Today, we celebrate a national holiday — or at least so it seems. We’re having a large party to honor athletic men scrambling for a ball while unfit people eat, drink and cheer for their favorite team.

Ah, football. But this “big game” day has some interesting facts:

• Usually one of the largest American sports TV audiences
• 2nd biggest eating day next to Thanksgiving
• Most expensive advertising evening of the year ($3M average ad this year)
• The big championship game was named after a kids’ toy called the “SuperBall”.
• Superbowl was only a temporary name; the originator thought a better name could be found.
• There was no SuperBowl before SuperBowl IV. They were called Championship Games.
• 92% of households in America tune in some time during the game.
• The broadcast is passed around the main networks – except ABC doesn’t broadcast them any more.
• SuperBowl became the sole legal trademark to the NFL in 1985
• You can’t have a party with the SuperBowl broadcast on a screen larger than 55″. (Unless you regularly broadcast sports)
• There has never been a SuperBowl scoreless at halftime.

The NFL knew they had something with their “superbowl” — and now they protect it. With a passion! In fact they tried to trademark the name “the big game” three years ago, but failed.

As a business owner, come up with a concept, develop it and if necessary trademark it. It’ll pay off for you — just like it has for the NFL. I hope you enjoy the game!