Upon Further Review: Looking back to the first ‘Big Game’
Time sure goes by fast. The teams for Super Bowl XXXVIII are set and ready to fight it out for the championship.
I can’t believe this is going to be the 38th Super Bowl played. I hate to admit it, but I’m old enough to remember the first one.
In the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is where it all started, with the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs, January 15, 1967.
Vince Lombardi’s Packers defeated Hank Stram’s Chiefs 35-10 in front of 61,946 fans, and over the seasons the game has snowballed into one of the biggest events of the year for any football fan.
Approximately 60 million viewers sat in front of their black and white television sets — well, maybe a few watched it in color — as Bart Starr threw two touchdowns to give Green Bay bragging rights in the first Super Bowl.
Things sure have changed over the last 37 years. In the first Super Bowl players from the winning team received a $15,000 bonus and each player on the Chiefs team earned $7,500. A one-minute television commercial cost $75,000 to $85,000, That’s nothing compared to the millions spent during recent Super Bowls.
Now who would have picked the Patriots and Panthers to square off for this year’s championship? I sure wouldn’t have.
In the last three years the winning team has had a quality defense. Baltimore in 2000, New England in 2001 and Tampa Bay last year — and the trend should continue.
Both New England and Carolina made it this far because of good defense, and you have to give the Patriots the edge in this game.
The two teams were ranked seventh and eighth in overall defense this season. But the points allowed gives New England the edge with 14.9 against the Panthers’ 19 per game.
Go ahead and write it down — 21-17, New England. Did I just make a prediction? Yes, I said it and that’s money in the bank.
• Now I know it’s still cold outside and football is the subject of conversation. But I came across this on the computer the other day and it made me do a double-take.
A 64-year old man in Port Charlotte, Florida aced two holes in one round last week. Tom Vilardo used a 6-iron on the 163-yard seventh hole and a 7-iron on the 123 yard 13th to pick up two holes-in-one during the same round. Unbelievable.
“Golf Magazine” estimated the odds of two aces in one round to be 67 million-to-1. I may have a shot at winning the lottery because I sure won’t get two holes-in-one in the same round. Heck, I won’t get two holes-in-one in my lifetime.
According to the magazine this is the fourth time two aces during the same round has been reported. I thank its safe to say if it’s happened before, somebody is going to know about it.
I think the best I can hope for is for myself and Mr. Nunley to each ace a hole in the same year. Now wouldn’t that be a story?