Featured: Super Bowl XLVII - The Har-Bowl

For those who don't know, Super Bowl Sunday is quickly approaching. But before diving into commentary of this year’s Super Bowl, let me give you a brief overview of the Super Bowl in general.

Prior to 1966, there were two football leagues in the United States, the NFL or the National Football League, and the AFL or the American Football League. In 1966, however, the two leagues started a long merging process. The leagues would remain separate at first and play a World Championship game with each league’s winner representing them at the Championship. Thus, the Super Bowl was born. Today, there is only one national league and two conferences which were derived from the two leagues. Each conference is represented in the Super Bowl today.As per tradition, the Super Bowl is counted in Roman Numerals and is played on the first Sunday of February. For the first couple of years the game was played in January.

This year’s Super Bowl has been coined many different things, but my favorite (and the first one that was coined) just happens to be the ‘Har-bowl.’ For those of you confused by the name, this year’s competing teams have head coaches that are brothers. The Baltimore Ravens are coached by John Harbaugh while the San Francisco 49ers are coached by Jim Harbaugh. Having brothers competing in the Super Bowl, in any kind of form whether it be players or coaches, is quite memorable and the reason this year has been dubbed the Har-Bowl.

The Baltimore Ravens were established in 1996 and have only won a single Super Bowl, but it was their only trip so far as an organization to the Super Bowl. The team, however, has made many runs in the playoffs without making it to the biggest game. For a team that has not even been around for twenty years, two Super Bowl appearances are grand.

This year the Ravens have a pretty solid team, but obviously they have the key people you should be on the lookout for come Sunday. Celebrating his retirement with a trip to the Super Bowl is Ray Lewis. He is obviously hoping for a final Super Bowl ring before bowing out of the game. The quarterback Joe Flacco, even though he wasn’t a Pro quarterback when the team first won the Super Bowl, he has his eye on the prize this year. He is projected to lead the game in passing. And who could forget the running back, Ray Rice. The guy has rushed for close to 250 yards and ran for two touchdowns in the post-season alone, he is for sure a guy to watch.

Meanwhile, the Ravens opposition lays on the complete opposite side of the continental US. The 49ers were established in 1946, prior to the split between the two leagues. The team boasts five Super Bowl victories but all occurred before 2000. San Francisco hopes that Super Bowl XLVII will break their streak of eighteen years since the last victory in the biggest game around.

Worming out of the woodwork this year was the quarterback of the 49ers. At the beginning of the season, Alex Smith led the team, but Colin Kaepernick stepped up when Smith got injured and has been the starter ever since. Kaepernick is, in fact, a rookie and the team is relying on him to get the job done in the big game. Another big name is Frank Gore who helped lead the team to this Super Bowl in a big comeback victory in the semi-finals week of playoffs.

Overall, these teams are both very competitive and very good. The turn-out of the game may or may not surprise fans but it will be very entertaining in the least.

Also, I would like to thank tui.angel and fandango for editing.

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