It was once just a stupid game
Super Bowl. The very words evoke instant heartbreak in every Buffalo Bills fan. Will I watch the game? Probably not, as I am a radio geek. Do I care who wins? Yes, but only because I am an original American Football Conference (nee League, AFL) fan. Am I happy that the Bills are not playing? Yes, because they are not good enough to win this year and I couldn’t take the pain involved with having my guts ripped out by suffering through a fifth Super Bowl loss.
It's amazing to me that the Super Bowl has transformed itself from a simple game to a social happening, a gala, a spectacular. It is no longer about the game; the game has been relegated to an incidental occurance, an afterthought. The TV commercials alone will generate more post-event comment than the game. It’s all about the parties, two weeks of event hype, beautiful people frenzy, and be-there-or-be-nobody mindset.
The game has morphed from the National Football League (NFL) having to give away tickets for SB-I to the average fan no longer being able to afford tickets, travel, and accommodation. Of course, we didn't have the Internet or the W3, satellite television, 500-channel cable, ESPN, ESPN 1 through infinity, and 24-7 coverage of nearly everything that occurs on the planet. I remember that SB-I hardly caused a ripple in the press or with American football fans. Even the name was swiped from a popular child’s toy of the time called a Super Ball.
Nobody Cares
We few AFL fans learned to our dismay in the Los Angeles Coliseum, January of 1967, that the established NFL was king, coach Vince Lombardi was a prince, and the Green Bay Packers were so good and so talented that aging receiver Max McGee could show up for the game pissed out of his skull and still catch touchdown passes against a thoroughly humbled Kansas City Chief secondary. It was a 35-10 humiliation. The leagues and promoters were not sure if another such game would ever be played as fan interest was lukewarm, ticket sales were abominable, and sponsors (always follow the money) were as scarce as feathers on a pig.
However, another game was indeed scraped together, SB-II, held in the venerable Orange Bowl of Miami in January of 1968. Once again, the NFL's powerful Green Bay Packers thrashed the upstart braggadocios from Oakland known as the Raiders, 33-14. Ticket sales were still slow, media coverage was barely on the radar screen, and the Las Vegas touts treated the gambling line as though they were offering odds for the Canadian hurling championship.
The Worm Turns
But the following year something happened that changed the 1969 Super Bowl and all those that followed forever. A brash, good-looking, rocket-armed quarterback playing for the AFL's New York Jets had been the center of a media storm all season with his penchant for partying, womanizing, outlandish hair and clothing, and swagger. Oh yeah, for his talent and the Jets’ success, too.
The fact that Joe Willie's team was situated in the nation's media capital ensured coverage of everything he did, especially when Broadway Joe guaranteed a SB-III victory over the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts. Namath and the Jets went on to hand the old NFL it’s first loss against an AFL team and with that victory ensured that all future Super Bowls would be more than just a game.
Namath, his prediction, and upset victory did more; they were the catalysts and prime reasons that the NFL prudently decided to merge with the AFL, something the haughty NFL considered but dismissed out of hand prior to the result of that game. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle was an attorney by trade and therefore very shrewd. He realized the financial bloodletting that was occurring between the leagues to acquire draft picks couldn't go on. He saw the marketing potential and myriad revenue-generating mechanisms. Consider that today, for one game alone, more than one billion (with a B) dollars will be wagered with Las Vegas books. How’s that for interest?
So after two weeks of hype, nonstop coverage, party planning, and spectacle, just remember that this was once a game. Here’s hoping your team wins, because mine isn’t playing.