page_title: Super Bowl XLII
section_title: Venue
hierarchical_section_title: Super Bowl XLII / Background / Venue
caption_attribution_description: photo taken by user and is released into the public domain.
context_page_description: Super Bowl XLII was an American football game between the National Football Conference champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League champion for the 2007 season. The Giants defeated the Patriots by the score of 17–14. The game was played on February 3, 2008 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
  The game is regarded as one of the greatest games and one of the biggest upsets in the history of professional sports, as well as one of the greatest Super Bowl games ever. The Patriots entered the game as 12-point favorites after becoming the first team to complete a perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and the only one since the league expanded to a 16-game regular season schedule in 1978. The Giants, who finished the regular season with a 10–6 record, were seeking to become the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl, and were also looking for their third Super Bowl victory and first since they won Super Bowl XXV seventeen years earlier. This Super Bowl was also a rematch of the final game of the regular season, in which New England won, 38–35.
context_section_description: The kickoff for the game took place at 4:32 p.m. MST (23:32 UTC). This was the first Super Bowl played on a retractable natural-grass field surface; the University of Phoenix Stadium's removable surface is unique among American sports venues.
  Super Bowl XLII was also the second Super Bowl played in a retractable-roof stadium (the first was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston for Super Bowl XXXVIII). During the regular season, the home team decides 90 minutes before kickoff whether the roof will be open or closed, and an open roof must remain open unless weather conditions get worse. However, as a neutral site, the NFL controls the option to open or close without any restrictions. The first time this was employed was in Super Bowl XXXVIII at Reliant Stadium; the roof was open for pregame and halftime shows and closed during the game. Because there was rain in the forecast for Super Bowl XLII, the roof was closed for the entire day's activities.
  During a February 6, 2007 ceremony with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the NFL and the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee unveiled the slogan "Who Wants It More?" along with its mascot "Spike the Super Ball" (an anthropomorphized football with sunglasses and sneakers) and a large "Super Bowl XLII Countdown Clock" at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The Super Bowl XLII logo was also unveiled. It features the shape of the state of Arizona in red and two horizontal white stripes in the middle to represent the vertical lines on University of Phoenix Stadium. The turquoise Roman numerals represent the Native American culture of Arizona. The red star represents the AFC and the blue star represents the NFC. This was also the last Super Bowl with the league's previous logo painted at midfield; the following season, the league redesigned its primary logo.
caption: University of Phoenix Stadium on the day of the game.
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