Super Bowl . . . or Super Bust?

The Super Bowl, arguably the largest sporting event in the country, has become an American pastime in its own right. On Sunday, thousands of fans will fill MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to cheer on the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos as they compete for the Vince Lombardi trophy and the title of World Champion. Millions more will tune in on TV, watching not just the game, but the multi-million dollar ads vying for the attention of TV’s largest audience.

As the throng of fans, athletes, and advertisers converge on New Jersey this week for the big game, we’re sure to see and hear plenty about the coaches, players, league officials, fans, and stadium employees working so hard to make this Super Bowl the best yet. And while these groups certainly deserve praise for their efforts to pull off one of the most complex and popular events in the country, there is another group of vital contributors, who will surely go thankless this weekend: miners. Did you know mined materials are used to help build everything from the stadium, to the equipment and uniforms the players wear, to the cameras and microphones companies use to film their highly-anticipated big-game advertisements? Even smartphones, computers, and the internet and cable TV signals millions of fans will use to track the game are dependent on materials pulled out of the ground by miners. Take a look at these examples of how mined materials help make Super Bowl XLVIII possible:

- MetLife Stadium was constructed with a mix of concrete (limestone, clay, gypsum), steel (iron, zinc, molybdenum) aluminum, and glass (silica and feldspar)

- Cleats worn by the players use a combination of zinc and metals to improve grip and durability, as well as borax, salt, chromium, and sulfur in the shoe leather which is used to make the cleats more flexible.

- The helmets worn by both teams are made of a hardened plastic (barium, fluorite, iron ore, mica, and platinum group metals).

- The cameras, microphones, tablets, and smartphones used to capture the game and film Super Bowl commercials are dependent on rare earth elements like neodymium.

- The rare earth element erbium is an important part of fiber-optic technologies like internet and cable TV service.

- The football field uses fertilizer derived from potash (a mixture of mined salts and potassium).

Without mined materials, and the miners who work hard to safely and responsibly pull them out of the ground, the Super Bowl would not happen. So, while the media focuses its attention on Seattle’s elite defense, Denver’s record-setting offense, and all the hard work and preparation the NFL has put into their premier event, let’s remember that when it comes to the Super Bowl, it all starts with mining.