Super Bowl XI regular season record before defeating the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. The Vikings were making their fourth Super Bowl appearance after posting an 11–2–1 regular season record and playoff victories over the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams. The Vikings became the first team to appear in four Super Bowls, a record they held until the Dallas Cowboys advanced to a Super Bowl for the fifth time in Super Bowl XIII. They had not won in their previous three attempts, losing Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs in the final Super Bowl
Super Bowl XLII the first Fox Super Bowl not to be hosted by James Brown, who had returned to CBS after the 2005 season. The official game broadcast began at 6:00 p.m. ET, with kickoff at 6:32 PM EST. NFL Network provided extensive post-game coverage. The Giants became the fifth team to win Super Bowls on three different networks (CBS-XXI, ABC–XXV and Fox). Super Bowl XLII was the Fox network's fifth televised Super Bowl. Four of those five games had featured the Patriots. New England participated in Fox-televised Super Bowls XXXI, XXXVI, XXXIX and XLII. The only Fox Super Bowl up to that