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NFL takes major steps to avoid second Super Bowl blackout after infamous New Orleans Superdrome power outage

A 34 minute delay.

That’s how long it took to get the lights back on during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers in the New Orleans Superdome.

NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 03:  A partial power outage during the third quarter causes a 34 minute delay in the game during Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on February 3, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

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A partial power outage during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII caused a major delay

For the first time in 12 years, the Super Bowl is going back to the infamous scene of the blackout in the Superdome.

Except this time around, the NFL is not messing around.

There will be no blackout in New Orleans on the sport’s grandest stage.

That’s because the National Football League is going to great lengths and measures to make sure they have everything in place to avoid such a disruption.

Entergy, the local electric supplier, has replaced all of the equipment that caused the infamous power outage during Super Bowl XLVII.

All of that equipment is long gone.

The Superdome has also installed LED lights, which take a lot faster to turn on than the traditional metal halide lights that were in place before.

Shelton Hudson, the Entergy New Orleans director of metro reliability, expressed to Sam Karlin of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, how confident they are in avoiding another blackout.

“We’re very confident in terms of the three feeds we have there,” Hudson .

“Even if you experience one feeder failing, we have redundancy in terms of a backup feed and a third feed if required.”

NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 03:  Colin Kaepernick #7,  Frank Gore #21, and head coach Jim Harbaugh of the San Francisco 49ers wait on the field during a power outage that occured in the third quarter and caused a 34-minute delay during Super Bowl XLVII against the Baltimore Ravens at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on February 3, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

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The blackout at Super Bowl XLVII caused a major momentum shift in the 49’ers favor

There will be backups on top of backups on top of backups if so much as a single light goes out.

This makes another Super Bowl Superdome blackout extremely unlikely.

For the sake of conspiracy theorists and tin-foil hat mad men, let’s all hope the lights stay on.

The last thing we need is if Philadelphia jumps out to a big lead, the lights all of a sudden go out, and then Kansas City comes back in extraordinary fashion.

After all, that is what almost happened between the Ravens and 49’ers.

Baltimore had a dominant 21-6 lead in the third quarter when the lights went out.

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Fast forward 34 minutes after they had come back on, and all the momentum was with San Francisco.

The Niners outscored the Ravens 25-13 in the second half, but were ultimately stopped short, losing 34-31.

Here’s hoping this time around that the lights stay on.

It’s one thing to have an officiating controversy, where a couple calls go one way or another.

It’s a whole other conversation if the lights go out again.

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