple Super Bowl MVPs, all are quarterbacks: Tom Brady (5), Joe Montana and Patrick Mahomes (3) and Terry Bradshaw, Eli Manning and Bart Starr, with two apiece.
- Serra High’s Brady played more than a half-season of Super Bowls (10) before he retired. It’s no surprise he owns most of the career quarterback records. Brady is the record holder for Super Bowl passing attempts (career and single game), completions (career and single game), passing yards (3,039 in his career and 505 in a game) and career passing touchdowns (21).
- One of the few passing records Brady doesn’t own is TDs in a game. Steve Young threw six for the 49ers in Super Bowl 29.
- Perhaps most impressive of Brady’s career Super Bowl stats is that only six of his 421 career attempts were intercepted. John Elway holds the record for throwing the most career Super Bowl interceptions, with eight in 152 attempts over five games.
- The Super Bowl was pretty much business as usual for the always steady Emmitt Smith. The former Cowboys star played in three, and his 289 rushing yards were hardly eye-raising, but he holds the record with five career rushing TDs, and his teams never lost in the Big Game.
- Part of the appeal of the Super Bowl is that most players are not like Brady or Montana, and the opportunity to shine on the largest stage doesn’t come around often – if at all. Rod Martin made his moment count in Super Bowl 15, intercepting a record three passes in the Raiders’ win over the Eagles. Martin played 12 seasons with the Raiders and made the Pro Bowl twice, and in 165 regular-season games only had 11 career interceptions (his season-best was four). The Super Bowl was the only time he had multiple picks in a game, and he didn’t have any in his other 11 career playoff games.
- Offensive players can rise to the moment, too. White was a versatile running back with the Patriots who averaged 60 receptions from 2015-20. He set the Super Bowl record with 14 receptions in Super Bowl 51 but never had more than 10 in a regular-season game.
- The Steelers’ Willie Parker provided one of the most exciting starts to a second half – and a Super Bowl record – when, on the second play following the Rolling Stones’ three-song set (“Start Me Up”, “Rough Justice”, and “Satisfaction”) in Super Bowl 40, he raced 75 yards for a touchdown to give the Steelers a 14-3 lead they never relinquished.
- Panthers wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad set a Super Bowl record by turning Jake Delhomme’s long sideline heave into an 85-yard touchdown reception against the Patriots in 2004. The play gave the Panthers a 22-21 lead with less than seven minutes remaining but became a footnote when the teams traded the lead twice in the final 2:51 before New England ended it with Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard field goal with four seconds left.
- Another big effort that went for naught in the Panthers’ 32-29 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl 38 was linebacker Dan Morgan, who set a record with 18 tackles. The entire Carolina defense got a workout that day, combining to make 107 tackles and spending nearly 40 minutes on the field. The Panthers’ Mike Minter had 14 tackles, third-most in Super Bowl history – and Will Witherspoon had 13.
- L.C. Greenwood was a pivotal but sometimes overlooked member of the Steelers’ famed Steel Curtain defense of the 1970s, but there was no missing him in Super Bowl 10, when he sacked Cowboys star Roger Staubach a record four times.
- Although few of Rice’s records have been matched, Kansas City star tight end Travis Kelce passed the former 49ers star last year by boosting his career receptions total to 35.
- It’s not uncommon to see a regular-season game settled on a field-goal attempt in the final seconds. Only two kickers have won a Super Bowl with a last-second field goal. Jim O’Brien’s 32-yarder lifted the Colts past the Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl 5 and the Patriots’ Vinatieri did it twice: a 48-yarder against the Rams in Super Bowl 36 and a 41-yarder with four seconds remaining to beat the Panthers two years later.
- Only one game has been decided by a game-ending missed field-goal attempt: Scott Norwood’s “wide right” miss of a 47-yard attempt that preserved Super Bowl 25 for the New York Giants.
- The 49ers had done a better job than most about keeping their kickers busy during Super Bowls. Doug Brien (1995) and Mike Cofer (1990) hold the record, along with the Cowboys’ Lin Elliott in 1993, with seven extra points in a game.
- Unlike many franchise quarterbacks, running backs haven’t had the same staying power in the Super Bowl. The career record for Super Bowl rushing yards is 354 by Franco Harris, who played in – and won – four, all with the Steelers. Harris racked up nearly half of that total, 158 yards, in his first Super Bowl game.
- Harris’ record could be safe for a while. Mahomes, the Chiefs’ quarterback, is the only active player in the top 10 with 197 rushing yards.
- Cal holds a unique spot in Super Bowl lore: The Bears have produced more quarterbacks who have started in the game than any other college. Jared Goff is the most recent former Bear to start the big game, leading the Rams to Super Bowl 53 in 2019. Goff, now with the Lions, followed in the footsteps of Aaron Rodgers (the only former Bear QB to win a Super Bowl, earning MVP honors with the Packers in 2011), Vince Ferragamo (who played his final two seasons at Nebraska), Craig Morton (who started two Super Bowls) and the QB that started it all, Joe Kapp for the Vikings in Super Bowl 4. Alabama is second with four.
- One of the biggest one-hit wonders in Super Bowl history was Timmy Smith. The rookie came out of nowhere to rush for a record 204 yards for Washington in Super Bowl 22, but was out of the league two years later.
- One of the best Super Bowl examples of the NFL’s offensive evolution from smash-mouth to wide open offenses is John Riggins. The former Washington star set the record with 38 rushing attempts in Super Bowl 17. Dallas’ Emmitt Smith is the last rusher to carry the ball 30 times in a Super Bowl, and that was in 1994.
- Hurts won last year’s Super Bowl with his arms and his legs, but that should not have been a surprise. In the Eagles quarterback’s Super Bowl debut in 2023, he rushed for three TDs, tying the Broncos’ Davis from Super Bowl 32.
- Among the items located in the team museum in Levi’s Stadium’s north end, prominently displayed in its own glass case, is a football suspended in midair. That’s “The Catch” ball that Dwight Clark caught for a go-ahead touchdown to clinch the 49ers’ first Super Bowl berth, in the 1980 season’s NFC Championship win over Dallas at Candlestick Park.
- Just 10 players (only three on offense) from the 49ers’ five Super Bowl-winning teams are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Fred Dean, Richard Dent, Charles Haley, Rickey Jackson, Ronnie Lott, Montana, Rice, Deion Sanders, Bryant Young, and Steve Young, plus owner Eddie DeBartolo and coach Bill Walsh.
- Ticket prices have jumped from $12 for the first Super Bowl to as much as $9,915 for Super Bowl 57 between the Chiefs and the Eagles. A year later, it dropped to $9,400 for the tilt in Las Vegas, where the 49ers fell in overtime to the Chiefs. Last season’s average price for the Chiefs-Eagles matchup was $6,304, according to Yahoo Sports.
- NBC will broadcast this season’s Super Bowl on Feb. 8, 2026; ABC gets next season’s (Feb. 14, 2027), then Super Bowl 62 will air via CBS (its record 23rd broadcast) before the four-network rotation rolls to Fox for Super Bowl 63.
- Television changed the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl changed how football was presented on TV. John Madden, five years after he coached the Raiders to a Super Bowl win, was the first broadcaster to utilize the Telestrator during Super Bowl 16, the 49ers’ first Super Bowl win. The ability to draw on the screen and simplify complex plays became Madden’s calling card for decades.
- Madden and Pat Summerall paired for a record eight Super Bowl broadcasts. Madden also did three with Al Michaels, whose 11 play-by-play assignments tie with Summerall for the most and are followed by Dick Enberg (eight), Jim Nantz (seven), Curt Gowdy (seven) and Joe Buck (six). Color commentators trailing Madden are Phil Simms (eight), Troy Aikman (six), Cris Collinsworth (five) and Merlin Olsen (five).
- Madden’s final broadcast was Super Bowl 43 in 2009 between the Cardinals and the Steelers. He was part of more than 500 broadcasts during his career in the booth.
- The NFL likely won’t reveal this year’s halftime performer until mid-September. The performers at Super Bowl 50 included Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars.
- Entering training camp, the defending-champion Philadelphia Eagles were the favorite to win Super Bowl 60 (+650), followed by the Ravens (+700), Bills (+700), Chiefs (+800), Lions (+1,000), Commanders (+1,800), 49ers (+2,000), Bengals (+2,000) and Rams (+2,000), per BetMGM.
- The biggest longshots to win Super Bowl 60 coming into the season were the Saints (+30,000), Giants (+25,000), Browns (+25,000), Jets (+20,000) and Titans (+20,000).