Super Bowl Quiz: Only 5 players have rushed for 150 yards or
more in a Super Bowl. How many can you name? Answer
below.
Super Bowl Commercials
Last year, more than 800 million people around the globe
watched the Super Bowl, some 127 million in America – nearly
half the population. The top five most-watched television
programs of all time are Super Bowls.
Some have questioned whether the $3 million price tag (the rate
for the last few available slots) for a 30-second spot is worth it.
But as one ad exec said, “There”s no other way – on TV or any
other medium – in which you can reach a bigger audience. In
one day you can make a giant imprint on the nation.”
The Super Bowl has become even more important in the ”90s.
As the Big Three networks have been challenged by FOX, UPN,
and about 500 cable channels, the TV audience is being chopped
up and the Super Bowl is one of the few events that retains the
power to glue it back together.
David Hill, chairman of the FOX network said, “I see football as
vitally important. In the year 2005, it”s going to look like a giant
in a sea of pygmies.”
52 percent of viewers reported that they discussed Super Bowl
XXXIII commercials the day after the game. 7 percent watch the
game just for them.
Last year First Union chose to run a 60-second commercial
during the game because, as a spokeswoman explained, the
company wanted to get its message in front of corporate
executives and other decision-makers. Part of the message is
implied: “We”ve got enough money to advertise during the Super
Bowl.”
The biggest impact for a single commercial was in 1984, Super
Bowl XVIII, a 38-9 victory for Oakland over Washington.
During the telecast, Apple Computer ran its only commercial for
the full year, “1984.” Apple”s timing was impeccable.
Commented one agency, the next decade would witness financial
explosions in two industries: sports marketing and new
technology. The commercial was probably the ad of the decade.
At the time, Apple was reeling from the massive failure of its
$10,000 Lisa computer. “1984” promoted the new Macintosh
model and in the 100 days following the Super Bowl spot,
50,000 units were sold.
Following is the breakdown for spots on last year”s telecast on
FOX:
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) $120,000-$175,000
5 p.m. to 6:23 p.m. (kickoff) $375,000-$1,000,000
During game (on average) $1,600,000
Postgame $750,000-$800,000
Family Guy and The Simpsons $700,000-$800,000
[Source: Phil Barber]
Jimmy Johnson
Coach Johnson resigned, retired, after the Miami Dolphins
humiliating 62-7 drubbing at the hands of the Jacksonville
Jaguars in the current playoffs. Of course, Johnson had quit last
year, too, but this year it”s for real. Geoffrey Norman (an author
who has written a book that might be a good read, “Alabama
Showdown: The Football Rivalry Between Auburn and
Alabama”) wrote a piece in the January 31 issue of “The Weekly
Standard.”
Norman writes of the “elegiac” treatment his latest resignation
received in the press. “You would have thought, if you knew no
history, that this was a case of a man stepping down after long,
arduous, and honorable service. And you almost expected
someone to start reading from Yeats.”
But when Johnson”s career is viewed more clearly, “He will be
properly remembered as football”s first gangsta coach.” I can”t
improve on Norman”s own writing so, in detail, here it is.
“What made Johnson different, made him a pioneer when he was
rolling up a big record with the Miami Hurricanes in the ”80s,
was that he put together a team of many thugs and some felons
and made no apologies. He avidly recruited the hard cases. The
Hurricanes liked to think of themselves as ”outlaws,” and they
once showed up for a bowl game, with the national
championship at stake, dressed in combat fatigues to symbolize,
one supposes, the fact that they were ”on a mission.” They lost
the game.”
“But the rot went deeper than the tasteless clothes off the field or
taunting and strutting on it. Several of Johnson”s players had
serious run-ins with the law and were involved in various
scandals. The football program was considered by many to be
out of control. However, the year after the combat fatigue
incident, the team had another chance to win the national
championship and, this time, delivered. After one more year,
Johnson left Miami and the college game, with its fussy, if
indifferently enforced, standards and went to the pros. The
Dallas Cowboys were not required to attend classes or graduate.”
At Dallas, Johnson”s players were frequently in trouble with the
law and often suspended for violation of the league”s drug
policies. But he won two Super Bowl”s and, after leaving Dallas
for the television booth for a few years, he accepted the call to go
to Miami.
Promising to get Miami a ground game to complement Dan
Marino, Johnson went out and brought in his kind of players.
Norman writes, “These included Lawrence Phillips, a running
back best known for dragging his girlfriend down a flight of
stairs while he was a player at the University of Nebraska.
Phillips was suspended for a few games and given the usual
classes in ”anger management,” which, typically, he seems to
have flunked.”
Johnson”s experiment with Phillips, however, failed as Phillips
got in more trouble with the law. Undeterred, Johnson last year
drafted running back Cecil Collins who had been convicted twice
of breaking into women”s rooms and fondling them. By the end
of the season he was in jail for the same offense.
Again, Norman. “The surprise was not that (Johnson) left – but
the mood of his departure. The tears and honorifics seemed out
of place, at first. But, on reflection, perhaps not. Johnson, like
other coaching legends, left his mark. Because of him, the game
will never be the same. The gangsta act has become an accepted
part of football, less controversial than instant replay. Fans
expect taunting and strutting and trash-talking. Players routinely
get into trouble with the law for a variety of offenses, including
knocking their girlfriends around. (Or, in the case of Rae
Carruth, murdering them.)”
“So in the end, maybe this was another take on the old
melancholy tale. Jimmy Johnson looked around and realized that
the other guys were signing actual killers. He was no longer an
innovator. The game had passed him by.”
Top 3 songs for the week of 1/30/61: #1 “Will You Love Me
Tomorrow” (The Shirelles) #2 “Calcutta” (Lawrence Welk.
Amazing) #3 “Exodus” (Ferrante & Teicher.one interesting
Top 3!)
Quiz Answers: Franco Harris, 158 yards, Super Bowl IX;
John Riggins, 166, XVII; Marcus Allen, 191, XVIII; Timmy
Smith, 204 (78 more than he gained the entire regular season),
XXII; Terrell Davis, 157, XXXII.
Next Bar Chat, Monday…Led Zeppelin.
