The 2010 Super Bowl – Super Bowl 44 (XLIV) – will be played on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at Sun Life (formerly Dolphin) Stadium in Miami, Florida. It will be broadcast on CBS, which lists the start time as 6:18 p.m. EST (Tune in at 6 p.m. for the full kickoff show).  The kickoff show is from 6:00 to 6:25 p.m.

The 2010 Super Bowl (XLIV)

Super Bowl XLIV will be an American football game pitting the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts against the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New Orleans Saints to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2009 season. It will be the 40th annual championship game of the modern-era National Football League after its 1970 merger with the American Football League (AFL, 1960–1969). It will be the first time since Super Bowl XXVIII that both number one seeds will face each other in the Super Bowl. It also marks the first time that two teams who play in an domed/retractable roof stadium will play each other in a Super Bowl.

The game will be played at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. This marks the tenth time a Super Bowl will have been played in the South Florida metropolitan area: five times the game has been held at Sun Life Stadium; the other five were played at the Orange Bowl. It will mark the fourth time the Indianapolis/Baltimore Colts franchise have played in the Super Bowl, each of which has been played in South Florida, as well as the first time the New Orleans Saints have ever made it. The game will be played on February 7, 2010 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time. It is the latest calendar date for a Super Bowl thus far.

Host selection process
Sun Life Stadium, the venue of Super Bowl XLIV.

The league initially voted on March 23, 2005, that New York City host the game, contingent on the completion of the proposed West Side Stadium being built for the New York Jets by 2008. After New York state government officials declined to approve $300 million for the stadium, the NFL decided to reopen the bidding for the game’s site.[3] The league reconsidered the other, unsuccessful candidates for Super Bowl XLIII: Atlanta, Houston, and Miami. On October 6, 2008, the league selected Miami as the host city.

With Tampa as the host of Super Bowl XLIII, Super Bowl XLIV will mark the third time that consecutive Super Bowls have been played in the same state. Super Bowls II and III were both played at the Orange Bowl. Super Bowls XXI and XXII were both played in California: XXI at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium and XXII at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium.

Miami will become the first city to host two Super Bowls designated as a National Special Security Event (NSSE). In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, every Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXVI has been designated as an NSSE. Super Bowl XLI was Miami Gardens’ first Super Bowl designated as an NSSE.
Pro Bowl changes

This will be the first time the Pro Bowl will be held during the off-week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. It was announced in December 2008, that instead of the traditional Pro Bowl the week after the Super Bowl, it will instead be held at the new time in Miami, the first time it will not be played at Aloha Stadium since 1979. Twelve players from the Super Bowl participants – seven from the Colts and five from the Saints – will not play in the Pro Bowl. The playoff schedule gives conference champions an extra week to rest and prepare for the Super Bowl. The NFL has indicated this may not be a permanent transition, but is merely something they have been wanting to try out, and has discussed a rotating location for the Pro Bowl.

The move also means that the game, which otherwise would have been played February 14, will not compete against the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, the second full day of competition in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 52nd running of the Daytona 500.
Teams
Indianapolis Colts
Main article: 2009 Indianapolis Colts season

Indianapolis stormed to an NFL best 14-2 record on their way to earning their second Super Bowl appearance in the last four years. Once again, the Colts boasted a powerful offense led by 10-time pro bowl quarterback Peyton Manning, who threw for 4,500 yards and 33 touchdowns during the season, with only 16 interceptions, earning him a 99.9 passer rating and a league record fourth National Football League Most Valuable Player Award. His top targets were veteran receiver Reggie Wayne and tight end Dallas Clark, who both recorded 100 receptions and 10 touchdowns. Wayne led the team with 1,260 yards, while Clark was second with 1,106. Manning also had other reliable targets, such as recently aquired receivers Austin Collie (60 receptions for 676 yards and 7 touchdowns) and Pierre Garçon (47 receptions for 756 yards). Running back Joseph Addai led the Colts ground game with 821 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, while also catching 51 passes for another 336 yards and 3 scores. The Colts offensive line was anchored by pro bowl center Jeff Saturday.

Indianapolis’ defensive line was led by pro bowl defensive ends Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney. Freeney led the team with 13.5 sacks, while Mathis added 9.5 sacks and forced 5 fumbles. Behind them, the Colts had a solid corps of linebackers featuring Clint Session and Gary Brackett, who each recorded 80 tackles. Pro bowl safety Antoine Bethea led the secondary with 70 tackles and four interceptions.

Under their new coach Jim Caldwell, the Colts started off the season with 14 consecutive wins before suffering their first loss to the New York Jets, 29-15, a game in which Caldwell made the controversial decision to rest his starters after the team took a slim lead rather than keep them in to play for a chance at a 16-0 season. Indianapolis finished the season at 14-2 following another loss in which they rested their starters and went on to advance to the Super Bowl, making them perfect in all their games in which their starters played all four quarters.
New Orleans Saints
Main article: 2009 New Orleans Saints season

The New Orleans Saints finished the season with an NFC best 13-3 record and went on to advance to the first Super Bowl in their 43 years as an NFL team. It had been a long journey for New Orleans. After joining the NFL in 1967, it took them 21 years to record their first winning season and another 13 years after that to win their first playoff game. Five years later, the New Orleans suffered another setback when their stadium was devastated with the rest of the city by Hurricane Katrina, forcing them to play all of their home games in 2005 elsewhere as they finished with a 3-13 record. But in the offseason, the team’s fortunes began to turn. First, they signed pro bowl quarterback Drew Brees, who would go on to throw for more passing yards than any other quarterback over the next four seasons. They also drafted multi-talented Heisman Trophy winning running back Reggie Bush and receiver Marques Colston, two players who would become major contributors on the Saints offense. The following season, New Orleans improved to 10-6 and advanced to the NFC title game for the first time, which they lost to the Chicago Bears. Although they failed to make the playoffs over the next two seasons, they continued to sign new talent, and by 2009 they were ready to make another run at the Super Bowl.

The Saints offense led the NFL in scoring, averaging just under 32 points per game. Brees finished the season as the NFL’s top rated quarterback (109.6), completing an NFL-record 70.6% of his passes for 4,338 yards and 34 touchdowns, with just 11 interceptions. His top target was Colston, who caught 70 passes for 1,074 yards and 9 touchdowns, but he had plenty of other weapons, such as receivers Devery Henderson (51 receptions), Robert Meachem (45), and tight end Jeremy Shockey (48). The ground attack was led by running backs Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell. Thomas rushed for 793 yards and caught 39 passes for 302, while Bell added 654 yards on the ground. Bush was also a major contributor, rushing for 390 yards (with a 5.6 yards per carry average), catching 47 passes for 335 yards, and adding another 130 yards returning punts. New Orleans also had a strong offensive line with three pro bowl selections: guard Jahri Evans, center Jonathan Goodwin, and tackle Jon Stinchcomb

Pro Bowl defensive lineman Will Smith led the team in sacks with 13. Another big weapon on defense was linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who led the team with 87 tackles and intercepted three passes. The Saints secondary was led by 12-year veteran defensive back Darren Sharper, who recorded 9 interceptions and set an NFL record by returning them for 376 yards and three touchdowns. Cornerback Tracy Porter was also effective, recording 49 tackles and 4 picks.

Like the Colts, the Saints also started out the season strong, winning their first 13 games. But then they became the first 13-0 team ever to lose their last three games of the year. After losing their next game to the Dallas Cowboys 24-17, they suffered a narrow loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime after Garrett Hartley missed a potential game winning field goal, and then closed out the season with a 23-10 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Still, they clinched the #1 NFC playoff seed and scored 76 points in their two playoff wins en route to their first ever Super Bowl.

Halftime

The NFL announced on the November 26, 2009 CBS Sports broadcast of the Oakland Raiders-Dallas Cowboys game that The Who would perform at the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show.