Super Bowl XXXVII Raiders entered the game favored to win in their first Super Bowl in 19 years. They were also the first franchise to appear in the Super Bowl in four decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 2000s; the 1990s was the only decade that they did not appear in the Super Bowl). However, much of the media hype surrounded the Gruden trade prior to the season. This forced league commissioner Paul Tagliabue to issue a statement that he might ban all future trades for coaches involving draft choices because it might compromise the draft. A distraction for the Raiders was that starting center
Super Bowl VI had turf, as did the Dolphins' Orange Bowl (specifically Poly-Turf). The previous year, the Cowboys became the first team to play its home games on turf to make it to a Super Bowl. Through Super Bowl LII, this is the only Super Bowl in which both teams played their home games in states which were members of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. The Washington Redskins, who faced the Dolphins in Super Bowl VII and Super Bowl XVII, have their training facilities in Virginia, which was a Confederate state during the Civil War, but have never played