Which team this Super Bowl XLV has a better passing game?

Green Bay's special teams unit never had to punt the ball, while Mason Crosby contributed two field goals. Green Bay next faced the number 2 Chicago Bears in the NFC championship game, beating them 21–14. This time Rodgers had a rougher day than his previous two games, throwing no touchdown passes and being intercepted twice.

But he still threw for 244 yards and scored a 1-yard touchdown run, while Starks added 74 rushing yards, including a touchdown run in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Green Bay's defense knocked Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler out of the game and intercepted three passes, one of which was returned 18 yards for a touchdown by B. The other two were made by rookie Sam Shields, who recorded his second interception near his own end zone with 37 seconds left to put the game away.

Both teams are known to have sizable fanbases that often travel to away games, largely due to the home games themselves having decades-long waiting lists. 13 In August 2008, ESPN.com ranked the two teams tied as having the best fans in the NFL. 14 ESPN's own John Clayton, a Pittsburgh native, broke the tie in favor of the Steelers.

As the Packers were the designated home team in the annual rotation between AFC and NFC teams, the team elected to wear their green jerseys. Although both teams are known to wear their colored jerseys at home and have rarely worn white at home (the Packers wore white at home for two games in 1989), the Packers decision contrasted with the Steelers decision as the home team in Super Bowl XL to wear white jerseys. Both the 2005 Steelers and 2010 Packers were number 6 seeded teams when they reached the Super Bowl, forcing them to play all of their postseason games on the road and wearing their respective white jerseys in those games.

The retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium was closed for the game. A severe winter storm blanketed the Dallas-Fort Worth area in hard ice and snow the week before the game, threatening to disrupt game preparations. Snow fell from the roof of Cowboys Stadium's East end on February 4, injuring six people.

17 Over 3,000 tickets were sold to watch the game in the stadium's East Plaza, which experienced the falling ice tragedy earlier in the week. However, the snow had melted by game time and fans who paid $200 per ticket were allowed to watch the game outside Cowboys Stadium, in the open air, as the weather turned from sleet to sun. Since the Steelers and Packers were two of the six teams that did not have cheerleaders during the 2010 NFL season (the others being the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, and New York Giants), this marked the first Super Bowl without cheerleaders.

Packers lineman, Bryan Bulaga, became the youngest player to start in a Super Bowl, at the age of 21 years and 322 days old. Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey would have been the youngest player (21 years, 197 days), but he could not play because of a high ankle sprain. During a press conference on January 19, 2011, President Barack Obama (a longtime Chicago Bears fan) said he would attend Super Bowl XLV if the Chicago Bears defeated the Green Bay Packers, saying "If the Bears win, I’m going no doubt".

19 Chicago ended up losing the NFC Championship game a few days later on January 23 to Green Bay 21–14. In a post-game locker-room speech by Green Bay Packers corner Charles Woodson he poked fun at the President's comment saying "The President don't want to come watch us at the Super Bowl, guess what? We'll go see him" (implying that Green Bay would win the Super Bowl and visit the White House as the winning team does each year; a statement that would come true).

Woodson then broke the Packers meeting with a team cheer of "White House!". 20 On January 26 President Obama visited Green Bay and was greeted by Mayor Jim Schmitt and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who presented the President with two Green Bay Packers Jerseys. The first had Obama's name on the back with the number 1 and the second was an autographed Charles Woodson jersey with the message "See you at the White House.