Sunday’s game will mark the 11th time the Super Bowl will be played in Miami – one more time than New Orleans -- and it will be held at the site of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens for the sixth time.
Here are some fun facts about Super Bowl games held in Miami.
NAME GAME: The first five Super Bowls in Miami were held at the Orange Bowl near downtown, but the last five have been played in the Miami Gardens subdivision in northern Miami-Dade County -- a short Patrick Mahomes pass from neighboring Broward County. The stadium is now called Hard Rock Stadium, but the venue has had four different names when it hosted a Super Bowl -- Joe Robbie Stadium in 1995, Pro Player Stadium in 1999, Dolphin Stadium in 2007 and Sun Life Stadium in 2010. Joe Robbie Stadium, the complex's original name, opened Aug. 16, 1987, and was named for the Dolphins' first owner.
GUARANTEED: The most famous Super Bowl may have been the one played at the Orange Bowl in January 1969, if only for the brashness of New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. The Jets, of the AFL, were huge underdogs to the NFL champion Baltimore Colts. Speaking at a banquet in Miami in the days leading up to the game, Namath proclaimed, "We're going to win Sunday. I guarantee it." Namath backed up his words as the Jets stunned the Colts, 16-7, giving the AFL some legitimacy after the league lost the first two championship games. Perhaps not as dramatically, San Francisco defensive back Tim McKyer brandished a finger three days before Super Bowl XXIII and declared, "The ring is as good as there."
BE CAREFUL: Miami has not always been kind to Super Bowl several players through the years. Cincinnati Bengals running back Stanley Wilson had a drug relapse just before Super Bowl XXIII in 1989, and Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson was arrested the night before Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999 on charges of solicitation. The same year Wilson had his relapse, riots broke out in Miami's downtown community of Overtown. The unrest ignited when a Hispanic policeman shot and killed a black motorcyclist. That happened the Monday before the San Francisco 49ers and Bengals met.
PRICEY: According to The New York Times, tickets for the first Super Bowl in January 1967 cost $6, $10 and $12 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Adjusted for inflation, that $12 ticket works out to $93.73 is 2020 dollars, according to ESPN. In today's market, $94 is not even enough for parking near Hard Rock Stadium.
STRIPPED: South Florida, already awash in adult entertainment, is gearing up for this year's big game. Three miles from Hard Rock Stadium, Tootsie's Cabaret, a sprawling 74,000-square foot establishment, is the largest strip club in the United States, the Sun-Sentinel reported. However, big is not necessarily better. The Gold Club, in Pompano Beach, will feature exotic dancer Tiny Texie, who stands 42 inches tall and weighs 38 pounds.
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