Getting excited about the Super Bowl even if you know more about the half-time show and the adverts than the main event? Don’t worry. Before the New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Press Association Sport’s resident American sports expert Ian Parker is on hand to get you sounding like a pro before the cheerleaders have even started their pre-match routine.

1. The defending champions are back

Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen raises the Vince Lombardi Trophy
(Ted S Warren/AP/PA)

The Seattle Seahawks arrive in Glendale as the defending champions. Every pre-season, whoever just won the Super Bowl is made the favourite to win it again for lack of a better idea, but they rarely even make it back to the Super Bowl.

In fact, the last time a defending champion made it back was 2005, when a certain team by the name of the New England Patriots won their second Super Bowl in a row, and third in four years. Which brings us to…

2. The NFL’s dynasty team

Tom Brady
Can Tom Brady win again? (Mark Humphrey/AP/PA)

It is awfully hard to win in the NFL. Salary caps, the draft, weighted schedules… There are so many systems in place to keep the playing field level, it makes it hard for winners to repeat and easier for losers to redeem themselves.

Every few years, a team will enjoy a run – the Pittsburgh Steelers of the late 70s or Dallas Cowboys in the mid-90s, but the last team to string success together was the Patriots. Those wins, in 2002, 2004 and 2005, feel like a while ago now, but the key figures – coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and owner Robert Kraft – are the same all these years on.

And it’s not like they’ve been rubbish since. The Patriots have won at least 10 games every season since 2003, missing the play-offs only once, and in the 2007 season their only loss was in the Super Bowl itself, denying them a perfect 19-0 record. They also played in – and lost – the Super Bowl in 2011.

3. Deflate-gate

(Kevin Dietsch/Landov/PA)
Not the balls from deflate-gate (Kevin Dietsch/Landov/PA)

Right, after all that praise, time to burst the Patriots’ bubble. Or at least deflate it. The build-up to Super Bowl 49 has been overshadowed by controversy after a number of footballs used in the Patriots’ win over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game two weeks ago were found to have been under-inflated.

Why does that matter? An underinflated ball is easier to catch, and so they may have helped the Patriots in cold conditions – not that they appeared to need it as they overwhelmed the Colts 45-7. It’s not the first time the Patriots have been on the wrong side of the rules. In 2007, they were caught illegally videotaping opposition training sessions – with accusations the practice had been going on since 2000.

Marty Hurney, who was the general manager of the Carolina Panthers when they lost to New England in the Super Bowl in 2004, asked last week if there is a “culture of cheating” at the Patriots. The NFL is still investigating the answer.

4. Pete Carroll knows how to win

Pete Carroll lifts the Lombardi trophy after the last win against the Denver Broncos
(Newsday/ABACA/PA)

The Seahawks’ coach is gunning for his second Super Bowl crown in five years with the team, having made the play-offs four times. Prior to that he was head coach at the University of Southern California, where he won two national championships and in nine seasons won four outright conference titles and a share of three others.

Not that his resume is spotless – USC was later stripped of one of those national titles and several other results from Carroll’s tenure over improper benefits given to players. What’s more, Carroll had taken over USC after being fired by, you guessed it, the New England Patriots. Carroll was head coach from 1997 to 1999 but was let go by Kraft after a late season slide in 1999 – to be replaced by Belichick.

5. The NFL might be running out of ideas for half-time shows

Katy Perry at the pre Super Bowl press conference holding an American football
(John Angelillo/Landov/PA)

Katy Perry will perform at half-time on Sunday night, one of the most prestigious 15-minute bookings any act can hope for. Now, we don’t mean to diss Katy (too much) but, after last year’s bizarre collaboration between Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the glory days of the half-time show appear to be in the rear view mirror.

Go back a few years and it was heavyweight after heavyweight as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Prince and more got the gig.

6. The University of Phoenix is not a place

The Super Bowl XLIX is displayed on the University of Phoenix Stadium
When is a university stadium not a university stadium? (Charlie Riedel/AP/PA)

You might have heard the Super Bowl is being played at the University of Phoenix Stadium – the second time the 63,400 seater venue has had the honour. But don’t be confused, the University of Phoenix is not the host and is not a regular school – but rather an open-enrolment institution of higher learning with 112 campuses world wide. The stadium is the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

7. Beast Mode

(Matt York/AP/PA)
(Matt York/AP/PA)

Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has been the star of the pre-game press conferences – for not saying anything.

Perhaps it’s the ultimate expression of how dull most sporting press conferences have become – filled with clichés and platitudes – that the best way to stand out is to refuse to say more than “I’m just here so that I don’t get fined” until such time as your obligations are fulfilled.

But, if I’m allowed one of those cliches now, Lynch is likely to make plenty of noise on the field, where his explosive performances have earned the nickname “Beast Mode”.