NFL makes Unique Schedule Change for Super Bowl’s 50th Anniversary
There is still some time before football-starved fans learn exactly when and where their team will play each of its sixteen games in 2015, but in the meantime, the NFL has announced a unique concept to be featured this upcoming season: the 50th year of the Super Bowl era.
It is already known that the NFL intends to paint the 50-yard line of each team’s stadium gold this season, to coincide with the ‘golden anniversary’ of the biggest game in North American sports.
In addition, the league will feature a series of ‘gold’ weeks punctuated by historic Super Bowl rematches. The move isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but is certainly interesting enough to warrant some excitement. Many of the potential matches will not only feature powerhouse teams aiming for a Lombardi trophy of their own in 2015, but should serve as a fun trip through the past in pursuit of some bonus bragging rights.
The announcement is particularly intriguing to New England Patriots fans. For some time, the hot ticket was expected to be a clash with the Pittsburgh Steelers on opening night, but it now appears that the Philadelphia Eagles will be the first to be thrown into the lion’s den that is Gillette Stadium.
The contest will serve as something of a grudge match, with Philly fanatics desperate to avenge their loss at the hands of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in Super Bowl XXXIX. Later in the season, though, it will be the Patriots playing the role of little brother, as they take on the franchise that embarrassed them twice in five years in the form of the New York Giants.
Steeler Nation, meanwhile, need not fret. When your franchise has played in – and won – more Super Bowls than any other club, the averages say you’re likely to meet at least a couple of those opponents each season. In 2015, almost the entire NFC West will be cracking its knuckles in preparation for a bout with the Black and Gold.
The Steelers are set to face the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals in what should be a pair of defensively stout affairs, but the marquee matchup will undoubtedly be before a raucous crowd in Seattle, where many fans continue to feel resentment over their beloved Seahawks’ defeat a decade ago.
The only team from that division that hasn’t met Pittsburgh in the big game is the San Francisco 49ers, despite the two franchises combining to win almost a quarter of all championships since Super Bowl I. The 49ers will, however, have their hands full with the Steelers’ AFC North brethren, taking on both the Baltimore Ravens, whom they lost to in Super Bowl XLVII, and the Cincinnati Bengals, whom San Fran bested twice during their decade of dominance.
Need more convincing? How about the certain primetime affair between the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos, which will pit the best quarterback in the game against one of its all-time legends? Or perhaps a new-look Indianapolis Colts unit taking on Drew Brees and the Saints in a Super Bowl XLIV rematch that could herald the emergence of Andrew Luck as the game’s next MVP?
The NFL should be applauded for its exciting blend of historical and modern rivalries in a season that cannot come quickly enough.
