What is the Super Bowl?

This Sunday, February 9, is not a holiday in the United States, but it might seem like one to Americans.

Many will be attending parties to watch Super Bowl LIX. The Super Bowl is the championship game of professional American football.

The National Football League, or NFL, has 32 teams mainly based in large cities across the U.S.

The first professional league was formed in 1920, when representatives of four teams met in Canton, Ohio. The group first called itself the American Professional Football Association but changed the name two years later to the National Football League.

In 1960, Texas businessman Lamar Hunt pushed the effort to create the American Football League, or AFL. The two leagues competed with each other to sign top football players from universities around the country.

In 1965, established NFL players began negotiating to play for the competing league. So, officials of the two leagues decided to work together. This agreement established a championship game between the two leagues. It was officially called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game but became known as the Super Bowl.

The first Super Bowl was played in 1967 in Los Angeles, California. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. It was not a very exciting game. Many of the seats in the sports center were empty. That changed with the Super Bowl played two years later. Experts say the public finally accepted the new league when the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts.

After that game in 1969, officials of the two leagues decided to create a new National Football League. They divided the teams into two competing conferences, the American Conference, or AFC, and the National Conference, NFC. Each year, the conference champions play in the Super Bowl.

Today, the Super Bowl is a major sporting event. Tens of thousands of people will be watching the game Sunday at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Tens of millions of other people around the world will be watching Super Bowl LIX. They will be watching to see if the AFC Kansas City Chiefs or the NFC Philadelphia Eagles become the champions of American football.

Both teams have had success in the Big Game. The Eagles are one-time NFL champions. They defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII. This Sunday will be the team’s fifth NFL championship game appearance.

The Kansas City Chiefs have played for the championship six times. They have won four times, including the last two Super Bowls. The Chiefs are the first team in NFL history to have a chance to win a third Super Bowl in a row.

I’m Caty Weaver.

Caty Weaver wrote this report for VOA Learning English with contributing information from the Associated Press.

league –n. sports teams that play each other and are linked by a business agreement and rules

exciting –adj. something that causes excitement

in a row –phrase one following another in a series

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Word highlighting is estimated until aligned timings are added.