It is the one firing that all sports fans can appreciate.
The clock reaches all zeros, the crowd roars and delirious players rush onto the field. And clouds of confetti shot — or fired — out of cannons swirl in the air.
You really can’t have a championship event without it.
Late Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, bits of Notre Dame blue and gold or Ohio State scarlet, gray and white will be launched from 12 cannons stationed on the sidelines of the field to celebrate the newest champion of the College Football Playoff.
Specifically, it will be BigBlaster cannons — powered by pressurized carbon dioxide canisters and capable of spraying confetti 110 feet in the air continuously for a minute — that will create the fluttering fusillade. The artillery is provided by Artistry in Motion, a giant in the world of confetti.
“I think of us not as just shooting confetti in the air, but sort of making memories and creating memorable moments,” company president Joe Wojcik told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Whether the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the CFP Championship game or most any major-sports title contest, confetti is a ubiquitous element of the postgame celebration, as is Artistry in Motion.
“Anywhere there’s confetti or there’s a celebration, you’ll usually find our stuff,” Wojcik said.
Picture victorious athletes looking skyward in wonder, happily making snow angels in the fallen pieces or scooping it up as keepsakes. Falcons fans likely remember images of a downcast Matt Ryan retreating to the locker room after falling short in Super Bowl 51 with a confetti storm in the background.
It’s part of the fabric of major sporting events.
Thousands of athletes and millions of fans have a former NFL executive to thank. For 26 years (1979-2005), Jim Steeg oversaw the Super Bowl and is credited with helping amplify the game from a mere championship contest to an unofficial national holiday. One small step in the journey was the introduction of confetti.
Super Bowl 31 in New Orleans in January 1997 was the second in which the trophy presentation was made on the field instead of in the winning locker room. Wanting to liven up the environment, Steeg landed on confetti as part of the solution. He reached out to Artistry in Motion, based in the Los Angeles area.
“It was just something to kind of add to the atmosphere that was a little antiseptic,” Steeg told the AJC.
He does not remember a lot of internal debate over confetti.
“This is not one of those you ran up the flagpole with the commissioner,” said Steeg, who believes that the NFL was the first league to use confetti in this manner.
When Green Bay players lifted coach Mike Holmgren onto their shoulders amid a confetti shower after defeating New England, it created an iconic moment.
“All these pictures of Holmgren coming off the field,” he said. “It kind of captivated everybody.”
It truly did. It has become difficult to remove from championship settings, not unlike confetti itself.
Postgame confetti storms have become so familiar that they’re practically shorthand for a championship. When the Eagles drafted Georgia’s Jalen Carter in 2023, Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman told Carter, “Just like you did at Georgia, man. You know the goal — confetti falling on our head, championships.”
Watching videos of championship games without confetti, it feels like something is missing. Steeg, 74, now resides in the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina and operates a sports consultancy. He’s not doing victory laps over being the father of postgame confetti, but still glad for it.
“I think I’m happy that it added to something that people get enjoyment out of,” Steeg said. “That’s kind of the fun part about it.”
After Michigan defeated Washington in January 2024 for the CFP title in Houston, then-Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh stood in the middle of the field amid a confetti shower, transfixed.
“You watch this confetti come down, it’s like thousands of confetti,” he told ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “It tells a story. There’s a story in every one of those pieces of confetti, maize and blue confetti.”
Wojcik, the Artistry in Motion president, was at work on the NRG Stadium field at the time, unaware of the endorsement his company he was receiving.
Said Wojcik, “He was the greatest pitchman ever for Artistry in Motion.”
Not many companies do what Artistry in Motion does and maybe none do it as well. Michael Fiur, whose eponymous production company has been a part of 29 Super Bowls (including the past 19 Lombardi Trophy presentations) and all 10 of the CFP championships, swears by the company.
“Having worked with other companies, Artistry in Motion is absolutely the best in the business when it comes to not only making the confetti, but being able to flawlessly execute the postgame celebrations,” Fiur told The AJC.”
Wojcik’s company is here for all of your confetti needs. The company makes confetti, sells confetti-launching equipment and offers the services of its confetti technicians.
The company markets confetti in team colors and fabricates custom designs. Monday’s confetti shower for the trophy presentation will include pieces that are die-cut in the shape of a football and imprinted with the CFP logo and 2025.
Artistry in Motion can print on both sides of flame-retardant tissue paper, which sounds like an impressive confetti-industry flex. The company will introduce a new product at Monday’s game — Glimmer — that looks metallic but has the biodegradable properties of tissue paper.
A crew of about 18 will be on hand. With about two or three minutes left in the game, the team will emerge from MBS’ four portals at the corners of the field and set up its cannons on the sidelines with both teams’ confetti, each primed to spray 25 pounds of confetti.
There are two critical steps. One, make sure to use the winning team’s confetti. Two, be certain that the game is over before launching.
“We’re (in communication), and we make sure that the game is over, over, over before we shoot,” Wojcik said.
Wojcik’s team also will shoot confetti from handheld cannons, blast streamers from the stadium’s halo video board and provide special effects during the trophy presentation.
Wojcik will be handling one of the cannons as the team blasts about 5 million pieces of confetti into the air.
“It’s always a lot of pressure, but it’s a rush of excitement,” he said.
It wouldn’t be a championship without it.
About the Author
