Five Things to Know About Super Bowl XLV

For one day I figured that I would break out of the hyper-local mold and write about one of my favorite days of the year, Super Bowl Sunday.

Let's face it, the Super Bowl is like a holiday for sports fans, and shares many of the same characteristics. Families and friends gather together to watch it, plenty of food is available and it is something that people look forward to all year.

Even if your team is not playing in the big game (I know the feeling, I'm a 24-year-old Miami Dolphins fan) it is impossible  not watch it. Whether you watch for the commercials or to see who will hoist the Lombardi Trophy, the Super Bowl really is an event for everybody.

Tonight, two of the NFL's oldest and most successful franchises face off as the Green Bay Packers take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. It should be a fantastic game and will feature two of the best defenses in the league squaring off against two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, so something's got to give. 

So, grab your Terrible Towels and assorted cheese-shaped headwear and check out five interesting things to know about tonight's game.

1. While the Pittsburgh Steelers have the most Super Bowl victories in NFL history with six, the Green Bay Packers have 12 overall NFL titles. They won three Super Bowls and nine titles before the NFL merged with the AFL in the late 1960s. The Packers have appeared in five Super Bowls and the Steelers have appeared in eight. Despite all these Super Bowl wins and appearances, these teams have never faced each other in the big game.

2. Pittsburgh's outstanding rookie center Maurkice Pouncey will not play tonight. The media has been playing the "Will he play or won't he play" angle all week, but he is now officially out, and will be replaced by unproven Doug Legursky. This is the most attention a center has gotten since the Oakland Raiders' Barrett Robbins was missing in action from Super Bowl XXVIII.

3. The last time the Packers and Steelers played was Dec. 20, 2009. In that game, the Steelers won 37-36 at Heinz Field, on a game-winning pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace as time expired.

4. Aaron Rodgers was a standout quarterback at the University of California before becoming a first-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in 2005. Rodgers is the fourth University of California quarterback to start a Super Bowl, along with Craig Morton (Dallas and Denver), Joe Kapp (Minnesota) and Vince Ferragamo (Los Angeles Rams). However, all those Cal quarterbacks have one thing in common, they were all unsuccessful in their Super Bowl starts. Rodgers is hoping to erase that negative history tonight.

5. The cost of a 30-second commercial for tonight's game is $3 million. All that money to try to get people to buy a beer, use a particular type of car insurance or meet the love of their life through an online dating service. 

Just for fun, here's a Super Bowl trivia question for everybody. Type the answer into the comments section. The first person to get the question correct gets....kudos from Patch. Have fun!

Super Bowl XLV features two of the best defensive players in the NFL with Clay Matthews for Green Bay and Troy Polamalu for Pittsburgh. These perennial Pro Bowlers attended the same college. What is the alma mater of both players?

Hope you all enjoyed this, and I would also like to see some people's Super Bowl picks. So type in your trivia answer, Super Bowl picks and score of the game in the comments section to see who gets bragging rights!