For the first time in sporting history, the Super Bowl will take place during the Winter Olympics. The reason for this is changes in timing in their respective histories as NBC explained:
The Winter Olympics have been held exclusively in February since 1968, which also happens to be the first Winter Olympics year in the Super Bowl era. The Super Bowl, meanwhile, was not held in February until 2002. That year, Super Bowl XXXVI took place just five days before the Opening Ceremony for the Salt Lake City Olympics. The trend continued each Winter Olympics year through 2018.
The Super Bowl and Winter Olympics will finally line up in 2022 thanks to a factor from each event.
First, the Winter Olympics have not begun this early in the year since 1972, when Hideki Takada lit the torch at the Makomanai Speed Skating Rink in Sapporo for the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 3.
Second, the 2021 NFL season is the league’s first where each team plays a 17-game schedule. The additional regular-season contest for each team pushed the playoffs back a week, making Super Bowl LVI the first to be played on the second Sunday of February.
I wonder if this will happen again and how often in future.