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 Super Bowl 49 will pit the Seattle Seahawks against the New
England Patriots in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday and figures to join
21 previous Super Bowls atop the list of most watched U.S. TV
broadcasts.
A far cry from the first Super Bowl clash between the Green Bay
Packers and Kansas City Chiefs in 1967, according to Jerry Izenberg
of the (New Jersey) Star-Ledger, one of only two reporters to have
covered ever Super Bowl.
"The 10 dollar ticket and it didn't sell out," Izenberg, 84, told
Reuters about recollections of the first edition at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum.
Izenberg underscored the lack of hoopla by comparing access to
then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle at the 1967 showdown to the State
of the NFL news conference now held at Super Bowls, which draw over
6,000 accredited journalists.
Rozelle, busy attending court proceedings to defend the league's
local TV blackout policy to help attendance at the stadium, instead
met with about a dozen reporters in his hotel suite prior to the
game, the venerable columnist said.
 "I learned more from that session than all the others put together.
He sat on the couch and you could ask him anything," said Izenberg,
author of "Rozelle: A Biography."
"The first six years of the Super Bowl, I interviewed guys (players)
in their hotel rooms. Just call them up and ask them what would be a
good time."
Now the NFL sells tickets to thousands of fans to watch a massive
throng of reporters mill around the combatants at Media Day as the
Super Bowl has become more than a football game.
Robert Boland, a professor at New York University's Sports
Management program, said it "has almost everything that attracts
someone who is not a football fan."
Bob Williams, chief executive of Burns Entertainment and Sports
Marketing of Chicago, said: "What's really unique about the Super
Bowl is that it caters to the casual fan."
Former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, noting the ubiquitous Super
Bowl parties across the United States, told Reuters: "It's become a
national holiday ... a gathering together of the American public."
Said Izenberg: "Step by step they turned this thing into a
quasi-religious, all-American holiday."
SUPER INCEPTION
What began as a transition before a merger of the upstart AFL into
the established NFL, the Super Bowl caught the public's fancy when
quarterback Joe Namath of the underdog New York Jets of the AFL
guaranteed victory over the Baltimore Colts and delivered a 16-7 win
following the 1968 season.
By the 1970 campaign, the Super Bowl was just the NFL title game.
The Steelers, Browns and Colts joined AFL teams in an American
Football Conference to balance with old NFL teams in a National
Football Conference, and winners met in the Super Bowl.
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The game's popularity exploded with glamor teams like the unbeaten
Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers and Steelers
dominating.
Over time, huge TV ratings led to more creative commercials to win
attention and tickle viewers. Halftime shows morphed from marching
band entertainment to must-see superstar extravaganzas.
A turning point came in 1992, after a competing network heavily
promoted a special football-themed episode of a sitcom against the
halftime show and stole substantial ratings.
"The response was, 'all right, we have to beef up our halftime,'"
said Pilson, now a media consultant and professor at Columbia
University.
In 1993, Michael Jackson performed at halftime and the intermission
program has been star-studded since.
Ad revenues continue to climb, thanks to social media.
"Twenty years ago, no commercial was ever seen before the game.
There were no sneak peeks that are all over the place now," said
Burns.
"Now every Super Bowl advertiser is using social media prior to the
game and after the game to promote their brand."
Expect the Super Bowl to continue to evolve.
"It's really becoming a festival for a week. I'm not sure we won't
see parties televised with a number of entertainers and concerts,"
said Boland, envisioning a week-long, pay-per-view bonanza in the
future.
Williams foresees global expansion.
"I think it’s only a matter of time before we see a Super Bowl in
London or in China," he said. "Long term we're going to see that."
(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)
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