The National Football League (NFL) of today is a success story beyond imagination and it is difficult to conceive of a time when the league had any real threat to its existence, but in 1960 the formation of the American Football League (AFL) became a perpetual thorn in the side of the NFL. For thirty-eight years the league had existed uncontested for fans and television revenues. Suddenly the league had to deal with that prospect. The NFL tried to portray the fledgling league as inferior, which it obviously was, but throughout the country there were still several cities with major populations that had never been represented by a professional football team. The NFL endured six years of AFL player raiding and bidding wars before realizing it had to recreate itself much in the same way the National Baseball League had over sixty years earlier.
Two leagues began to iron out the wrinkles in their uneasy rivalry and through a series of secret meetings they agreed to merge. Although the actual merger was still three years away, both leagues decided the top two teams from each league would meet at the end of the 1966 season in what was then billed as the NFL-AFL Championship Game. Although the official name of the game would remain so for the next three years, the media and fans quickly started using the much more popular "unofficial" term that originated soon after the game was announced. Kansas City Chief's owner Lamar Hunt saw his daughter bouncing a popular children's toy ball and coined the term "Super Bowl". Soon after, Hunt brought up his idea at an owners meeting and they all laughingly agreed to adopt it.
Super Bowl I pitted the NFL powerhouse Green Bay Packers against the much weaker AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs in the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum. The Chiefs held their ground for the first half, but suffered a total offensive and defensive collapse during the second half, being, as expected, humiliated by the Packers 35-10. Packer Quarterback Bart Starr won the first of his two consecutive Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Awards. Super Bowl II offered much of the same as The Packers repeated the previous year's performance by crushing the Oakland Raiders in a one sided 33-14 victory.
Over the years there have been many Super Bowls in which one team entered the game clear favorites, but then lost. One such battle occurred in the third meeting of the two leagues when the New York Jets, led by their brash, young quarterback Joe Namath, met the much stronger Baltimore Colts. The Colts were 21-point favorites going into the game and like the first two Super Bowls no expected much from the AFL representative. Namath, a hugely popular figure who had already undergone several knee surgeries, hung in the pocket throughout much of the game. The pinpoint accuracy and lightning speed of his passing led the Jets past the Colts 16-7 in one of the biggest upsets in sports history.
Stunning victories and agonizing defeats fill those who have played in the game. Legendary Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway was winding down his carrer and after two crushing defeats, one of them the most lopsided loss in Super Bowl history at the hands of Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49er's at Super Bowl XXIV, he had yet to win a Super Bowl. Most writers and fans believed the aging Elway would never win a championship. Elway proved everyone wrong when he led the Broncos to victory in Super Bowl XXXII and Super Bowl XXXIII and ended his career in the upper echelon along with Montana.
But for every player who found glory, there are many who did not. Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, who set no less than twenty-two playing records during his career, played in only one Super Bowl, in a losing effort. Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders played in four post seasons, yet never played in a Super bowl.
Since those early days of the newly reformed NFL, the Super Bowl has become an unrivaled worldwide event with viewers in more than two-hundred thirty countries around the world. Warm weather cities have clamored to build new stadiums to host the game and some cold weather cities are building domed stadiums in hopes of securing a Super Bowl. Television revenues from thirty-second commercial spots cost advertisers sums that run into the eight-figure range. Some viewers tune into the game to watch only the commercials and half time show. In 2002, the secret service and the Department Of Homeland Defense designated the Super Bowl a national security event after the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
To the average American the Super Bowl has become a national holiday as millions plan their activities around the game while the next generation of great players await the opportunity to become legends.
