Super Bowl memories

Ernie Accorsi
Former GM, New York Giants
For years, Super Bowl V (Baltimore 16, Dallas 13) has been maligned because of turnovers and crazy quilt plays. In fact, the great Dick Young’s lead in the New York Daily News the day after the game read: “I don’t know if I just saw the greatest game of my life or the worst.”

The facts are these: Both teams were desperate, and played that way: the Cowboys having lost painful NFL championship games to the Green Bay Packers in 1966 and ’67; the Colts coming off the embarrassment of losing to the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. And that’s the way they played.

“They were playing for their manhood,” Edwin Pope wrote in The Miami Herald the next day.

But there were nine hall of famers on the field that day plus two more (Tom Landry and Tex Schramm) off the field.

My most vivid memory was standing on the sidelines, in my first of 35 years in the National Football League, watching Jim O’Brien line up for the winning field goal with five seconds left in the game. The heat of the late afternoon, the tension thicker than pea soup, and then the snap. My recollection is that at that very moment, the stadium was so quiet that I remember hearing the thump of O’Brien’s foot hitting the football, sending it soaring through the uprights and giving me my greatest Super Bowl thrill.

Dave Anderson
Sports columnist, The New York Times
On Thursday evening before Super Bowl III, I was the only New York sportswriter in the audience at the Miami Springs Villas when Jets quarterback Joe Namath received the Pro Football Player of the Year award from the Miami Touchdown Club. During his acceptance speech, Joe said, “This isn’t an award for me. Had it not been for my parents and my family, and my high school coach, Larry Bruno, and my coach at Alabama, Paul Bryant, and many other people, starting with Mr. Werblin and continuing with Weeb Ewbank and our new owners, who are doing a great job, and all my teammates, I wouldn’t be here. This should be a most valuable player award for the entire team. You can be the greatest athlete in the world, but if you don’t win those football games, it doesn’t mean a thing.”

Then he added what would be the most memorable words in Super Bowl history: “And we’re going to win Sunday, I guarantee you.”

Jack Kemp
Chairman, USA Football
I have attended every Super Bowl except one; the one I missed was my most memorable. The 1969 New York Jets’ upset of the Baltimore Colts was a seminal moment in NFL history. I missed the game and had to watch it on TV because we were merging the AFL Players Association with the NFL Players Association in Palm Springs, Calif., and as AFLPA president, I advocated on behalf of the great Colt John Mackey to be our new president.

Joe Namath’s guarantee and performance were stunning. I remember the intense pride I had watching the game with fellow AFL players and NFL players as the AFL Jets beat the NFL Colts soundly. The foundation of a merger that yielded the current two-conference league that exists today had been laid, but this game cemented the reality that the AFL was on the same footing as the NFL.

That game gave final validation for the AFL and led to the great on-field product that has become the No. 1 spectator sport in the world: the National Football League.

Jim Steeg
Executive VP, COO, San Diego Chargers
My favorite was the most important one: Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans. With all the changes necessitated by Sept. 11, including pushing the game back by one week, to be able to successfully hold that game in New Orleans was a tremendous effort by many, many people.

In addition, the responsibility to have the game reflect the pride of America and show to the country that the game and events could be held safely was extremely important.

Harvey Greene
Senior VP, media relations, Miami Dolphins
My most indelible memory of the Super Bowl (and I’ve been to 18 of the last 19 of them) was in 1991 at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. The game took place during the Gulf War and security at Tampa Stadium was unprecedented. For the first time ever, ticket holders had to go through metal detectors to enter the stadium, and there was a heightened, and very visible, police presence everywhere.

I was in charge of the photographers’ area on the press box roof, giving the photogs a view of not only the field but of the entire stadium. There were some mattresses placed on the roof in the locations with the best sight lines, and the photographers started to lie down on them, thinking the NFL put them there for their comfort. Unfortunately, I had to tell them they had to move. They started complaining and refused to budge until I told them, “Those mattresses are reserved for the snipers.”

I didn’t have any problems with them after that.

Gatorade ordered a hit on Diet Coke
during the halftime show.

Tom Fox
Principal, Wasserman Media Group
In 1989, the Niners were playing the Bengals in Miami. It was my first Super Bowl and I was with Gatorade at the time. We got word that the NFL had sold Diet Coke the halftime show and was planning on putting Diet Coke coolers and cups on the sideline alongside Gatorade’s as part of the deal. I’ll never forget the meeting between John Bello, Rick Dudley and Jim Schwebel from the NFL and Mike Callahan, the new Gatorade president at the time, Bill Schmidt and me in Bello’s large suite at the Fontainebleau Hilton. Even though it was clearly a violation of Gatorade’s NFL contract, the NFL … was unrepentant and was still pushing to get it done.

Right up until game time we were still in disagreement and no one was sure what was going to happen. The situation miraculously resolved itself when most of the Diet Coke coolers and cups mysteriously went missing and the remaining few were either placed on the ground under the tables or never made it out of the locker room. It was then I learned the importance of our relationships with NFL athletic trainers. Back then, they ran the show.

McManus

Sean McManus
President, CBS Sports and CBS News
1986. Bears vs. Patriots. Louisiana Superdome. I was a vice president for NBC Sports and that day was in charge of getting our most important guest, Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, from the NBC party to our suite in the stadium.

I had rehearsed the route through the bowels of the Superdome a half dozen times, but halfway up in one of the many tunnels that all looked alike, I took a wrong turn and got horribly lost. Mr. Samaranch always wanted to be referred to as Your Excellency, so it was just me, sweating in my blue blazer, His Excellency, his wife and his security team wandering around aimlessly.

It was literally the scene from Spinal Tap where the band cannot find the stage. Finally I found a security guard and he led me back to familiar territory.

When we got to the suite His Excellency was a little winded, and happy to take a seat.

Hill

David Hill
Chairman, CEO, Fox Sports
It was January 1997, Super Bowl XXXI. The Pack were taking on the Pats. It was also Fox Sports’ first Super Bowl, and the butterflies had become vultures. We’re in the truck, an hour off air. Rehearsals had gone well. I look at Scott Ackerson.

“We didn’t rehearse the opening segment, did we?”

“No, you haven’t written it.”

“I thought you were writing it,” I say, as the sweat breaks out on my forehead.

“No, you were,” Scotty says emphatically.

And it was a complex opening segment. Blimps were in place, a paddle-wheeler moving into place on the Mississippi, remote cameras on Bourbon Street, reporters standing by.

The production center was vacant. I grab a computer and start writing. No notes. Fifteen minutes to air. I print it out, and sprint for the studio on the field. I leave my credentials on the desk. My blue shirt is black. The official tries to stop me. I keep running. It’s now five minutes to air. I give James Brown the copy.

“Quick, read it. I’ll cue you over your IFB.”

The normally unflappable J.B. now looks as scared as I am. Sprinting back to the truck, I charge in.

“One minute to air,” says Scot.

The opener rolls. I cue J.B., and his melodious voice flows out of the speakers. River boats are cued, the blimp’s cameras are cued, reporters are cued, and J.B. is throwing to the first commercial break eight minutes later. I take my first breath for an hour. Air never tasted sweeter.

Don Pierson
Retired writer, columnist, Chicago Tribune
The 1985 Bears reminded the NFL and football fans everywhere that big-time sports still could be fun. From Jim McMahon’s headbands to Refrigerator Perry’s grin to Mike Ditka’s bombast to Buddy Ryan’s braggadocio to Mike Singletary’s eyes to Walter Payton’s pranks, the Bears brought their whole menagerie to New Orleans and treated the week like just another routine chapter in one of the most zany and dominating seasons in NFL history.

Curt Menefee
Co-host, Fox NFL Sunday
I was 13 years old when Dallas lost to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XIII in 1979, and really into football. The hometown Falcons were awful and often didn’t sell out, so we frequently got Cowboys games. As a result, they became my next favorite team (and because I thought the Afro sticking out of Drew Pearson’s helmet was cool). I remember rooting like crazy for the Cowboys that day. I liked them a lot and because I was sick of the Pittsburgh Steelers winning all the time. I hung on every single play. Terry Bradshaw played what, at that time, was the greatest Super Bowl game ever by a quarterback, throwing four touchdown passes. The Steelers had a big fourth-quarter lead due in large part to Bradshaw and the infamous dropped touchdown pass in the third quarter by Dallas’ Jackie Smith, who was all alone in the end zone. I remember rooting as only a kid can for a Cowboys’ comeback, and back they came with two late touchdowns to pull to within 35-31. Unfortunately, that was as close as they would get.

Terry doesn’t know I was rooting for the Cowboys. Please don’t tell him. I like my job.