Super Bowl 48 Has Eerie Similarities to Super Bowl 22
Well documented into the history books as of Sunday night, February 2, 2014, is one of the most notable and celebrated sporting events, the Super Bowl, the grand finale to America's version of football.

A food-fueled spectator sport, straightaway, we should all begin to strategize our weight-loss plans because of the substantial amount of wings and pizza pies we all have consumed on one night to celebrate the game of the flying pigskin.

Now back to the game.

As this NFL season progressed and playoffs developed, unveiled was the best defense in the NFL courtesy of the Seattle Seahawks and the best offense in the NFL stemming from the Denver Broncos.

From the opening snap, the Seattle Seahawks exhibited its all-pro defense.

The Seahawks defense, also known as "The Legion of Boom", irritated and rattled Broncos future Hall Of Fame Quarterback Peyton Manning enough to induce 2 interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown by the MVP recipient, LB Malcolm Smith which extended the Seahawks lead to 22-0 with 3:21 remaining until halftime.
Manning's record-setting 34 completions was not enough to outweigh the destruction that his missed snap, 2 interceptions and lost fumbled caused.

On the other hand, Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson was cool, calm, and collected, completing 18 of 25 passing attempts for 206 yards and two touchdowns, drifting left and right, scrambling and extending plays without a flaw to his name.

At the end of the day, the most publicized and media-crowned QB for this event did not get crowned the champion in his brother's backyard. Even What's The 411Sports reporter, Andrew Rosario, picked the Broncos to win. Rosario thought the young team could not defeat the experienced Peyton Manning.

Wrong!

When the Super Bowl clock wound down, the Seahawks won in convincing and dominating fashion, 43 to the Broncos 8.

In a game where conventional wisdom favored one side, the unexpected prevailed; and Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson stood victoriously and not Denver's Peyton Manning.

The story lines and end result of Super Bowl 48 draw comparisons to Super Bowl XXII, Super Bowl 22 for all the non-Romans.

A Super Bowl that the baby boom generation and perhaps, Gen Xers, can relate to more than the casual and modern football enthusiasts.

Let's set the scene. In the days leading up to the showdown between the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego California on January 31st, 1988, the media hype exalted John Elway to King of Football.

This was also a time when African Americans were beginning to see more action at the quarterback position in the NFL. Naturally, most bets were on Elway; just as in this Super Bowl contest, few were betting against Manning.

As history shows, the Redskins won that game in dominating fashion just like the Seahawks did this past Sunday. Doug Williams and his team eliminated any means of a competitive contest accumulating 42 points to John Elway and the Denver Broncos' 10.

With that victory, Williams became the first African American to win a Super Bowl. Williams was a backup quarterback who finally received an opportunity replacing the struggling first string quarterback Jay Schroeder, en route to making history.

Sunday's events recorded the second African American Quarterback to win the Super Bowl in Russell Wilson.

The 1988 Broncos were heavily favored to defeat the Redskins just like the 2014 Broncos were also favored to a great degree to up-end the Seahawks.

The 1988 Broncos featured an all-time great at the Quarterback position in John Elway who led this organization to their second consecutive Super Bowl appearance, third overall in the franchise's history.

That season, Elway threw for 3309 yards, 17 touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 71.4.

In the 2014 NFL season, Manning threw for 5,477 yards 55 touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 115.1.
Both Broncos quarterbacks in their respective Super Bowls were acknowledged as exuding nothing short of being perfect and superior to the quarterbacks who wore the opposite jersey.

Few expected the Redskins to upset the Broncos. Who could have predicted Doug Williams would lead his team to victory with 9 of 11 pass completions and his record-setting four-touchdown production in a quarter, in Super Bowl 22? Similarly, no one expected Russell Wilson to exhibit a spotless performance completing 18 of 25 pass attempts for two touchdown completions, amassing over 200 yards to achieve the same result.

Like Elway's 14 completions in 38 attempts, throwing one touchdown and three interceptions in Super Bowl 22, contributing to the inevitable loss, no one expected Manning to complete 34 passes, 1 touchdown also throwing 2 interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, suffering the same result as his elder.

Like Super Bowl 22 and 48, no one expected these two defenses to individually control the outcome of the game by thoroughly compressing two great offenses into submission.

These two Super Bowls failed to satisfy conventional wisdom. However, they did generate some of the most compelling and historic story lines in the history of the NFL.

Ruth J. Morrison contributed to this article