Getting Super Bowl Logo On Footballs Is A Quick, Handmade Process

I bet you didn't think you'd learn where the Super Bowl balls come from, did you? Well, you will.

The footballs for Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers will come from an Ohio plant which started producing the balls shortly after the Super Bowl teams were known. Each ball must have each team name and the Super Bowl XLV logo and the plant will get half of them to the Steelers and Packers by Tuesday.

The footballs at the Wilson factory -- more than 700,000 of them each year -- are completely handmade, with workers cutting the cowhide (pigskins are a thing of the past), stamping the logos and tying the laces.

With the cowhides for the Super Bowl balls cut in advance, a small crew of workers labored through the night after the AFC championship game getting the balls stamped in time for the full staff of 120 to show up at its customary 5 a.m. start time.

I did not realize these were all handmade. For the Super Bowl, that's 216 of them. About half will be delivered to the Packers and Steelers by Tuesday and both teams will be responsible for delivering 54 balls to Super Bowl officials before the game. After the officials inspect the ball, they're considered official.

And that is one quick explanation of where all those Super Bowl balls come from.