How well do you really know the Super Bowl? — QUIZ

Super Bowl Sunday finally is here, and millions of Americans will sit down this afternoon to watch the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots play for the championship of what Americans think of when they think “football.”

Super Bowl Sunday is America’s true secular national holiday. Unlike Christmas, there are no religious underpinnings to it. Unlike Independence Day, there’s no historical reason for it. Unlike Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, it wasn’t created to honor anything.

Nope, Super Bowl Sunday exists solely to give Americans an excuse for a midwinter, post-Christmas holiday weekend-long party.

Today’s game from Glendale, Ariz., will be the National Football League’s 49th Super Bowl (or, as they insist on putting it, the XLIXth, giving American schoolkids at least one reason to learn Roman numerals). But how much do you remember about the previous XLVIII (sorry, couldn’t resist) Super Bowls?

Here, as befits a sporting event that has come to transcend mere sports, we offer a Super Bowl quiz that’s perfect for whiling away a few pregame minutes or passing the time if, the ghost of Pete Rozelle and heaven forfend, today’s game is a blowout (and feel free to consider that also as a pun about Deflategate).

In the meantime, hope your team — or at least the team you bet on — wins.