On a third down play in the third quarter, Denver Quarterback John Elway ran 8 yards for a first down. Before the play was downed, he hurdled into two Packers defenders, which many have compared to a helicopter motion. Elway and the Broncos would go on to win Super Bowl XXXII by a score of 31-24, giving both Elway and the franchise an elusive Super Bowl win.

The Packers held a 27-23 lead with just 8 seconds to go, when Terrell Owens of the 49ers caught a 25 yard pass by quarterback Steve Young in the end zone. Owens was hit by 2 defenders when the ball reached him, but he was still able to hang on. Before the game winning catch, Owens was having one of the worst games of his career due to many dropped passes and a fumble. Earlier in the drive, the 49ers were granted a reprieve when an apparent fumble by Jerry Rice recovered by Bernardo Harris was ignored by the referee had trouble seeing what was happening on the field. The Bears ended up winning 20-12.

The Super Bowl was first played on January 15, 1967 as part of the merger agreement between the NFL and its younger rival, the American Football League (AFL) in which each league's championship team would play each other in an "AFL-NFL World Championship Game". After the completion of the merger in 1970, the Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game, played between the champions of the league's two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC).

The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year it was held since the NFL season extends beyond New Year's Eve. For example, the Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLI are the champions of the 2006 season, even though the championship game was played in February 2007.

Over the years the date of the Super Bowl has progressed from the second Sunday in January, to the third, then the fourth Sunday in January; the game is now played on the first Sunday in February, given the current 17-week (16 games and one bye week) regular season and three rounds of playoffs. This progession of the date of the Super Bowl has been caused by the following: the expansion of the NFL regular season in 1978 from 14 games to 16, the expansion of the pre-Super Bowl playoffs from two rounds to three (also in 1978), the addition of the regular season bye-week in the 1990s, and the decision prior to the 2003 season to start the regular season the week after Labor Day, moving the start of the season to a week later than it had been (in 1997, for example, the regular season started on Sunday, August 31st). Former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle is often considered the mastermind of both the merger and the Super Bowl. His leadership guided them into the merger agreement and cemented the preeminence of the Super Bowl.

National Special Security Event

The Super Bowl has been designated a National Special Security Event by the United States Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security every year since 2002, the year of Super Bowl XXXVI. That means that the stadium and surrounding area face increased security measures, especially on game day. Among other things, this means that the once-ubiquitous blimps (according to NFL Films' Steve Sabol, Super Bowl XXI had four of them) have been grounded.

Non-occurrences

In the history of the Super Bowl, the following "firsts" have yet to occur:

• Snowy weather. - While Super Bowl XLI was the first to feature rain, snow has yet to fall during the game. This is highly unlikely (barring a freak occurrence in Arizona, Florida or Southern California, or a malfunctioning retractable roof) since the NFL schedules the game only in stadiums that have roofs or that have warm, dry winter climates.
• An all-wild card matchup (teams who failed to win their divisions). - Nine wild card teams (since the 1970 merger) have won conference titles, but never two in the same season.
• A shutout. - Every Super Bowl participant to date has scored. In three cases the offenses have been shut out while the special teams scored a single touchdown:
  • Super Bowl VII: The Washington Redskins returned a fumble for a touchdown after blocking field goal attempt.
  • Super Bowl IX: The Minnesota Vikings recovered a blocked punt in the end zone but missing the extra point.
  • Super Bowl XXXV: The New York Giants scored a 97-yard kickoff return.
  • Super Bowl VI: The Miami Dolphins finished with 3 points, the fewest in a Super Bowl.
• A punt return touchdown. - While many kickoffs have been returned for a touchdown, a punt has yet to be returned for one.
• Home field advantage (playing in one's own home stadium). - The closest instances to this have been Super Bowl XIV being played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena near the Rams' then-hometown of Los Angeles and Super Bowl XIX being played at Stanford Stadium which is about 25 miles south of the 49ers' home stadium, Candlestick Park. While many Super Bowls have occurred in the Miami and New Orleans areas, neither of the area's teams (the Dolphins and Saints, respectively) have ever taken advantage of these opportunities.
• Overtime. - The narrowest margin of victory in a Super Bowl is one point, in Super Bowl XXV (1991). The closest instances to overtime, in which the result of the last play of the game could have realistically led to a tie and thus an overtime, have been:
  • Super Bowl V: Baltimore's Jim O'Brien kicked a game-winning field goal with :05 left.
  • Super Bowl XXXIV: Tennessee's Kevin Dyson was stopped one yard short of a tying touchdown.
  • Super Bowl XXXVI: New England's Adam Vinatieri kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired.
  • Super Bowl XXXVIII: New England's Adam Vinatieri kicked another game-winning field goal with :04 left.
• An appearance by every team. - Six teams have yet to reach their first Super Bowl: Arizona, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, and New Orleans.

Rules named after players

Throughout the league's history, a number of rules have been enacted largely because of a single player's exploits on the field. The following is a partial list of such rule changes:

• Bert Emanuel rule^[10] -- the ball can touch the ground during a completed pass as long as the receiver maintains control of the ball. Enacted due to a play in the 1999 NFC championship game, where Emanuel, playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had a catch ruled incomplete since the ball touched the ground.

• Bronko Nagurski rule^[11] -- forward passing made legal from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage. Enacted in 1933. Prior to this rule, a player had to be five yards behind the line of scrimmage to throw a forward pass.

• Chad Johnson rule^{[citation needed]} -- players may no longer use a prop or do any act while on the ground during a touchdown celebration. Enacted in 2006.

• Deacon Jones rule^[11] -- no head-slapping. Enacted in 1977.

• Deion Sanders rule^[12] -- Player salary rule which correlates a contract's signing bonus with its yearly salary. Enacted after Deion Sanders signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 1995 for a minimum salary and a $13 million signing bonus. (There is also a college football rule with this nickname.)

• Emmitt Smith rule^[11] -- A player cannot remove his helmet while on the field of play, except in the case of obvious medical difficulty. Enacted in 1997.

• Erik Williams rule^{[citation needed]} -- no hands to the facemask by offensive linemen.

• Fran Tarkenton rule^[11] -- a line judge was added as the sixth official to ensure that a back was indeed behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass. Enacted in 1965.

• Greg Pruitt rule^[13] -- tear-away jerseys are now illegal. Pruitt purposely wore flimsy jerseys that ripped apart in the hands of would-be tacklers. Such a jersey was most infamously seen in a game between the Rams and Oilers where Earl Campbell's jersey ripped apart after several missed tackles.

• Ken Stabler rule^[11] -- on fourth down at any time in the game, or any down in the final two minutes of play, if a player fumbles, only the fumbling player can recover and/or advance the ball. If that player's teammate recovers the ball, it is placed back at the spot of the fumble. A defensive player can recover and advance at any time of play. Enacted in 1979 in response to the 1978 "Holy Roller" play.

• Lester Hayes rule^[11] -- no Stickum allowed. Enacted in 1981.

• Lou Groza rule^[11] -- no artificial medium to assist in the execution of a kick. Enacted in 1956.

• Mel Blount rule^[14] -- Officially known as illegal use of hands, defensive backs can only make contact with receivers within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Enacted in current form in 1978.

• Mel Renfro rule^[11] -- allows a second player on the offense to catch a tipped ball, without a defender subsequently touching it. Enacted in 1978.

• Michael Irvin rule^{[citation needed]} -- no taunting. Another rule, resulting in offensive pass interference, prohibiting WRs to push off CBs, is also often called "the Michael Irvin rule."

• Neil Smith rule^[15][16] -- prevents a defensive lineman from flinching to induce a false start penalty on the offense. Enacted in 1998.

• Terrell Owens rule ^[17] -- no "foreign objects" on a player's uniform (enacted in response to the 2002 "Sharpie™ incident"), though existing rules already forbade this.

• Tom Dempsey rule^[18][19] -- any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe.

• Ty Law rule (also known as the Rodney Harrison rule^[20] -- placed more emphasis on the Mel Blount rule after the New England Patriots utilized an aggressive coverage scheme, involving excessive jamming of wide receivers at the line of scrimmage, in the 2003 AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.

• Roy Williams rule^[21] -- no horse-collar tackles. Enacted in 2005 when Williams broke Terrell Owens's ankle and Musa Smith's leg on horse-collar tackles during the previous season.

• Shawne Merriman rule^[22] -- Bans any player from playing in the Pro Bowl if they test positive for using a performance-enhancing drug during that season. Enacted in 2007 after Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman played at the 2007 Pro Bowl after testing positive and serving a four-game suspension during the preceding season.

• Tony Romo rule^[23] -- teams will now be given 45 minutes - 25 extra minutes than in years past - to prepare the balls for the game; and 12 sequentially numbered "K" balls will be used in the game, monitored by an official, instead of the ball boys.