9781422283097

T he S uper B owl : M ore T han a G ame ALL ABOUT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

and counting....

by Craig Ellenport

ALL ABOUT PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

F antasy F ootball

F ootball and P layer S afety

I nside C ollege F ootball : P reparing for the P ros ?

I nside H igh S chool F ootball : A C hanging T radition

I nside P ro F ootball M edia

T he I ntense W orld of a P ro F ootball C oach

T he P ro F ootball D raft

P ro F ootball P layers in the N ews

R unning P ro F ootball : C ommissioners , O wners , F ront O ffice , and M ore

T he S uper B owl : M ore T han a G ame

T he S uper B owl : M ore T han a G ame

by Craig Ellenport

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2017 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3576-8 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3586-7 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8309-7

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Bill Madrid Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com

Cover photographs by Eq Roy/Dreamstime (sign); Joe Robbins (Brady, Bradshaw, Bears); AP (Lombardi); Angie Westre/Dreamstime (background).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ellenport, Craig. Title: The Super Bowl : more than a game / by Craig Ellenport.

Description: Broomall, PA : Mason Crest, [2017] | Series: All About Professional Football | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016007573| ISBN 9781422235867 (Hardback) | ISBN 9781422235768 (Series) | ISBN 9781422283097 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Super Bowl--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC GV956.2.S8 E55 2017 | DDC 796.332/648--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007573

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C ontents

Key Icons to Look For Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational Videos : Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more! Introduction: An Intergalactic Event … .…….…….… 6 Chapter 1: The Big Show Begins …….…….…….…… 12 Chapter 2: A Super Place in Society …….…….…….… 30 Chapter 3: Halftime/Entertainment …….…….…….… 40 Chapter 4: Behind the Scenes …….…….…….…….… 50 Find Out More …….…….…….…….…….…….…….… 62 Series Glossary of Key Terms …….…….…….…….… 63 Index/About the Author …….…….…….…….…….… 64

Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here.

Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains ter- minology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

I ntroduction

Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin rocked Super Bowl 50 as part of the halftime extravaganza.

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“People of Earth, we’ve come ten billion light years to bring you this halftime message of peace!” A n I ntergalactic E vent So says the alien who emerges from his spaceship on the 50‑yard line during halftime of Super Bowl XXVI. Okay, so that didn’t really happen. Instead, it was a scene from The Simpsons , a TV show that specializes in poking fun at some of the biggest pop culture institutions in the world. And there may be no bigger pop culture institution in the galaxy than the Super Bowl. If aliens are out there somewhere, studying the behavior of humans, there’s no doubt the Super Bowl would show up on their radar. The Super Bowl—the National Football League’s annual championship game—has grown into what some consider a national holiday. More than 100 million people in the United States watch the game, with millions more viewers around the world. The biggest names in music perform in the halftime show, celebrities come from

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around the world to be at the game, and advertisers spend millions of dollars to have their commercials air before, during, and after the game. Just when you think the Super Bowl can’t get any bigger, the NFL finds a way to expand its big day. Actually, it’s no longer just a day. “The Super Bowl has been big for a long time, but the big thing now is making the entire week [into an] experience more accessible to more fans,” said Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s senior vice president/events. “And not just those who are fortunate enough to be in the stadium on Sunday.” How does the NFL do that? One way is the NFL Experience, created in 1992, which is essentially an interactive football theme park that takes place over several days in the Super Bowl city. The number of fans that actually make it to the Super Bowl will al‑ ways be a fraction of the number of fans that attend the NFL Experience. Another thing the league did was open Media Day to the fans, so that the interview session with

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players and coaches that takes place at the start of Super Bowl week has become an event. In 2015, the NFL waved the Super Bowl flag all season long. A Season of Celebration On February 7, 2016, when the final bits of confetti landed on the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and the Denver Broncos were crowned champions of Super Bowl 50, it actually marked the culmination of a year-long celebration. To commemorate the 50th Super Bowl, the NFL paid tribute to its history at the NFL Draft in May, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August, Kickoff Weekend in September, and throughout the regular season. In the third week of the 2015 season, for exam‑ ple, the Green Bay Packers held a special ceremony during halftime of their Monday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs to commemorate their victory in Super Bowl I, when they defeated…the Kansas City Chiefs.

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There were 19 such “Super Bowl rematches” on the 2015 regular-season schedule, and the league used those opportunities to celebrate. It also found time to honor some of the 43 former Super Bowl MVPs, and held ceremonies at some of the 15 cities or regions that have hosted past Super Bowls. The San Francisco Bay Area—Santa Clara is 45 miles south of San Francisco—hosted the Super Bowl for the second time in the 2015 season. (The first time was in the 1984 season, when the game was played at Stanford.) The area known for the famous California gold rush of the 1800s was a perfect place to celebrate the Super Bowl’s golden anniversary. Just as northern California grew incred‑ ibly over time once the gold rush began, that’s exactly what happened when the NFL struck gold with the Super Bowl. It didn’t happen overnight, but it didn’t take long. The All-American Event Pete Rozelle, the NFL’s commissioner from 1960 through 1989, admitted there was “a conscious effort

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on our part to bring the element of patriotism into the Super Bowl.” The first sign of this was before Super Bowl II on Jan. 14, 1968, when the pregame featured a flyover by Air Force jets following the national anthem. This dramatic—and loud—aerial display has become a staple of the pregame festivities. By 1977, Time magazine ran a cover story about the Super Bowl proclaiming it “The Great American Spectacle.” The story described the game as “the nation’s single largest shared experience [except for electing a president or watching an American astro‑ naut walk on the moon].” Rozelle’s successor, Paul Tagliabue, described the Super Bowl as “the winter version of the Fourth of July celebration.” Of course, as patriotic as the game may be, it has certainly become a global—if not intergalactic— event. As the late minister and author Dr. Norman Vincent Peale once said, “If Jesus were alive today, he’d probably be at the Super Bowl.” Right there with the aliens.

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C hapter 1

Washington’s Charlie Malone hauled in this pass in the 1940 NFL Championship Game, but Chicago won in a rout, 73–0.

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T he B ig S how B egins

Executives at the NFL had no idea the Super Bowl would become such a big event. In fact, it wasn’t even called the Super Bowl when it was first played on Jan. 15, 1967. The NFL Championship Game? Now, that was a big deal. That con‑ test had been played annually since 1933, when the NFL was the only professional football league in town. Other pro leagues came and went through the years but never had the staying power of the NFL. The All-America Football Conference, for instance, gained a following in the late 1940s. When that league disbanded in 1949,

Words to Understand disbanded broken up in parts while ending or ceasing operation fluke in this case, a very unexpected and unusual result or occurrence perennial occurring or returning every year; annually public relations the process of telling the public about a product, service, or event from the “company” point of view

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three of its teams—the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts, and San Francisco 49ers—joined the NFL. Eleven years later, the American Football League (AFL) began play—and that league was dead set on turning the NFL on its head. AFL teams made every effort to lure top-notch college football stars to play for them instead of the established NFL. From the time the AFL kicked off in 1960, its teams played a wide-open style of football that caught the attention of the American football-watching public. Players such as Joe Namath of the New York Jets and Lance Alworth of the San Diego Chargers became national stars. The AFL secured its own TV contract, with NBC, in 1965. Both leagues began try‑ ing to steal players away from one another. And that was the last straw. Neither league wanted to escalate a bidding war for players. So on June 8, 1966, the AFL and NFL agreed to merge. Beginning with the 1966 sea‑ son, the champions of each league would meet in what would be called… drum roll, please … The AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

The American Football League

began play in 1960 with eight teams.

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