Super Bowl Facts
SUNDAY FUNDAY
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This year, the Super Bowl turns 50. That's 50 years of big plays, expensive commercials and odd happenings. And when it comes to looking back on the weirder parts of the big game, Wikipedia's collective knowledge base is your best bet. Here are some of the weirdest and most interesting nuggets from the Wikipedia entries for the first 49 Super Bowls. 

The best ads from this year's Super Bowl

Don't Change The Channel

This year's Super Bowl will be aired on CBS. The first Super Bowl aired on CBS too — but not only CBS. Super Bowl I was the only game to be aired on two networks at the same time: CBS and NBCCBS got the exclusive TV rights for Super Bowl II, but they mucked it all up and lost the video feed for part of the second quarter.


Or You'll Miss The Ads

The cost of 30-second commercial during Super Bowl I? A mere $42,000 (~$298,000 adjusted for inflation). This year? $5 million. Here's how the price of a ad has increased over the last 50 years: 

 

Among the great ads over the years — Apple's seminal "1984" ad, which debuted during Super Bowl XVII (in, uh, 1984).  

…Or The National Anthem

The national anthem is sung before every Super Bowl — except for Super Bowl XI in 1977, when Vikki Carr performed "America the Beautiful."

Traditions Have Been Started

The whole "dumping Gatorade over the coaches head after you win" thing? It first came to national attention in Super Bowl XXI, when the New York Giants doused coach Bill Parcells on live TV. 

Porn And Prostitution Had Their Day

Super Bowl XXX didn't actually involve any pornography, but some Internet servers didn't realize that and blocked the game's website, thinking it was XXX-rated content. 

Three years later, Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson was arrested while trying to solicit a prostitute the night before the game. This would always be an awkward situation, but it was made substantially more so by the fact that Robinson had, just that morning, received the league's Bart Star Award for "high moral character."

The Government Loves The Super Bowl, Too

In Super Bowl XIX, Ronald Reagan performed the coin toss — via a live satellite feed:

 

During Super Bowl XLIV, the U.S. Census Bureau was so psyched about the 2010 Census that it dropped $2.5 million for a 30-second commercial to tell Americans that they were about to be counted. 

And It's Never Too Late For A Comeback

Going into Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, the Philadelphia Eagles found themselves a bit short at the tight end position due to injuries. Not to be deterred, the Eagles signed construction worker Jeff Thomason to a one-day contract. Okay, Thomason had played for the Green Bay Packers and the Eagles before retiring, but still, it's a cool story. 

More

The best ads from this year's Super Bowl

The most edited Wikipedia articles from the last 15 years

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<p>Dan Fallon is Digg's Editor in Chief.&nbsp;</p>

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