It’s difficult to believe that this will be the 56th Super Bowl when the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams play Sunday night. That’s because it’s even more difficult to believe that I’ve watched all of them and even attended a few.
You may not know this, but the title game first played in 1967 between the champions of the American Football League and the National Football League (this was before they merged) wasn’t called the Super Bowl. That didn’t happen until the fourth year, when Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas Chiefs, came up with the name to appease owners looking for a marketing tool.
That appellation had gained support after the New York Jets behind flashy quarterback Joe Namath stunned the venerable Baltimore Colts, 16-9, to win the third championship game, in January 1969, thus establishing that all teams were created equal.
The Super Bowl name was added in 1970, the January before there was a fully merged NFL, when the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, all original NFL teams, joined the AFC to balance out the field. Coincidentally, Hunt’s Kansas City Chiefs pounded the Minnesota Vikings to win that Super Bowl, 23-7.
The roman numerals began at Super Bowl V in 1971, and they were added retroactively. That year, again ironically, the Colts beat the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13, thus becoming the only team to lose the Super Bowl for the NFC and win it for the AFC.
Rivalries and loyalties aside, many critics thought the first few Super Bowls were sloppy, one-sided and even boring. I argue that I attended the best two Super Bowls played to that point in time.
In January 1989, in Super Bowl XXIII in Miami, one of this year’s combatants, the Bengals, led the San Francisco 49ers, 16-13, with just more than three minutes to play. But Joe Montana led the Niners on a 92-yard drive, throwing the game-winning touchdown pass to John Taylor with 34 seconds to play, 20-16.
Two years later in Tampa, the New York Giants won an intrastate battle against the Buffalo Bills, 20-19, when their kicker made a field goal with 7:20 to play and Bills kicker Scott Norman missed from 47 yards with 4 seconds to play.
There were three other special elements to that game: It was played during a high security alert because the Persian Gulf War, Whitney Houston sang a breathtaking rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as jets flew overhead, and two kids named Wahlberg – Donnie and Mark – and some friends brought New Kids On The Block onstage for halftime.
My personal favorite games involved Brett Favre, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers, but I’ve picked out five flashes from my Super Bowl past that made a lasting impressions. How do they compare to your memories?
1. Imperfect perfection
The Miami Dolphins of the 1970s were a remarkable and unblemished collection of talent. They had been blown out in Super Bowl VI but returned the next year to go undefeated – the only team since the merger that has – at 17-0, beating the Washington Redskins, 14-7, in January 1973 to complete that process. But the most memorable moment of that game came when kicker Garo Yepremian picked up the ball on a botched field-goal attempt and then tried to throw a pass. The ball flew backward out of his hand, and Mike Bass grabbed that "fumble" and ran 49 yards for a touchdown that cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:07 to play. The Dolphins overcame that to close out their perfect ending.
2. The big leap
There was not much drama in Super Bowl XVIII, when the then Los Angeles Raiders, pounded Washington, 38-9, in January 1984 at Tampa. Jim Plunkett played flawlessly at quarterback, and Marcus Allen had a record-setting 74-yard touchdown run in the most-one-sided Super Bowl to date. My personal moment was early in that game, with the Raiders leading, 7-0, when their punter, Ray Guy, leaped and extended as high as he could to catch an errant snap, collect himself and get off a 42-yard punt. This is personal: Guy and I went to college together for a couple of years and were friends. He was the only punter to be drafted in the first round. He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and on the NFL’s all-time team. I knew him to be a fabulous defensive back, an overpowering pitcher and otherwise outstanding athlete in anything he tried. In that play in the Super Bowl, he proved that to the world.
3. Black and proud
Super Bowl XXII was remarkable not because it was close – the Washington Redskins beat the Denver Broncos, 42-10, in San Diego on Jan. 31, 1988 – but because its hero broke a barrier. The Broncos were 3-point favorites and jumped to a 10-0 lead in that game, but Redskins quarterback Doug Williams quickly proved that a fallacy. Williams came back from an early injury to complete 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns and won MVP. That was remarkable in itself, but here’s what made it special to me: Williams played college football at Grambling. I had covered a couple of his games there, then his turn at the Senior Bowl all-star game and later with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is a talented, dedicated and principled man. He also is Black. And before that day, no Black man had played quarterback in a winning Super Bowl. That didn’t happen again until 2014, when Russell Wilson led Seattle to victory.
4. They did what?
The Bucs had joined the NFL in 1976 and proceeded to lose 26 games in a row. John McKay, their coach, once infamously said of his team’s execution, “I’m all for it.” They were called the Yucs. There was a reason. I started to follow them closely in the 1980s, and they had some flirtations with success, but until Tony Dungy took over as coach in 1996, credibility was not one of their attributes. Dungy coached them to five consecutive winning seasons before being fired after the 2001 season. You know what happened. Jon Gruden took over and took the Bucs to Super Bowl XXXVII the very next season. They pounded the Raiders (this time from Oakland), 48-21, because that Dungy-built defense returned three intercepted passes for touchdowns, including two in the last 1:18. I was happy for the Bucs but sad for Dungy, who deserved the credit. He got it, though, in 2007, when his Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears, 29-17.
5. Super moments
Mostly, though, the Super Bowl to me is a carousel of images, of moments, of out-of-syntax plays and faces that resonate beyond the full game to which they belong. I will set aside the circus that has pitched its tent around the most-watched TV show of every year. Forget the commercials and the halftime costume and performance issues. All that just adds to confusion. I remember the NFL championship game in 1966, when the Packers sneaked past the Cowboys in a sub-zero Green Bay, more clearly than I do the next game, when the Packers pounded the (then Oakland) Raiders in Super Bowl II. But here are some other vivid moments, although the years and roman numerals elude. Lynn Swann’s acrobatic catch of a long pass. Fred Biletnikoff grabbing every pass in his reach. John Riggins’ stiff-arming a cornerback on a long TD run. Allen’s weaving gallop through the Raiders. Joe Montana throwing to anyone anywhere. Favre circling the field in victory at New Orleans. David Tyree catching a ball with his helmet to end New England’s bid for an undefeated season. The Mannings, Peyton and Eli, lifting two winning trophies each. Malcom Butler intercepting in the end zone with 26 seconds to play to save New England one year, then the Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead the next because …. there were Tom Brady and the Patriots on the other side. Brady has won seven Super Bowls. His Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers won six apiece. Brady’s last title was with Bucs a year ago. That’s the period. That's the last scene in my mind. I'm sure there will be more.
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Marcus Allen (32) of the Los Angeles Raiders outruns Anthony Washington (24) of the Washington Redskins en route to a 74-yard touchdown in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII game at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Fla., Jan. 23, 1984. Allen ran for two touchdowns to give his team a 35-9 lead going into the fourth quarter. At center is Cliff Branch of the Raiders. (AP Photo) -
FILE - Oakland Raiders receiver Fred Biletnikoff, left, and quarterback Ken Stabler gesture after they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in NFL football's Super Bowl XI in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 9, 1977. Biletnikoff caught four passes for 79 yards to earn MVP honors. (AP Photo/File) -
New York Giants receiver David Tyree (85) makes a 32-yard reception as New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison (37) defends during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl XLII football game at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008 in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) -
** ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, JAN. 30-31 ** FILE - In this May 8, 2008, file photo, Archie Manning, center, is joined by his sons Eli Manning, left, and Peyton Manning after the taping of a DirecTV commercial in Beverly Hills, Calif. The late Vince Lombardi was credited with saying, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." But that's only because he never lost in New Orleans. Archie Manning did _ in every way possible and nearly 100 times in all while wearing the Saints' fleur-de-lis. Yet it's hard to imagine a man who lost so often living a more charmed life, a feeling reinforced by the appearance of sons Peyton and Eli in three of the last four Super Bowls. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) -
Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy celebrates after the Super Bowl XLI football game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007. The Colts beat the Chicago Bears 29-17. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) -
Tom Brady, quarterback de los Buccaneers de Tampa Bay, celebra con su equipo el título de la NFC el domingo 24 de enero del 2021 tras vencer a los Packers de Green Bay. Ahora los Bucs irán al Super Bowl. (AP Foto/Jeffrey Phelps) -
FILE - In this Jan. 15, 1967, file photo, football commissioner Pete Rozelle, left, presents the trophy to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi after they beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in Super Bowl I in Los Angeles. (AP Photo, File) -
Green Bay's Elijah Pitts (22) charges into the end zone, eluding Bobby Hunt (20), during the first Super Bowl in Los Angeles, Jan. 16, 1967. Pitts scored from the five on the play following Willie Wood's interception in the third quarter. Packers beat the Chiefs, 35-10. (AP Photo)
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