Professional football as we know it began in 1920 with the 14-league American Professional Football Association (APFA), which became the National Football League (NFL) in 1922.  The NFL had no serious competition until 1960 when the American Football League (AFL) became a major power.  Following years of bitter rivalry for players and fans, the two organizations were forced to broker a gradual merger deal to avoid financial ruin, and by 1970 they merged into a single football league of 28 teams and took the name of the National Football League, The new NFL was comprised the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC), each with 14 teams.

The first Super Bowl started as a way for the champions of the two football conferences to determine who was really the "Number One" champion.  The game took place on January 15, 1967 (concluding the 1966 football season) at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.  Nearly 62,000 fans were in the stadium to witness the Green Bay Packers topple the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Millions more watched the new bowl game on TV, and thus a new football tradition was born.

Originally, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to call the game, "The Big One." During the discussions to iron out the details, Lamar Hunt, one of the AFL's founders, had jokingly referred to the proposed inter-league championship as the "Super Bowl," after watching his kids play with a Super Ball, a toy manufactured by Wham-O. Hunt only meant for his suggestion to be temporary until a better one could be found; nevertheless, the name became permanent. The small, round ball is currently on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Vince Lombardi Trophy

Today, the day on which the Super Bowl is played is considered a de facto American national holiday called "Super Bowl Sunday."  The date for the game was gradually moved from the second Sunday in January to the first Sunday in February to accommodate the 1978 expansion from 28 teams to 32 teams, the expansion of the pre-Super Bowl Playoff field from 8 to 12 teams, necessitating the addition of a third round of playoffs, the addition of the regular season bye-week in the 1990s, and the decision to start the regular season the week following Labor Day.  Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day, and in most years it is the most-watched American television broadcast, drawing an average audience of 106.5 million worldwide viewers in 2010.  The winning team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two Super Bowl games and three of the five preceding NFL championships (1961, 1962 and 1965).  The trophy was named following his death in September 1970.

Super Bowl XLV will be the 45^th annual championship game of the modern-era, culminating the winner of the 2010 football season, and will be played on February 6^th at the new state-of-the art Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It is estimated that 250,000 avid football fans will be in attendance (both inside and outside of the stadium) to cheer on the Pittsburg Steelers and the Green Bay Packers.  These teams have never played each other in the Super Bowl.

Jerry Jones

The Cowboys Stadium covers a total of 73 acres (the stadium site overall encompasses 140 acres), and officially opened as a sports and entertainment venue on June 6, 2009.  The 3 million-square-foot stadium has an approximate capacity of up to 100,000 fans and, as the largest NFL venue ever built.  The stadium boasts the most spectacular column-free room in the world, stretching a quarter-mile in length.  Designed to be open or closed in only 12 minutes (depending on weather conditions), the expansive retractable roof, supported by two monumental arches, soars 292 feet above the playing field and measures approximately 660,800 square feet -- the largest of its kind in the world!  When closed, the roof and structure, consisting of 14,400 tons of structural steel (equivalent to the weight of 92 Boeing 777s) encompasses 104 million cubic feet of volume, making it the largest enclosed NFL stadium in the world.  The stadium also features the largest retractable end zone doors in the world.  Each has a five-leaf, clear, retractable opening measuring 120 feet high by 180 feet wide.  The five 38-foot panels take only 18 minutes to open or close. The center-hung four-sided LED video board is the world's largest at 72 feet high by 160 feet wide, equaling 11,520 square feet per side or 23,040 square feet of sideline displays -- it would take 4,920 52-inch flat panel TVs to equal the size!

The selection of the Cowboys stadium as the venue for Super Bowl 2011 was made in the year 2007. Arlington fought competition in the form of bids from Glendale, California and Indianapolis, Indiana. The location was revealed to the public by the owners of the NFL on May 22, 2007.  For the nine-month period of June 15, 2010 until February 6, 2011, a 30-mile section of highway along which Cowboys Stadium is located has been renamed the Tom Landry Super Bowl Highway in honor of the Dallas Cowboys' coach Tom Landry (1924-2000).  It is estimated that Super Bowl XLV will bring an expected 150,000 to 200,000 visitors to the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.  An estimated 62 percent of these people will be CEOs or the companies' key decision-makers. About 4,500 visitors will be credentialed members of the media.  Tens of millions more will watch the game on television, where the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex will be on display.  Some of these visitors/viewers may decide to relocate or open operations here as a result, creating new jobs and opportunities for North Texans.

For more information and photos of the Cowboys Stadium, please visit http://stadium.dallascowboys.com.

#1: Jerry Rice

#10:  Reggie White

#  9:  Tom Brady

#  8:  Don Hutson

#  7:  Dick Butkus

#  6:  Johnny Unitas

#  5:  Walter Payton

#  4:  Lawrence Taylor

#  3:  Joe Montana

#  2:  Jim Brown

#  1:  Jerry Rice

#1:  Joe Montana

#10:  Fran Tarkenton

#  9:  Otto Graham

#  8:  Steve Young

#  7:  Peyton Manning

#  6:  Johnny Unitas

#  5:  Brett Favre

#  4:  Tom Brady

#  3:  Dan Marino

#  2:  John Elway

#  1:  Joe Montana

With the enactment of the $858 billion tax law last December, including extending the Bush-era federal income tax rates through 2012, Americans of all income levels will be affected. The Act gives the vast majority of workers a two percentage point reduction in Social Security payroll tax for 2011, which means that, as an employee, you'll pay only 4.2% on the first $106,800 of your paycheck, instead of 6.2%. "That rebate is a big deal," says Andrew Friedman, a tax policy expert and principal of the Washington Update, a website that offers up-to-the-minute insights on government policies that affect finances, taxes and investment. "People making more than $100,000 are going to save around $2,000 on Social Security Payroll taxes alone."  (Source:  Merrill Lynch)

Because factored invoices are paid directly to Mazon Associates, many times a client's customers will also mail a client's yearly Form 1099-Misc to Mazon.  When this occurs, we forward these tax forms on to our clients by fax, email, mail or client pick up.  We then maintain the original in the client correspondence file in the event it may need to be re-transmitted.  If you do not receive a needed 1099-Misc form, and Mazon has not received this to forward on to you, please contact your customer directly.

If you would like to find out more about our factoring services for your business and/or apply for an account with Mazon Associates, please phone us at 972-554-6967 (toll-free 800-442-2740) or visit our website www.mazon.com.

According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2009 "Sleep in America" survey, more than half of all adult drivers (about 110 million people) confess that they had driven while drowsy in the prior year.  And nearly one-third of adult drivers have actually fallen asleep while at the wheel!  The consequences are startling: More than 100,000 police-reported crashes annually are the direct result of driver fatigue.

What accounts for this epidemic of snooze and cruise? Millions of us suffer from sleep disorders (from insomnia to obstructive sleep apnea) and even more of us are chronically short of sleep. The poll found that in the previous eight years, the number of Americans who reported sleeping eight hours or more dropped from 38 percent to 28 percent.

"Sleep is as vital to our good health as are eating right and exercising enough," says Woodie Kessel, MD, MPH, former U.S. assistant surgeon general, who was a member of the 2009 "Sleep in America" poll task force.  (Source: Kalia Doner, RemedyLife.com)

After all of the Super Bowl excitement is over, it is time to celebrate your Sweetie!  Cards, candy, gifts -- all meant to say "Thank you for being mine!" in a romantic tone.  Did you know that written Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages?  However, written Valentines did not appear until after 1400.  The oldest known handmade Valentine card, dated 1790, is currently on display at the British Postal Museum.  Americans probably began exchanging handmade Valentines in the early 1700s, and the first commercial Valentine's Day cards produced in the United States were created in the 1840s by Ester A. Howland.  According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion Valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year (an estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas!).  Approximately 85 percent of all Valentines are purchased by women.

NFL football player Merlin Olsen, after living a full life, died. When he got to heaven, God was showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Los Angeles Rams flag in the window. "This house is yours for eternity, Merlin," said God. "This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here." Merlin felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house.

On his way up the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner. It was a 3-story mansion with a blue & white & silver sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an enormous COWBOYS logo flag, and in every window a Cowboys emblem.

Merlin looked at God and said "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question. I was selected to the Pro Bowl for 14 seasons and I was even inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

God said "So what's your point, Merlin?"

"Well, why does Don Meredith get a better house than me?"

God chuckled, and said "Merlin, that's not Don's house, it's mine."

      Earn 10% Monthly Referral Fees!