Super Bowl XVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1981 season. The 49ers defeated the Bengals by the score of 26–21 to win their first Super Bowl.

The game was played on January 24, 1982, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It marked the first time that a Super Bowl was held at a cold-weather city. The domed stadium saved the crowd at the game from the very cold and snowy weather, but the weather did affect traffic and other logistical issues related to the game. Super Bowl XV also became one of the most watched broadcasts in American television history, with more than 85 million viewers, and a final national Nielsen rating of 49.1 (a 73 share).

Both teams were making their first Super Bowl appearance. The 49ers posted a 13-3 regular season record, and playoff wins over the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. The Bengals finished the regular season with a 12-4 record, and had postseason victories over the Buffalo Bills and the San Diego Chargers.

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl I was played on January 15, 1967, following the 1966 regular season, while the most recent game, Super Bowl XLVI, was played on February 5, 2012, to determine the champion of the 2011 season.

The game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues' champion teams would play in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a "conference", and the game was then played between the conference champions. Currently, the NFC leads the series with 25 wins to 21 wins for the AFC.

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, record producer, and actress.

Diana Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that has included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), for which she won a Golden Globe award. She has won seven American Music Awards, was honored with a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.

In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 18 number one records in the United States. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. (born June 11, 1956), nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired professional football player, a hall of fame quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with San Francisco, where he played for the next 14 seasons. Traded before the 1993 season, he spent his final two years in the league with Kansas City. While a member of the 49ers, Montana started in four Super Bowl games and won all of them. Montana was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000, his first year of eligibility.

In 1989, and again in 1990, the Associated Press named Montana the NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and Sports Illustrated magazine named Montana the 1990 "Sportsman of the Year". Four years earlier, in 1986, Montana won the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award. Montana was elected to eight Pro Bowls, as well as being voted 1st team All-Pro by the AP in 1987, 1989, and 1990. Montana had the highest passer rating in the National Football Conference (NFC) five times (1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1989); and, in both 1987 and 1989, Montana had the highest passer rating in the entire NFL.

DeMarcus Ware (born July 31, 1982) is an American football linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. He was drafted with the 11th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft out of Troy University. In 2009, Ware was listed as the best 3-4 outside linebacker by Sporting News and has been described as "the most dynamic defender in the league right now" by ESPN. Pete Prisco ranked Ware as the best defensive player going into the 2012 season and 3rd best player overall behind Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

Ware played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track as a youth. In football, as a senior, he won every game, was named the team Most Valuable Wide Receiver, team Most Valuable Linebacker, and the was awarded the team's Top Leadership honors. He finished his senior season with seven sacks and 55 total tackles (40 solo tackles, 15 assisted tackles).

Ware and current New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora attended Auburn High School, as well as former Washington Redskins linebacker Marcus Washington. Ware, along with fellow pro-mates, annually attends a celebrity basketball game held at his high school. The event was started by Marcus Washington.