NFL: It’s ‘Super Bowl 50,’ Not ‘Super Bowl L’

If you’ve been relying on Super Bowls and Rocky movies to learn Roman numerals, you’re out of luck — for a year, at least. The National Football League will not be using Roman numerals for 2016’s Super Bowl, instead calling it simply “Super Bowl 50.”

The switchover from Roman numerals is temporary, said Jaime Weston, the league’s vice president of brand and creative, according to ESPN. “Super Bowl L” just isn’t as pretty as Super Bowl 50.

The NFL has been using Roman numerals since Super Bowl V in 1971. It’s been working on the Super Bowl 50 logo since April 2013 and went through 73 versions, concluding along the way that Super Bowl “L” just wouldn’t work.

“When we developed the Super Bowl XL logo, that was the first time we looked at the letter ‘L,'” Weston said. “Up until that point, we had only worked with X’s, V’s and I’s. And, at that moment, that’s when we started to wonder what will happen when we get to 50?”

Super Bowl 50 is set to take place at Levi’s Stadium, the soon-to-be home of the San Francisco 49ers, on Feb. 7, 2016.

[ESPN]