Super Bowl XL meetings held in Atlanta, two years before the stadium opened in 2002; the only previous Super Bowl held in the Detroit area, Super Bowl XVI, had been played at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1982 (also between teams from the AFC North and NFC West divisions [the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers, respectively], though the AFC North was called the Central at that time). The NFL promoted this Super Bowl under the slogan "The Road to Forty." The slogan not only honored the 40-year history of the game, but was a nod to Detroit's traditional role as the center of
Super Bowl XXXIII Super Bowl XXXIII Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Atlanta Falcons to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1998 season. The Broncos defeated the Falcons by the score of 34–19, winning their second consecutive Super Bowl. The game was played on January 31, 1999, at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, Florida (now part of the suburb of Miami Gardens, which became a separate city in 2003). The defending Super Bowl champion Broncos entered the game with an AFC-best