It’s a longstanding NFL tradition for Super Bowls to be designated by Roman numerals, with this year’s game being distinguished as Super Bowl LVIII (58). The league began the practice back in the 1970s, and it’s stuck as each title game’s identifier ever since.
Why Does the NFL Use Roman Numerals for Super Bowl?
The league began using Roman numerals to distinguish between Super Bowls with the game’s fifth iteration, Super Bowl V, before retroactively identifying each of the first four games by their applicable Roman numerals as well.
The first title game following the AFL-NFL merger was called the “AFL-NFL Championship Game,” a title which did not hold on for long. The contest was then renamed the “World Championship Game” for the next three years, another title that did not quite hold the pizzazz the league was looking for to convey the significance of its biggest game.
Then came the name that finally stuck for the long haul. Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt is credited with coining the term in the league’s mythology, though it appears newspapers were using the term for the game as early as 1967. Hunt is also credited with the introduction of Roman numerals to distinguish between the games.
The NFL’s media guide explains that Roman numerals were adopted “to clarify any confusion that may occur because the NFL Championship Game — the Super Bowl — is played in the year following the chronological season.
Roman numerals provide a fairly straightforward way to distinguish between the games, albeit a unique one compared to standard numbers.
In the Roman numeral system, I is used in place of one, V for five, X for 10, L for 50, C for 100, and M for 1,000. The numerals are then grouped in descending order to signify certain numbers, such as LVIII for 58.
It’s not always quite that simple, however. For instance, the 49th Super Bowl’s Roman numerals were expressed as XLIX. In this case, the “L” symbol for 50 coming after the “X” for 10 signifies 40, while another “X” trailing the “I” signifies nine to get to the 49 total by use of so few symbols.
The current record for most numerals in the title game came in Super Bowl XXXVIII (38), which uses seven numerals. That total will not be matched until the game’s 78th edition, which will be expressed as Super Bowl LXXVIII.
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For now, though, the focus lies on whether the Chiefs or San Francisco 49ers ultimately take home the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl LVIII.
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