Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases especially written for people learning English.

Coming up on the show, ask a Teacher and Everyday Grammar.

We close with an American story, the fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe.

But first, this Sunday, February 9th, is not a holiday in the United States, but it might seem like one to Americans.

Many will be attending parties to watch Super Bowl 59.

The Super Bowl is the championship game of professional American football.

The National Football League, or NFL, has 32 teams mainly based in large cities across the U.S.

The first Professional League was formed in 1920, when representatives of four teams met in

Canton, Ohio.

The group first called itself the American Professional Football Association, but changed the name two years later to the National Football League.

In 1960, Texas businessman Lamar Hunt pushed the effort to create the American Football League, or AFL.

The two leagues competed with each other to sign top football players from universities around the country.

In 1965, established NFL players began negotiating to play for the competing league.

So officials of the two leagues decided to work together.

This agreement established a championship game between the two leagues.

It was officially called the AFL-N-FL World Championship game,

but became known as the Super Bowl.

The first Super Bowl was played in 1967, in Los Angeles, California.

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. It was not a very exciting game.

Many of the seats in the sports center were empty.

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