Super Bowl XL

Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2005 season. The Steelers defeated the Seahawks by the score of 21–10. The game was played on February 5, 2006, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. It is the most recent Super Bowl broadcast on ABC who lost the rights to broadcast Super Bowl games in the next NFL television contract (though under a new contract the network is scheduled to broadcast Super Bowl LXI) and the first where all aspects of the game itself were aired in HD. This was the last of 10 straight Super Bowls to feature a team seeking its first win.

With the win, the Steelers tied the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys with the then-record five Super Bowl victories (a record the Steelers themselves would break three years later). The Steelers' victory was their first Super Bowl victory since Super Bowl XIV. The Steelers, who finished the regular season with an 11–5 record, also became the fourth wild card team, the third in nine years, and the first ever number 6 seed in the NFL playoffs, to win a Super Bowl. The Seahawks, on the other hand, in their 30th season, were making their first ever Super Bowl appearance after posting an NFC-best 13–3 regular season record.

The Steelers capitalized on two big plays that were converted into touchdowns. The Steelers jumped to a 14–3 lead early in the third quarter with running back Willie Parker's Super Bowl record 75-yard touchdown run. Seahawks defensive back Kelly Herndon's then-Super Bowl record 76-yard interception return set up a Seattle touchdown to cut the lead 14–10. But the Steelers responded with Antwaan Randle El's 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward, the first time a wide receiver threw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl, to clinch the game in the fourth quarter. Ward, who caught 5 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 18 yards, was named Super Bowl MVP.

The officiating in Super Bowl XL was met with criticism from members of the media soon after the game, leading NFL Films to rank it as one of the top ten controversial calls of all time.

NFL owners voted to award Super Bowl XL to Detroit during their November 1, 2000, meeting held in Atlanta. It marked the second Super Bowl held in the Detroit area, the first was XVI played at the Pontiac Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac. Three Super Bowls host sites were selected during the meeting, XXXVIII, XXXIX, and XL. However, XXXIX was the only one of the three that involved a competitive voting process. The vote for XL was mostly a formality, as Detroit had been tentatively preselected for the game, as a reward for constructing a new stadium. The host duties, however, were contingent on satisfying a series of basic requirements. No other cities were considered for XL.

On August 20, 1996, the Lions announced their intentions to build a new stadium in downtown Detroit. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue helped lobby support for the project, announcing that the city of Detroit was positioned to host a Super Bowl if the stadium plans were to go forward. Despite some early mixed polls, on November 5, 1996, voters approved a tax referendum to fund the stadium construction in a landslide. Groundbreaking occurred three years later on November 16, 1999. With stadium construction underway, the NFL reaffirmed their commitment to awarding the facility a Super Bowl. By that time, host cities had been awarded, or tentatively assigned, through XXXVIII. With stiff competition from Miami, Jacksonville, and possibly Atlanta for XXXIX, Detroit set their sights on XL (February 2006). That more than satisfied the NFL's rule that required new stadiums to wait until at least their second year of operation before hosting a Super Bowl, in order to iron out any logistical issues or construction delays.

The Detroit host committee made their initial presentation on March 29, 2000, at the NFL owners meeting in Palm Beach. No other cities submitted bids for XL. The presentation was met with positive reviews. However, they had yet to secure the required number of hotel rooms, had not yet booked the venues needed for various ancillary events, and would need to install temporary seating at still-under construction Ford Field in order to meet minimum capacity. In addition, the Detroit area's previous Super Bowl (XVI), while praised for its hospitality, suffered from extreme frigid temperatures and traffic jams. Complicating the situation was the possibility of needing to utilize three casino hotels in order to achieve the required number of hotel rooms. At the time, the NFL strongly avoided any associations with gambling, however, Paul Tagliabue seemed willing to overlook that concern. The city was also saddled with a longstanding reputation of decline, urban decay, and crime – an image the city was eagerly trying to shed.

Auto racing legend and business magnate Roger Penske was hired to serve as chairman of the host committee, and he made an aggressive push over the summer of 2000 to firm up Detroit's bid. With doubts still hovering over Detroit's chances, Penske, mayor Dennis Archer, and other key members of the committee held a private meeting with the NFL owners advisory committee on September 27 to make a follow-up pitch. The league set a deadline of October 11 for the final bid package submittal, or they were likely to re-open the bidding. A last-minute push resolved all of the remaining hurdles. On November 1, the host committee made their final presentation at the owners' meeting Atlanta, and Detroit was overwhelmingly approved as the host for Super Bowl XL. Jerry Jones called it "outstanding...one of the best presentations that I've ever seen." Wayne Huizenga characterized it as a "slam-dunk", and Bud Adams said Detroit "deserves a Super Bowl." Houston was awarded XXXVIII, and Jacksonville won the vote for XXXIX.