For XLV years, the NFL has been tracking the Super Bowl using Roman numerals. It all began in the year MCMLXXI, when the league wanted to give Super Bowl V an institutionalized dignity. Since then, Roman numerals have come to define the imagery of the biggest night in sports. Through Super Bowls XVII, XXII, XXIV, XXXVIII, and, who could forget, XLVIII, we spent a few weeks trying to figure out what the f*** number Super Bowl it was. But here we are in the year MMXVI and Super Bowl L will simply be called "Super Bowl 50." Just as we were getting the hang of it! And this is obviously because stylizing "Super Bowl L" would have been dumb as hell."L immediately brought up so many negative connotations," NFL creative director Shandon Melvin told the San Jose Mercury News. He spent years on the decision, weighing in the inevitable schoolyard L jokes. And the L looked like total garbage.
"It's very asymmetrical," he said. "And three-quarters of the letter is negative space. It's like, what do you do with this thing to make it look attractive? I'll take an X any day of the week. Or any other letter for that matter."
How would they have stylized Super Bowl L?
Super BowL?
Super Bowl: L?
Super Bow(L)?
It's really hard to write that without it looking Lame with a capital L.
It also looked like crap on the Lombardi Trophy, Melvin said. But, for anyone attached to the look and inconvenience of Roman numerals, fear not, they'll return in the year MMXVII for Super Bowl LI.
"They're part of us ... such a strong icon for the game," he said. "We just wanted to do something a little different for once."
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