By: John Kucko
The Wilson Football Factory began production of the 228 game balls immediately after the AFC and NFC Champions have won, imprinting each official game ball with the Super Bowl XLVII logo, team names, date and location. They will finish about 36 hours after they've begun, then immediately ship 108 balls to each team. In addition, Wilson will ship the 12 "K" balls for the Super Bowl's kicking plays direct to the NFL's officiating crew. Wilson employees will continue to make more than 15,000 Super Bowl XLVII footballs for retail sale.
The Official Football of the NFL is still a handcrafted work of art, and every point scored in the NFL has been with a Wilson football. Wilson and the NFL began their partnership in 1941, making it one of the longest-enduring partnerships in sports history. The Wilson Football Factory handcrafts over 700,000 game balls each year, which also includes NCAA, high school and youth league game balls to keep this factory humming to the tune of over 3,000 footballs produced daily.
"Every Super Bowl is an exciting time for us," says Dan Riegle, Wilson Factory manager. "Wilson has such a rich history with the NFL, and our employees have been making every Super Bowl football since the very beginning. This is more than just a game to us, it's our heart and soul."
