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 XVI New Orleans, Louisiana or in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The Super Bowl did return to Michigan for Super Bowl XL, but that game was played at Ford Field in Detroit, which, in 2002, had replaced the Pontiac Silverdome as the home site for the Detroit Lions. On the day of the Super Bowl, one of the 49ers buses, which had Bill Walsh and Montana on board, was stuck in traffic due to bad weather and a motorcade carrying then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. As a result, they would not arrive at the stadium until 90 minutes before kickoff time.