Super Bowl 50 Bowl quarterbacks at 13 years and 48 days (Manning was 39, Newton was 26). In addition, this was the first Super Bowl to feature a quarterback on both teams who was the #1 pick in their draft classes. Manning was the #1 selection of the 1998 NFL Draft, while Newton was picked first in 2011. The matchup also pits the top two picks of the 2011 draft against each other: Newton for Carolina and Von Miller for Denver. With Ron Rivera having been a linebacker with the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX, and Kubiak replacing Elway at the end
Super Bowl XLII game as 12-point favorites after becoming the first team to complete a perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the only one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978. The Giants, who finished the regular season with a 10–6 record, were seeking to become the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl, and were also looking for their third Super Bowl victory and first since they won Super Bowl XXV seventeen years earlier. This Super Bowl was also a rematch of the final game of the regular season, in which