A Casual Fan's Guide To Super Bowl XLV

For those casual football fans (women or men!) who've not been following NFL football all season but still love to watch the Super Bowl, here's a cheat sheet with a rundown of relevant details you'll need to be in-the-know on Sunday.

The players: Super Bowl XLV will see the Pittsburgh Steelers meet the Green Bay Packers. Steelers' QB, Ohio-born Ben Roethlisberger, 28, missed the first four games of the 2010 season when the league determined his sexual assault charges violated the NFL's personal conduct policy. Green Bay's QB, 27-year-old Aaron Rodgers from California, has the web atwitter wondering if he's taken or single. Rumor has it he's dating Gossip Girl star and Wisconsin native Jessica Szohr.

The place: This year, the big event will be in Dallas, Texas at the brand new Cowboy Stadium—a monument to the local NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, whom the locals love so much they actually voted to raise taxes in order to finance this $1.2 billion behemoth. Unfortunately for them, the Cowboys stink. But if you can't have a winning football team, then the next best thing is to have a tricked-out stadium, and this one has it all—capacity for more than 100,000 people, a retractable roof, and the largest high-def television screen in the world, which is itself about half the size of the field. Play Together: Top Sports For Couples

The halftime show: Ever since Justin Timberlake caused Janet Jackson's wardrobe to malfunction, the NFL has chosen over-the-hill classic rock acts for the half-time show—most recently, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and The Who. This year, however, the NFL has thrown caution to the wind and enlisted the Black Eyed Peas. You can bet all 11,520 square feet of that HD video screen will be on Fergie's mind as she applies her makeup.

The extras: There is some political intrigue surrounding this Super Bowl. The event happens to fall on the birthday of Ronald Reagan, and the good ol' boys in Texas have cooked up a tribute to the messiah of modern conservatism. On the other side of the partisan divide, President Obama has agreed to sit down for a pre-game interview with Fox, which is broadcasting the game—a big deal in the political world, since the president has famously given the cold shoulder to the right-wing network. His interviewer? None other than the conservative firebrand Bill O'Reilly.

The main event, of course, is not the pre-game or half-time show but the commercials, which cost about $100,000 per second. You almost feel sorry for the players who make it to the big game—they're practically the only people in the world who won't be watching. 6 Things Men Should Know About Women

Check out the Superbowl this Sunday, 6:30pm EST on Fox as the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers.

Image courtesy of northtexassuperbowl.com