With Super Bowl XLV approaching, I thought it would be fun to take a historical look at the event.  But I didn’t want to do the typical Records/Statistics type of analysis.  You know, the “career leader in passing yards” or “most receptions in a game”  kind of thing.  I was more focused on making observations from some of the information I found.  Where I did look at records and stats, it was more from a team standpoint than an individual standpoint.  So what follows is my random look at Super Bowls past (although where appropriate, I included info about the upcoming game).  It’s guaranteed to be insignificant and trivial – but hopefully you can find something fun or interesting!

TEAM TIDBITS:

• One of the participants in this year’s game, the Green Bay Packers, won the very first Super Bowl and then won it again the following year.  They returned 29 years later to win their third Super Bowl.  The only other time the Packers appeared in the game was the following year when they lost Super Bowl XXXII to the Broncos.  Now as most people know, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the other participant in this year’s game, hold the record for most Super Bowl wins with 6.  Their only loss came in Super Bowl XXX to the Cowboys.  So, Super Bowl XLV pits two of the most storied franchises in NFL history and after the game is over, those two will have combined to win more than 1/5 of all the Super Bowls!
• With their appearance in Super Bowl XLV, the Steelers will tie the Cowboys for most Super Bowl appearances with 8.
• Of the current 32 franchises in the NFL, only four have never even made an appearance in the Super Bowl: Browns, Jaguars, Texans and Lions.
• The Bills hold the record for the most consecutive appearances in the Super Bowl with 4 (SB’s XXV thru XXVIII).  They also hold the distinction of losing the most consecutive games – all four!  The Dolphins have the 2nd most consecutive appearances with 3 (SB’s VI thru VIII), going 2-1 in those games.
• Looking just at teams with multiple Super Bowl appearances, the 49ers are the only team that is undefeated, with a 5-0 record.  The Steelers have the 2nd best winning percentage at .857 and the Packers are tied with the Giants for third best with a .750 winning percentage.
• No team has ever won more than two consecutive Super Bowls.  There have been 7 different teams that have won back-to-back Super Bowls.  The Steelers performed that feat twice (SB’s IX & X and XIII & XIV).  The other teams that did it are the Packers, Patriots, Broncos, 49ers, Dolphins and Cowboys.  The 49ers are the only team to have done it under different head coaches (Walsh & Seifert)
• Going to the other side of the ledger, the most Super Bowl losses by any one team is 4.  There are three teams that lay claim to that dubious honor:  Bills, Vikings and Broncos.  Broncos fans can at least cheer the fact that they have 2 wins to go along with those 4 losses.  For the Bills and Vikings, their 4 losses came in their only appearances in the big game.
• As previously noted, the Bills hold the record for consecutive losses with 4.  The only other teams with consecutive losses are the Vikings and the Broncos with each losing two in a row.  The Broncos thus have the distinction of being the only team to have back-to-back losses and back-to-back wins.
• In addition to the Bills and Vikings, there are only two other teams with multiple Super Bowl appearances who are winless: Eagles & Bengals – both with 0-2 records.  An interesting fact here is that of these four winless teams, the Vikings are the only team to have never held a lead for even ONE second in any of their games!
• In the last 8 Super Bowls (counting this one), the NFC has been represented by 8 different teams while the AFC has only had 3 different representatives (Steelers, Colts & Patriots).  If you look at the last 10 Super Bowls, the NFC has actually had 10 different representatives.  Put another way to my fellow Redskins fans – - the Redskins are 1 of only 6 NFC teams to not have appeared in the last 10 Super Bowls!
• Speaking of dry spells, of all of the teams who have ever appeared in the Super Bowl, the Jets have the longest drought since their last appearance – 42 years.  They are followed by the Chiefs (41 yrs.), the Vikings (36 yrs.), the Dolphins (26 yrs.), the Bengals (22 yrs.) and yes … the Redskins (19 yrs.).

GAME NOTES/ODDITIES:

• The first Super Bowl, really wasn’t the “Super Bowl”??  That game, which was played on January 15, 1967, was actually billed as the “First World Championship Game AFL VS. NFL”.  It has since been dubbed Super Bowl I.
• Even though the game was called the Super Bowl after that first one, the title “Super Bowl” didn’t actually appear on game tickets until Super Bowl IV.
• No game has ever been played on the home field of any of the game participants.
• No game has ever gone into overtime.
• No team has ever been shutout.  Miami is the only team to not score a touchdown, losing to the Cowboys 24-3 in SB VI.
• There have been 8 kickoff returns for touchdowns yet not one punt has ever been returned for a TD.  Now I know that it’s probably a little easier to take a kickoff to the house than it is a punt, but still, I find this disparity to be odd.
• Still marveling at the fact that there has never been a punt returned for a touchdown, I did a random sampling of regular season stats for several different years and found that, on average, the number of punt returns for TD’s and the number of safeties recorded were relatively equal each year.  So given that, how do you then explain the fact that there hasn’t been a punt returned for a TD in a Super Bowl but there have been 6 safeties recorded over the years?
• And speaking of safeties, it was a safety that figured into what I think is the oddest halftime score in Super Bowl history.  The Steelers led the Vikings 2-0 going into the half in SB IX, a game they eventually won 16-6.

LOCATION, LOCATION:

• Only 8 states have ever played host to the Super Bowl.  Florida leads the way with 15, California is next with 11 and Louisiana follows closely behind with 9.  Texas is next closest with 3 games, counting this year’s game in Dallas – the other two were in Houston.
• Of all the cities that have hosted Super Bowls, Miami leads the way with 10, followed closely by New Orleans with 9.
• The venue that has hosted the most Super Bowls is the Louisiana Superdome.  The game has been played there 6 times, although it was just called the Superdome the first time the game was played there in 1977 (SB XII).  The game has been held in two different venues in Miami over the years.  The first 5 Miami games were held at the old Orange Bowl Stadium, which has since been demolished.  The last 5 Super Bowls held in Miami took place in the same stadium, although you wouldn’t know it if you just looked at the name.  That particular facility was originally known as Joe Robbie Stadium and it bore that name for it’s first two Super Bowl stints.  The next time the game showed up there, the stadium was called Pro Player Stadium.  Then the year the Colts beat the Bears in SB XLI (2006)  the game was held at that site again – it was called Dolphin Stadium then.   The fifth time that facility hosted the game was last year when the Saints beat the Colts.  It was named Sun Life Stadium that day.  It still goes by that name today – I think?

COLORS:

I took a look at team colors to see if they could somehow give us a clue as to what the outcome of Super Bowl XLV will be.  Every team has official team colors.  There will be a predominant color with one or more complementing colors by which the team is recognized.  So for example, the Steelers’ predominant color is black with gold being their main complementing color and they are often referred to as “The Black & Gold”.  Likewise, the Packers’ predominant color is green (officially dark green) and they too have gold as their main complementing color.  Of course in games, a team will wear either a white jersey that incorporates their team colors into the design or they will wear a dark jersey that is their predominant color with complementing colors included.  Now there are exceptions to this, like when a team may wear what is now called their “alternate” jersey or when they wear a “throwback” jersey from a time when their franchise may have had a different predominant color.  But that can be confusing so let’s just ignore it.  Okay, with this overly-detailed discussion as a backdrop, what observations did I make?

Taking a look at just the Super Bowl winners and considering them solely on the basis of their predominant color, paying no attention to the color of the jersey they happened to wear in the game, I found the following:

• “Green” teams have won 4 of the Super Bowls.
• Interestingly enough, 3 of the 4 “green” wins came in the first three Super Bowls (Packers twice then the Jets).  The Packers got the only other “green” team win in SB XXXI.
• “Black” teams have won a total of 9 Super Bowls (6 by the Steelers – 3 by the Raiders)
• For reference purposes, over the course of Super Bowl history, there have been a total of 3 “green” teams in the NFL and a total of 3 1/2 ‘black” teams (the Falcons were a “red” team for about as long as they have been a “black” team – thus the 1/2!)

It should be noted that in this year’s Super Bowl, the Packers were designated the home team.  As a result, they got to choose whether they would wear their dark jersey or their white jersey.  They decided to go with the dark jersey so then obviously, the Steelers will be wearing their white jersey.  Now taking into consideration the color of the jerseys worn by the participants in each of the Super Bowls, some interesting observations were made:

• In the last 6 Super Bowls, all of the winning teams wore their white jerseys.
• The team wearing white has won 13 of the last 19 Super Bowls.
• Of the 44 Super Bowls that have been played, the teams wearing the white jerseys have won a little more than 61% (27) of the time.
• The Packers wore their green jerseys in two of their three wins, including their last win.  Their only loss came while wearing white.
• In the Steelers six wins, they wore their black jerseys three times and their white jerseys three times.  They were in their white jerseys for their their last two wins.  Their only loss also came while wearing black.

So what can we conclude from all this color stuff?  Well, “conclude” may be a bit strong.  With respect to the predominant color scenario, given that the overall number of “green” teams and “black” teams has been pretty much the same, then clearly, “black” teams are more successful in the Super Bowl.  Considering the color of the jersey scenario, there certainly has been a long-running trend suggesting that you are much better off playing in your white jersey.  Looking at the Packers Super Bowl history, they are more successful playing in their green jersey so it is understandable why are decided to go with that his year.  On the other hand, the Steelers have had a little more success in their white jerseys, especially lately.  If you like to go with the law of averages line of thinking, then you might say that the Packers are in good shape this year since it is time for a team in the dark jersey to win.  So, add it all up and what do you get?  Who knows?  Bottom line is that color really doesn’t matter.  As we’ve always known, it’s the performance out on the field that matters.  Who wins the individual matchups, who comes up with more big plays at the right times, which team collectively has the bigger heart.  Those are the things that bring you victory.  Those are the things that make the game fun to watch.  Well, that and the commercials!

Anyway, as I said in the beginning, I guaranteed that what I had to say would be insignificant and trivial.  I trust that I have delivered!  But if any of this gave you an “I didn’t know that!” moment, then I accomplished what I set out to do.  Enjoy the game!

As I often do, I was checking out the WashingtonPost.com site on Monday to read the latest about my favorite sports teams.  I clicked on Dan Steinberg’s D.C. Sports Bog and in one of his blogs he talked about attending the Redskins Draft Party for fans at FedEx Field on Saturday.  One of the main things that he observed was the large number of fans there who were wearing burgundy and gold #5 McNabb jerseys.  As he noted, this is just a few weeks after McNabb was traded to the Redskins from the hated Philadelphia Eagles.  Clearly, there is a groundswell among Skins fans that McNabb could be the long-awaited quarterback hero that will lead us to playoff glory.  The Redskins of course have been quick to facilitate the McNabb-mania, as evidenced by the picture that Steinberg included which showed one of the Redskins Team Stores at the stadium displaying several fully loaded racks of the McNabb jerseys.

Indeed, the sale of team apparel is a huge source of revenue for the various sports leagues.  As reported by Greg Stohr and William McQuillen in a January 13, 2010 article on Bloomberg.com, sales of NFL-licensed merchandise in the United States and Canada exceeded $3.2 billion in 2007 and the combined sales for pro football, baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer exceeded $9 billion.  My family of course has done it’s part in helping out many of those sports leagues given the multiple items of apparel and other merchandise we have purchased in a show of support for our favorite teams.  Although, I must admit I have yet to acquire a Redskins game jersey – I’m more of the polo shirt kind of guy.  But we are like  most sports fans around the country.  The thing to do is to wear your teams’ colors.

In any event, Steinberg’s blog about all of the McNabb jerseys that he saw got me to thinking about how it used to be. After all, this is Nostalgiaspeak so I have to talk about the past.  And based on my recollections, it wasn’t too long ago that things were different.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experience at the “Immaculate Reception Game” between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders in December of 1972.  I had mentioned the older gentleman who was seated next to me and that he was wearing a trench coat and a fedora.  And as I recall, the majority of the people in the stands were wearing their everyday clothes.  There wasn’t a sea of black and gold in the stands like you would see at a Steelers game today.  There may have been a smattering of some people wearing black jackets with the Steelers name on it.  Probably the most you saw in the way of  Steelers garb was  the black and gold knit hat and maybe a few black and gold scarves.  But that was it.  If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the video of the Immaculate Reception and look at the fans who stormed the field after the play.  See how much black and gold apparel you can find on them.  Not much.  I guess back then nobody, not even the league, figured that fans would be willing to fork over  their hard-earned dollars to buy jerseys, t-shirts or even a polo shirt in their team’s colors.  I’m not sure when things did start to change.  I even checked out video of the 1980 Super Bowl between the Steelers and the Rams and while you did see a few guys wearing team jerseys and some wore clothing that matched their team’s colors,  for the most part the fans were wearing everyday clothing.  I don’t know what triggered the changeover to where it became the thing to do to wear actual team apparel.  Maybe it was around the time of the Mean Joe Greene Coca-Cola commercial where he throws his jersey to the “kid”.  Whatever prompted it, once the league realized that they had a money-maker on their hands and they began to market team merchandise, it took off.  And the other pro leagues followed suit.

But going back to the guy in the trench coat and fedora and forgetting about team apparel, I am reminded of the style of dress by fans going back well before that 1972 football game I attended.  My reference here is from attending major league baseball games as a young guy throughout the 1960′s.  Except for the occasional team ball hat, nobody wore any type of team apparel.  For the most part fans were dressed casually.  But then again, we were usually sitting in the $1.00 bleacher seats or the $1.50 rightfield grandstand seats.  It was not uncommon for the men sitting in the $3.00 field box seats to be wearing a suit and tie, and of course, the ubiquitous fedora.  The women who attended games back then with the gentlemen in the suits would also be dressed to the hilt.  I guess maybe it was a status thing – sort of like a spectator class system.  Looking at old TV film footage or old newsreel footage, it seems like the further back in time you go, the more the fan attire was formal.  It also seems that there was a more formal dress code so to speak when it got to the fall classic.  Even in the 1960′s.  Pay attention the next time MLB Network runs those old World Series Highlights productions and observe how the fans were dressed.  Coats and ties for the men were the norm and most of the women would be wearing dresses, jewelry and sometimes even the white gloves.  I still can remember going to the first game of the 1960 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees and being impressed with how well-dressed many people were.  Being a 7 year old, I didn’t wear a coat and tie and I’m pretty sure that my dad didn’t either.  But I know that my mom and aunt who joined us were all decked out (even though we were bleacher bums that day).

But that was a different time.  And as is sometimes the case with nostalgic moments in a persons life, the memories are nice but the current is better.   Frankly, I couldn’t imagine sitting through a ballgame in a coat and tie.  Even though it can get expensive to adorn yourself in team gear, I think it adds to the excitement of attending a game.  Last week we were at the Stanley Cup Playoff game between the Capitals and Canadiens and just about everyone in the arena was wearing red Capitals apparel.  That sight helped to further charge up an already electrifying scene.  And when we go to Redskins games and walk up to FedEx Field among all those other people clad in burgundy and gold you feel energized and part of something.  (Unless of course its a night game where you then have to share that walk with way too many fans who are wearing the colors of the opposing team because of the numerous season ticket holders who sell off their tickets since they can’t be bothered to attend a night game!  No bitterness here!)  Someday soon, I hope to be able to regularly attend Nationals baseball games where the stands are packed with fellow Nationals fans wearing our team’s stuff.  So let’s see – coat and tie or team polo?  Hmmm!

Nothing like it ever happened to me before and nothing has come close to it since!  And I hold out no hope that the future will provide anything comparable.  What am I talking about?  Just the most unbelievable, exciting and exhilarating fan experience that anyone could wish for.  The feeling was immaculate – and indeed the event came to be known as “The Immaculate Reception Game”.  It was December 23, 1972 – a Divisional Playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders.

To really appreciate the enormity of what transpired that day, you have to look at it from the standpoint of the diehard Steelers fan, which is what I was back in those days.  In it’s previous 39 years of existence, the Steelers franchise had only ever been involved in ONE playoff game!  That was in 1947 when they finished the regular season tied with the Philadelphia Eagles as the Eastern Conference leaders and a playoff was needed to determine who would represent the conference in the Championship Game against the Western Conference winners, the Chicago Cardinals.  The Steelers lost that playoff game with the Eagles.  So for Steelers fans back in 1972, especially for a whole generation like me that never even got a whiff of playoff excitement, the playoff game against the Raiders was a really big deal. 

The game itself was not very remarkable as far as explosive, exciting plays (until the end of course).  It was a classic defensive struggle that was scoreless at halftime.  In the third quarter, the Steelers Roy Gerela (ahh, remember Gerela’s Gorillas?) kicked an 18 yard field goal for the first points of the game.  Later in the fourth quarter he added a 29 yarder and you could feel the excitement building.  But with the Steelers clinging to just a 6-0 lead, you could also feel a definite sense of uneasiness rippling through the crowd as the Raiders drove into Steelers territory late in the fourth quarter.  And then disaster struck when, with 1:13 left in the game, Oakland quarterback Kenny Stabler faded back to pass.  Scrambling to his left, he wasn’t able to find a receiver, so he took off and ran for a 30 yard touchdown.  And just like that, with the extra point conversion, the Raiders had the lead. 

I still vividly remember how it seemed like all of the air got sucked out of Three Rivers Stadium.  The silence was eerie – we were stunned.  But as the Steelers took possession at their own 20 yard line after the ensuing kickoff the crowd started to stir and when Terry Bradshaw completed a short pass on first down, you started to wonder if they could move into range for a game winning field goal.  He then completed another pass for a first down at the Steelers 40 yard line.  But after three straight incompletions it was fourth down with 22 seconds left.  And the rest of course, as they say, is history. 

I just remember the extreme shift in emotions in a matter of seconds when Jack Tatum deflected (no question in my mind that he deflected it!)  Bradshaw’s pass intended for Frenchy Fuqua and then Franco Harris snagged the ball at his shoe tops and ran it in for the go ahead touchdown.  When you saw the ball deflected you had enough time for your brain to process that the Steelers lost but then there was Franco running down the sideline and just as quickly you realized that they were gonna win.  The stadium erupted – literally erupted.  There was bedlam in the stands.  A friend of mine who was sitting in one of the first few rows of the upper deck swears that when Franco caught the ball and was running for the touchdown, the guy sitting in front of him jumped up and threw his binoculars in the air and they fell down into the stands in the lower level.  Certainly if someone down there was hit by those binoculars they could have been seriously injured.  But then again, Steelers fans were so delirious, anyone who might have been hit by the binoculars likely wouldn’t have even felt it.   As Franco crossed the goal line, fans ran onto the field.  People were jumping and screaming.  I remember jumping up and down and pounding on the back of the guy sitting to my right.  And then I stopped with this frozen look on my face when I realized that this rather frail gentleman, wearing a trench coat and an old fedora, was probably 75 years old if he was a day.  I feared that I might have hurt him and I leaned over and began to apologize profusely.  He just looked at me with this huge smile and he began to pound on  my back with all the enthusiasm and energy of a kid. 

Then there was the controversy over whether it was a legal pass.  Back then, it was illegal for a forward pass to be touched by two offensive players without there being an intervening touch of the ball by a defensive player.  The question was whether Tatum actually hit the ball or did it bounce off of Fuqua right to Harris.  Anyway, it took about 15 minutes for the officials to figure out what the call should be.  I remember seeing the referee go over to the baseball dugout near the endzone where Franco scored and he got on a phone.  He had called up to the press box and spoke with a supervisory official who was observing the game and I think he looked at instant replays. (the first ever use of instant replay by an official, notwithstanding the fact that there was nothing in the official rules that actually authorized such use!)   During that whole time while we were waiting for the officials to decide what they were going to do, the euphoria in the stands never faded.  On the field, the police and security were trying to restore some semblance of order.  Players were just milling about around the goal line.  I remember one Raider player just sitting on the ground back around the 50 yard line seemingly in utter disbelief.  And then the referee came out and signaled that it was indeed a touchdown.  I remember thinking he couldn’t call it any other way if he had any hope of his officiating crew making it off the field alive.  When he signaled touchdown, the place erupted again.  The teams lined up for the extra point.  I don’t think the Raiders even bothered to rush and I have this vague recollection that the Raider player sitting at the 50 yard line was still sitting there when Gerela booted it through.  But that just may be my fading memory wanting to embellish the story.  The last 15 seconds were played – the game ended – the Steelers won a playoff game! 

The fans reaction after the game was memorable.  It seemed like no one wanted to leave.  All the way out to the parking lot strangers would come up to you and give you a hug, or shake your hand, or pat you on the back.  At that moment, everyone was your friend.  And the buzzing – I’ll always remember the buzzing.  People just had to let out their emotions – to share their joy.  Before that day, even as just a 19-year old, I had seen a fair share of sporting events.  I even saw Mazeroski’s home run in the 1960 World Series (OK it was his homer in Game 1 not the much more dramatic Game 7 walk-off homer).  But until that day in December of 1972 I had never had a fan experience where I felt such an emotional attachment to each and every other fan in that stadium.  And since that day, I’ve not experienced anything close to that feeling at any of the hundreds of sporting events I have attended.  It may be called “The Immaculate Reception Game”, but from the fan standpoint, I think the Whitney Houston song describes it best.