More than 6,000 credentialed media members will converge on Levi’s Stadium Monday night for Opening Night, the annual spectacle that transforms routine player interviews into prime-time entertainment and officially launches Super Bowl week.
The event marks the first major public appearance for New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold since their teams advanced to Sunday’s championship game. What began decades ago as a simple daytime press conference has evolved into a ticketed, televised event where athletes field questions that range from game strategy to the absurd.
For Maye, Opening Night adds another layer to an already complicated week. The 23-year-old second-year quarterback has been managing both an illness and a shoulder injury while preparing for his first Super Bowl appearance. Despite missing Friday’s practice due to illness, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said he doesn’t expect either issue to affect Maye’s performance Sunday. Maye finished the regular season with 4,394 passing yards and 31 touchdowns, numbers that put him in MVP consideration.
Darnold’s path to this moment took considerably longer. The quarterback bounced through five teams over eight seasons before finding success in Seattle, where he led the Seahawks to a 14-3 record and the NFC’s top seed. In the NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams, Darnold played through an oblique injury to throw for 346 yards and three touchdowns in a 31-27 victory, completing 25 of 36 passes without turning the ball over.
Opening Night serves a specific function in the Super Bowl machinery: it satisfies the massive global media demand for player access in a single concentrated session rather than spreading interviews across the week. The format allows players to meet their media obligations while the league creates content for broadcast partners and social media platforms. Reporters from dozens of countries attend, asking questions in multiple languages and producing stories for audiences far beyond American football’s traditional reach.
The spectacle reflects how the Super Bowl has grown beyond a football game into a week-long cultural event. Opening Night is just the beginning. The field at Levi’s Stadium, prepared over 16 months by NFL turf specialist Nick Pappas, will host not just the game but pregame ceremonies, the halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, and various other festivities that make Super Bowl Sunday as much about entertainment as athletics.
