Teams in this year’s Super Bowl have been selected, the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. NDSU speaks with pride over two of its recent players who have found a place on the Seahawks roster. It promises to be a good game along with all the hoopla that accompanies it, such as the half time entertainment and the advertising. Bad Bunny will entertain. I’d not heard of him before. As for commercials, my all-time favorite was the “Cat Herders” in 2000.
Some features of football are taken for granted, like the fact that each team consists of an offense and a defense. But that hasn’t always been so. In the early days of football, strict substitution rules meant team members played both offense and defense for the entire game. If taken out of the game a player could not return. Not until 1950 did free substitution become legal to open the way to specialty squads. Some other historical facts are fun to look at. The forward pass became legal in 1906; a field goal dropped from 4 points to 3 in 1909; a touchdown increased from 5 points to 5 in 1913; and in 1950, the 2 point option after a touchdown became approved.
Like baseball, we can dig up statistics and regulation minutiae all day long if we want. It’s the people, though, that interests me the most. Football players can be very entertaining. For instance, take one named John Riggins who joined the Washington Redskins as a free agent and achieved legendary status when named MVP of Super Bowl XVII.
Riggins apparently overindulged occasionally, like the time during a Washington Press Club dinner in 1985. Seated at the same table as Sandra Day O’Connor, the first lady Supreme Court Justice, he fell asleep during George H. W. Bush’s speech. Ending up falling from his chair he rolled under the table. Upon waking, he blurted out in his drunken haze, “Loosen up, Sandy, baby. You’re too tight.” They escorted him from the room. A few years later Justice O’Connor demonstrated that she held nothing against Riggins by presenting him with a dozen roses.
In 1969, a brash young quarterback named Joe Namath predicted his underdog team, the New York Jets, would beat the Baltimore Colts. Be darned if they didn’t, by a score of 16-7, marking one of the big upsets in sports history. The win was the first in the Super Bowl for the AFL, which merged with the NFL for the 1970 season. Namath suffered alcoholism, struggled after his football career, embarrassed himself, and sought treatment.
The Manning family produced some impressive football athletes. The father of the clan, Archie, came out of Ole Miss where he was an All-American quarterback and jointed the New Orleans Saints in 1971. His success earned him an invitation for two years to the pro bowl along with numerous other awards. We’re just getting started with the Mannings.
Archie and his wife had three sons, and two of them went on to football fame. Cooper, the oldest, had a physical disability called spinal stenosis for which doctors advised him not to play for fear of paralysis. Peyton played 18 seasons and led two different teams, Colts and Broncos, to Super Bowl wins. The other brother, Eli, led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories.
Big things are expected from a third generation Manning, Arch, son of Cooper, who plays quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He had two fine examples to follow with his uncles’ careers. Only time will tell if he matches up.
Kurt Warner started his career as an undrafted free agent and became the only undrafted player named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP and the only undrafted quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory. Now that is quite a story, and it might not be finished since he has two sons that play.
A pair of running backs caught my attention in their heyday. Jim Kiick and Larry Csonka played on the Miami Dolphins undefeated 17 win team in 1972. A sportswriter for the Miami Herald learned of their wild, fun-loving ways together and nicknamed them “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The name stuck. Add in one more name of Mercury Morris that rounded off that superb Dolphin backfield.
Statistically and by consensus, Tom Brady tops the list of best quarterback ever where he leads in key categories of passing yards, touchdowns, and wins, plus holding records for Super Bowl wins and MVPs. His statistics might stand for a long time. At present he is trying to make a broadcaster out of himself. He’s stumbled a bit, but given his competitiveness, he will likely overcome any deficits.
Brady’s coach, Bill Belichick, the eight-time Super Bowl-winning coach, is not a first-ballot Football Hall of Famer. In voting earlier this month, Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility. Of course, some have called for the identity of the no voters. We can guess why.
We will conclude this article by mentioning the story of what is called the biggest comeback game in history. On December 17, 2022, The New York Times posted this headline: Minnesota Vikings Beat Colts for Biggest Comeback in NFL history. The Vikings were down by 33 points, but scored five touchdowns in the second half to force overtime. One of the players reported that coach Kevin O’Connell told the team at halftime, “All we need is five touchdowns.” Somehow they found them and went on to win 39-36 in overtime.
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