Were you looking forward to Super Bowl L? Well, that's too bad. There won't be a Super Bowl L. Instead the NFL will celebrate the Golden anniversary of the championship game with the number 50. This will be the first and only Super Bowl to use standard numbers. Why are they ditching the Roman numerals after all this time? Simple. The Logo. Which is marvelous, by the way.
In February 2016 football fans will be inundated with images of the Lombardi Trophy towering over Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara in front of a golden "50" and a faint rendering of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. It's very classy.
But that's just how the NFL rolls. Their drug policy might be hypocritical, their commitment to racial consciousness may be suspect, but there's one thing the NFL does better that just about every other sport: branding. They've been thinking about this for years (via CBS Sports):
"The San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl Host Committee asked the NFL in May to consider making the change, but apparently the league had been thinking about it as far back as Super Bowl XL, according to the NFL's vice president of brand and creative, Jamie Weston.
"'When we developed the Super Bowl XL logo, that was the first time we looked at the letter "L,"' Weston told ESPN.com. 'Up until that point, we had only worked with X's, V's and I's. And, at that moment, that's when we started to wonder what will happen when we get to 50?'"
There is no consensus of opinion on the change, but one reporter feels the NFL is botching a chance to get rid of Roman numerals altogether. Apparently he's not a fan (USA Today):
"Because the playoffs occur in a different calendar year than the regular season, the league can't have the Super Bowl identified by year, like the NBA Finals or World Series... Counting Super Bowls chronologically was the best way to deal with that problem.
"But who says it has to be Roman numerals? They're antiquated, awkward and unwieldy. Foregoing the 'L' was an easy call. Why go back though? Make a clean break there."
Boy is that guy persnickety or what? It's a puff piece about a game that will take place two years from now!
Anyway, what do you think?
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