NFL Ditching Roman Numerals for Super Bowl Fiddy

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

 

PHOENIX — There are a lot of things that next year’s Super Bowl will have going for it. Primarily, it will be in Levi Stadium, which may not actually be in San Francisco, but the media will be mostly quartered in San Francisco, so you’re likely to have a lot fewer grumpy sportswriters because if someone doesn’t want to talk to us, no problem, it just means we can get an earlier reservation at Boulevard.

 

But there is a hitch.

 

Formally, next year’s Super Bowl will be Super Bowl 50. Now, if I were simply telling you that information over the phone, if I were saying “Hey! I’m here to guarantee that neither the Jets nor the Giants will be playing in Super Bowl Fifty!” that wouldn’t sound so awkward. But look at it again.

 

Super Bowl 50.

 

Yes, for one year only, we all will be living in the present, we will jump ahead a few thousand decades and centuries, a couple of millennia, and we will be shedding the Etruscan — better known as “Roman” — numerals that have attached themselves to the Super Bowls every year since 1971, and we will be embracing Hindu-Aramaic numerals.

 

The NFL decided to do this because it didn’t want next year’s Super Bowl to go by the name of Super Bowl L. “L” is “50” in Roman numerals, and apparently the NFL thought having a single letter would look a little goofy.

 

Which, of course, it would. That didn’t stop it from calling Steelers-Cowboys “Super Bowl X” (co-sponsored by “Playboy” and “Penthouse”) or from calling Cowboys-Colts “Super Bowl V” (co-sponsored by d*ck Vitale and me).

Super Bowl I wasn’t actually called Super Bowl I, it went by the super-catchy “AFL-NFL Championship Game,” and wasn’t re-christened Super Bowl I until the NFL officially went Roman for Super Bowl V. (So technically the Jets didn’t win Super Bowl III until two years after they actually won the “Third World Championship Game”).

It’s hard to know what the NFL will do in 2066, if it will go with “Super Bowl C” — maybe the kid who asked Roger Goodell a question in Friday’s press conference will be making that decision.

 

It will be fascinating to note if there will be actual human beings competing in Super Bowl D in 2466, or if it simply will be replay machines wrestling with one another.

 

And, of course, the great mystery about Super Bowl M in 2966 will be if Rex Ryan has gotten his Super Bowl ring by then.

 

And let’s not even discuss what eventually and almost certainly will be called Super Bowl 509 in 2475 (use your own Roman numeral converter for that one; hint: if you liked this week’s headlines, you’ll love the ones the New York Post Brain Implant App will be transmitting that Super Bowl week).

 

Yes. Come on. Admit it: Roman Numerals are fun.

 

They also aren’t as pretentious as you think. The NFL started using them back in ’71 because it noticed that bookkeeping its seasons wasn’t as easy as it used to be.

 

Before the advent of the Super Bowl, there had been only one NFL season that bled into January, and interestingly it was the very last one: Packers 23, Browns 12, Jan. 2, 1966 — and only because the Packers had to have a Western Division tiebreaker game with Baltimore the week before.

 

But the invention and addition of Super Bowl always was going to mean the NFL would be saddled with the same ponderous description the NBA and NHL have to use (1976-77 season, 2012-13 season, etc.).

To avoid that, the NFL turned to Caesar.

The NFL has promised that Roman numerals will be back in two years, when Super Bowl LI will be played in Houston (thought by rights it should have been somewhere in Nassau or Suffolk Counties), and the logo, no doubt, will be made to reflect that it will be played in ReLIant Stadium.

Me? I just can’t wait for Feb. 2, 2025. They’ll play Super Bowl LIX that day. Hopefully.

 

http://nypost.com/2015/01/31/should-the-nfl-ditch-roman-numerals/

 

Yeah, our Hawks don't like L's either.

[Guest]

Good idea!

[macdaddy]

It's about time.  As my kid once told me "I know roman numerals...up to 3".

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Word is that this is just a one-time deal.  It'll be back for Superbowl LI in Houston and Superbowl LII will be in San Fran again... The NFL gives Santa Clara two Superbowl's in three years to pay for that stadium.  Atlanta would get the same regards once Atlanta Stadium is complete, Atlantans.

[macdaddy]

Word is that this is just a one-time deal.  It'll be back for Superbowl LI in Houston and Superbowl LII will be in San Fran again... The NFL gives Santa Clara two Superbowl's in three years to pay for that stadium.  Atlanta would get the same regards once Atlanta Stadium is complete, Atlantans.

 

Guess I should get my street vendor permit or open a strip club now so i'm ready.   Glad Arthur will make his investment back so quickly.

[Dnice]

I think they should keep it, don't care how weird it looks, I guess because L is used more than V and X.

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

Guess I should get my street vendor permit or open a strip club now so i'm ready.   Glad Arthur will make his investment back so quickly.

 

Not just Arthur, but the entire city of Atlanta. The average Superbowl generates $500-600 million for the host city during the week of the Superbowl.  And Atlantans thought that the stadium was a waste of tax payer dollars...