2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII

About Houston: Residents of Houston were anxiously waiting to host Super Bowl 38 in their luxurious Reliant Stadium. Football fanatics of the city could not wait to showcase what their city and the population of around 2 million. Football had come back to this city with the return of the Houston Texans franchise and the city wanted to prove that this was a place they should never leave again. With parties and events planned for the weeks leading up the Super Bowl 38 all fans were looking forward to watching Tom Brady and the Patriots return to the championship to face the upstart Carolina Panthers lead by sensation Jake Delhomme.

Ticket Sales / Attendance: There were 71525 people in attendance at this game and it is estimated that another few million excited fans tuned in from home and various game parties across the globe.

Team Pre-Season Stats: The two competing teams for the 38th Superbowl had a hard pre-season to contend with. The Patriots were coming into the season off of a failed attempt to defend their Super bowl championship. Their run defense had failed them in the past year and they used 4 of their top 5 draft picks on defenders and added free agent Rosevelt Colvin from Chicago.

Carolina came off of a disappointing previous season finishing 7-9 after a terrible 8 game losing streak during the year. They weren't expected to do much and the quarterback situation was unknown with a three way battle between Rodney Peete, Chris Weinke, and Jake Delhomme.

Team Roster / Salaries: During the year of Superbowl 38, the Patriots had a total team salary of $82,128,250 with Ty Law, Brandon Gorin, and Rosevelt Colvin as the highest paid all making over $6 million per year. Carolina's total payroll was $75,004,350 with Julius Peppers and Jordan Gross as the highest paid making in the $5 million range.

Game Highlights: Superbowl game number 38 started slowly and it seemed it would be a low scoring defensive show down between both sides. However, the second quarter ended with a flash of scoring as NE's Branch and Givens scored TD's and Carolina answered with a TD from Steve Smith and a field goal from John Kasay. All points were scored with less than 5 minutes remaining in the half and they went into halftime with NE leading 14-10.

There was no scoring in the 3rd quarter, but Antowain Smith scored a rushing touch down only 11 seconds into the 4th quarter. Carolina responded with 2 TD's in the next 8 minutes, but failed on a 2 point conversion to make the score for a 22-21 lead with only 6:53 left in the game.

New England then took over the ball and drove all the way down field for a 1 yard touch down pass complete from Brady to Vrabel. They were able to convert on the 2 pt attempt as Kevin Faulk ran the ball into the end zone. Delhomme and Carolina answered right back with a 12 yard pass to Ricky Proehl tying the game at 29 with only 1:08 left.

John Kasay's ensuing kick off went out of bounds putting NE in great field position at the 40 yard line. This was enough for NE to get Adam Vinatieri in position to kick a 41 yard game winning field goal.

Game MVP: The MVP of the Superbowl game was New England quarterback and team leader Tom Brady. He saved his best performance of the season for this game going 32-48 for 354 yards and three touchdowns. 32 completions beat a previous record held by Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills. Not only did he put up these numbers, he marched his team 90 yards down field in the 4th quarter to give them a 22-21 lead. Tom Brady can be mentioned in the presence of other superstars due to his performance in this win for the Patriots.

Half Time Show: The half time show for Super Bowl number 38 was one of the most surprising and controversial half time shows of all time. MTV planned the show with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson as the start performers. They were performing when suddenly Timberlake ripped away part of Janet Jackson's costume exposing her breast on live TV. Most of the viewers found this offensive while some others found it funny, but this lead to a major overhaul in the future half time shows and second delays in future live TV events.

Commercials: A 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl was $2.5 million dollars and with an additional cost of $250 for closed captioning. Anheuser Busch once again had one of the most popular ads during the championship game. It featured a donkey who was an underdog whose dreams came true when he runs with Clydesdales. Another popular ad was Budweiser's Dog Fetch where a man impresses his friend when his dog fetches him a bud light. The friend responds by getting his own dog to bite the first man in the genitals and he takes his bud light.

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