Overview

Super Bowl 50 was the 50th National Football League (NFL) championship game between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco, California on February 7th, 2016. The game ended in the Broncos' victory against the Panthers by 24-10, which marked the team's third Super Bowl championship title in the NFL history.

Background

Season Championship Winners

The Carolina Panthers won their NFC Championship 49-15 over the Arizona Cardinals, finishing the season with a 15-1 record and bringing the team to their second Super Bowl appearance since the founding of the franchise in 1995. Their star quarterback, Cam Newton, ran two touchdowns in that game, and celebrated each by doing the popular touchdown dance, The Dab. The Denver Broncos, who are helmed by Peyton Manning, the second-oldest quarterback to ever play and a five-time MVP, had a winning 12-4 season, beating the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship 20-18. They are one of only four teams to make it to the Super Bowl eight times.^[4] According to the experts' prediction, the game will reach more than 115 million households when it airs on CBS at 3:30 pm (PST), which would surpass the record-setting viewership of the previous year's Super Bowl XLIX]

The Name

In June 2014, the NFL announced that the upcoming 50th Super Bowl would be officially branded as Super Bowl 50 in Arabic numerals, departing from the long-running tradition of naming each Super Bowl game using the Roman numeral system, in order to avoid any confusion over what would have been known as Super Bowl L. The league would return to the roman numeral system for Super Bowl 51.^[2]

Halftime Show Announcement

On December 3rd, 2015, the NFL announced that the British rock band Coldplay would be headlining the halftime show, while joined by American celebrity singers Bruno Mars and Beyoncé] In addition, on February 2nd, the NFL announced that Lady Gaga would sing the National Anthem, and that Academy Award-winning deaf actress Marlee Matlin would perform in sign language.^[3]

Notable Developments

Pregame Highlights

Super Bowl 50 Statue Defacement

As part of the promotional campaign surrounding the Super Bowl, the NFL placed statues of the number 50 around the city of San Francisco. These states were quickly defaced by residents, who created rude anagrams from the words Super Bowl and knocked the statues over.^[5] After the repeated vandalism, the NFL removed some of the statues.^[6]

A photograph of a vandalized statue

Puppy Bowl

For the 12th consecutive year, Animal Planet planned to host the Puppy Bowl, a mock football game staged with puppies for players, as a pre-game companion to the Super Bowl.^[8] The Puppy Bowl would also feature a Kitty halftime show and Chicken cheerleaders. For the first time ever, the Puppy Bowl was available as a virtual reality experience through 360° puppy practice scrimmages, available to watch before the competition's broadcast via the Discovery VR app and YouTube 360°.^[9]

On February 3rd, 2016, as a promotional event, the taxi service Uber was delivering dogs from humane societies to visit people Chicago, New York, and Washington DC, with the opportunity for people to adopt the puppies they met. In order to meet the puppies, Uber users could find the car via it's puppy-shaped icon.^[10]

Highlights

Chris Martin at Halftime Show

At approximately 8 p.m. (EST), the halftime show kicked off with Coldplay playing their hit songs, including "Viva la Vida," "Paradise," and "Adventure of a Lifetime," before they were joined by Bruno Mars' performance of his 2015 pop funk hit Uptown Funk and Beyoncé's live debut of her latest new single "Formation" (shown below).

Despite Coldplay being billed as the headliner of the event, many American viewers at home quickly took note of the fact that Chris Martin, the British band's frontman and ex-husband of Gwyneth Paltrow, seemed outshined by the star power of his co-performers. At 8:48 p.m. (EST), Internet comedian Josh Ostrovsky, a.k.a @TheFatJew, posted a still shot of the three singers performing on stage together with the caption "when u tryin to fit in" to his Instagram account (shown below), garnering more than 291,000 likes in less than 24 hours.

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Eli Manning's Reaction

As the game drew to a close with the Denver Broncos leading over the Carolina Panthers by six points (16-10) in the fourth quarter, the Broncos' star quarterback Peyton Manning virtually sealed the team's victory by scoring the final touchdown with three minutes remaining on the field. After the touchdown, the main camera immediately cut to the luxury suite of the Manning family to capture their reactions; while most family members in the box seemed ecstatic and cheered on for the Broncos, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning's younger brother and quarterback for the New York Giants, oddly stood out from the rest as he stood almost solemnly with an unimpressed look on his face (shown below).

At 10:10 PM (EST), Viner Alex Kennedy uploaded a video clip of Eli Manning's reaction to the touchdown, which instantly went viral with more than 38 million views within the first 24 hours. From there, other viewers at home began chiming in on Eli's puzzling reaction with jokes about sibling rivalries, many of whom speculated that Eli may have felt intimidated as Peyton caught up on his once-exclusive bragging right of being a two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback.

Notable Advertisements

Some brands, like Kia, Skittles, Budweiser and the NFL, released their promotional spots in advance of their Super Bowl airing, gaining considerable views.^[11]

Search Interest

External References