On Sunday, 28 January, millions of Americans refused to move from their televisions. Why? Because they were watching the Superbowl – the most important game of the year in American football. This year the Baltimore Ravens played the New York Giants. But three months ago, things did not look good for the Ravens. The start of their season was terrible. What changed?

The Ravens have only been in Baltimore for five years. Before that, they were in Cleveland. But they did not bring success to their new city when they moved. In 1996, they had the worst record of any team in the NFL. One season, other teams scored 441 points against them. Slowly the Ravens built a new team. But success still didn’t come easily.

At the start of this season, it was the same story. The Ravens had a lot to prove. The team was good in some ways. It was difficult for other teams to score against them, but the Ravens couldn’t score many points themselves. They didn’t score one touchdown in all of October. They failed to score a point in five games, so the coach Brian Billick made an important decision. He changed the quarterback. The new man was Trent Dilfer. He has played in the NFL since 1994, but he was never a star player. That isn’t true any more.

Dilfer said, ‘I want to be able to tell my teammates that I gave everything.’ And he has. The Ravens lost their first game with Dilfer as quarterback, but then they won the next ten. Suddenly, the Ravens were looking better and better. ‘I am the quarterback that this team needs,’ said Dilfer.

The team continued to win. They beat the Oakland Raiders by 10-0. Dilfer helped to score the only touchdown by throwing the ball to his teammate Shannon Sharpe. Sharpe was able to run with the ball for 87 metres! In fact, by January, the Ravens were the favourites to win the Superbowl in the opinion of most sports reporters. But the New York Giants were a strong team. They reached the Superbowl by destroying the Minnesota Vikings 41-0. Could the Ravens’ success story continue?

So what happened in Superbowl XXXV on January 28? The city of Baltimore has its first Superbowl win in 30 years. The Baltimore Ravens came together as a team and won the Superbowl. They beat the Giants 34 to 7 in a record-breaking game. And Trent Dilfer played the most exciting game of his life.