Super Bowl LI was the 51st Super Bowl and 47th modern-day NFL championship. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks defeated the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals 24-20. The game was played on February 5, 2017 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas and broadcast nationally on Fox.
The Seahawks finished the 2016 season with a 12-4 record and were the NFC West champions and the second overall seed in the NFC. After defeating the Washington Redskins at home, they went on the road and defeated the top seeded Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on a last-second Steve Hauschka field goal to win their first-ever road conference championship game and qualify for the franchise's fourth Super Bowl appearance. The Cincinnati Bengals, coming off of a 14-2 regular season, defeated Houston in the divisional round and then defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC title game at Lucas Oil Stadium. With their victory, the Bengals became the fourth-straight first overall seed to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, and it was the third appearance for the Bengals.
The Seahawks led for most of the game, taking a 17-7 lead into halftime. The Bengals, behind star quarterback Andy Dalton, scored thirteen unanswered points augmented by two interceptions by the Bengals defense of Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (off of which the Bengals scored ten of their thirteen second-half points). The Seahawks stopped the Bengals on a fourth-and-goal conversion attempt and then marched ninety-eight yards for the go-ahead score on a six-yard pass from Wilson to Doug Baldwin. The Bengals were stopped on four pass attempts inside the Seahawks twenty and Seattle ran out the clock to win the franchise's second Super Bowl, both within four seasons. Baldwin, who caught two touchdown passes (including the game winner) and had seventeen receptions for 211 yards, was named game MVP.
The Super Bowl LI halftime show was headlined by Taylor Swift, and it was the fifth-most watched program in American television history.