The Super Bowl

Today is Super Bowl Sunday LIX.  It is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL).  This year features the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles to be held in New Orleans.

The first Super Bowl was on January 15, 1967 in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, won by the Packers 35-10.  The game was actually called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

At that time, I was a senior at Penn.  A classmate in my dorm had a small black and white TV where I watched the game.

The NFL began in 1920, but for many years lagged behind in popularity from the college game.  In the late 1950s, the NFL started catching up.

The 1958 NFL Championship Game was played on December 28 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first NFL playoff game to be decided in sudden death overtime.  The Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants 23–17 in what soon became widely known as "the Greatest Game Ever Played".  I watched from the den of my family's home in Oswego all by myself. 

The 1958 game marked the beginning of the NFL's popularity surge and eventual rise to the top of the United States sports market.  A major reason was that the game was televised across the nation by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

As a result of the popularity surge, a rival league, the American Football League (AFL), was formed and started playing games in 1960.  From 1960 through 1965, the champions of the two leagues did not play each other at the end of the season to determine the championship of professional football.

Before the 1966 season, a merger of the two leagues was agreed to.  The championship game the following January was the first game between the two leagues.  

On January 14, 1968, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II in Miami.  I watched the game at my fiancé's (Bonita's) home in suburban Detroit.

On January 12, 1969, the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III also in Miami.  It was the AFL's first win.  I watched the game at my home in Manhattan.  

I have watched all the Super Bowls except one, XXX.  On January 28, 1996, I took my daughter Rachel to JFK Airport for her flight to Israel (semester abroad to Tel Aviv University).

This year I'll watch the Super Bowl from our apartment in Guaruja.