Here is Why the NFL Uses Roman Numerals

Two years ago the NFL returned to using Roman numerals for its Super Bowl logo. They went away from it for Super Bowl 50 because the letter "L" (or 50) didn't look good on any logos. So the question came up as to why the NFL uses Roman numerals at all? Well, I decided to do a little research on this topic and here is what I found.

It goes back to the 1971 season when then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle knew he had a branding problem for the league. The title game was always played in a different year than the actual season was played. So the 1971 winner was for the 1970 season. It got confusing in referencing prior Championship games. Therefore, the league decided to give the championship games numbers rather than years.

They also decided that since Roman numerals were 'related' to ancient gladiator games that they would use them for the Super Bowl which they did in 1971 and have ever since.

The NFL may reconsider going back to Roman numerals for future Super Bowls. In researching the Roman numeral story, I found that most people can't even tell what the Roman numeral number is. As a matter of fact, according to a poll, 79% of Americans can't read Roman numerals.  Even scarier is that 21% can't read the Arabic numerals either. Wow, how sad is that?