On February 7, 2021, at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs went head-to-head in the Super Bowl LV. In the end, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came out as the champion team for the 2020 NFL season. But the two teams weren’t the only ones that competed that evening— everyone competed against a common enemy: COVID-19. In the end, Super Bowl LV was successfully victorious against COVID-19 throughout the game, the halftime show and the commercials.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9. This victory made it the Buccaneers’ second Super Bowl win ever, winning the first NFL title back in 2002 when they defeated the Oakland Raiders 48-21. Additionally, they are the first team to ever win a Super Bowl in its home stadium in 55 years. 

A total team effort, the Buccaneers’ offense found success on the ground and in the air while their defense kept the Chiefs out of the end zone. This successful team effort and turnaround can be largely credited to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time: Tom Brady. The heart and soul of the Buccaneers, Brady broke the Buccaneers’ franchise record for passing touchdowns in a single season, led three straight postseason wins to the Super Bowl and brought the culture of success and heightened expectations that pushed the Bucs to the best performance level. 

In an interview with the NFL, Brady recapped, “This has been an amazing year. We got to a good start 7-2, then had a little rough stretch where we kinda found our identity and played a lot better football down December-January. Just really proud of all the guys, proud of all the coaches, the effort we put in. We knew we were playing a great football team tonight and we got the job done. So, if you want to get this far, you got to get the job done and we did it.”

The most significant factor that makes this Super Bowl stand out from all others is the fact that it took place amid a pandemic, a pandemic that has tormented the world for more than a year by cancelling events, forcing businesses to close and claiming the lives of over 2.54 million. Despite this, the Super Bowl prevailed—with safety precautions. The Super Bowl took significant steps to assist in preventing viral transmission during the large event. Fans were provided KN95 masks, hand sanitizers, antibacterial wipes and a COVID-19 safety card that gave strict rules that needed to be followed while attending the game. Also, anyone who attended the game was required to wear a face mask, remain in their assigned seats and maintain six feet of social distance from others. 

The halftime show was no exception. The spectacular halftime performance successfully upheld COVID-19 safety regulations by testing all the stage crew members before the Super Bowl and requiring them to wear masks. The stage setup for the show was also not on the field but in the stands; that way they could remain socially distant and avoid having audience members clustered together on the field. The backup dancers also remained socially distant from each other.

The Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show was indeed an unusual performance, nevertheless, it still proved to be a successful and opulent show performance. As a matter of fact, Abel Tesfaye—the 30-year-old Canadian musician widely known as “The Weeknd”—contributed seven million dollars of his own money to the production. Additionally, Tesfaye stated that his inspiration for the 2021 halftime show was from Diana Ross’s performance at the Super Bowl XXX halftime show in 1996.

During an interview with “Variety,” Tesfaye said, “She’s just so glamorous and the show just makes me smile. And she has a great exit with the helicopter—it lands in the middle of the field, she grabs onto it and flies off into the clouds, it’s like…I wish I could have done that, I wish I’d thought of it. Although, I don’t think I have enough money to do it!”

The Super Bowl commercials set a fine example of maintaining social distancing due to the fact that they were filmed safely. In the commercials, it’s noticeable that there were more sets taken outdoors and fewer crowd shots to align with the regulations mandated by the CDC. 

In an interview with “USA Today,” Bud Light senior brand director Joe Lennon pointed out, “We certainly had fewer people on set than usual. I attended the shoot remotely. My creative partners mostly attended the shoot remotely. We did everything to ensure health and safety of everybody on set was the top priority, and keeping the set as small as possible was also a huge priority for us.”

A few of the most popular Super Bowl commercials were “Last Year’s Lemons” from Bud Light—which described how awful the year 2020 was by using lemons raining down from the sky—and “No Way, Norway” from General Motors starring three comedic legends: Awkwafina, Will Ferrel and Kenan Thompson as they travel to Norway after finding out that the country sells more electric cars per capita than the US. Many more of these commercials provided comedic relief and portrayed safe social distancing practices.

Overall, Super Bowl LV and its halftime show and commercials proved a massive success in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and were able to hold an enjoyable 2020 NFL season to the best of the current circumstances.