THINK you know all about the Super Bowl? Well, you may be betting in your office pool, you may be betting the spread, and you may even be betting the over/under – but we’re betting you don’t know a lot of these wacky facts about America’s favorite football game:
By the numbers
* Tickets to the first Super Bowl, in 1967 – Green Bay vs. Kansas City at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – cost $12, and there were 39,628 empty seats.
* In 1999, the Denver Broncos offensive line racked up a bill of $1,970.31 one evening at Joe’s Stone Crab, a popular South Beach, Miami, restaurant. The bill did not include a liquor total of $317.50, which had been discounted by more than $200. The previous year, the Broncos’ offensive line spent $4,600 at a sushi restaurant in San Diego.
* In 1995, the San Francisco 49ers beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26. In addition to the 49 points, the 49ers had 449 total yards. Quarterback Steve Young led the team in rushing with 49 yards, and Jerry Rice led the team in receiving with 149 yards. San Diego quarterback Stan Humphries threw 49 passes.
Hard-core fans
* In 1993, a Buffalo radio station staged a promotion: “What would you do for Super Bowl tickets?” One Bill fan jumped into a truck filled with warm fertilizer, while another claimed to have eaten a Buffalo chip on a bun. The winner, who also earned round-trip airline tickets, wore a yellow “Superfan” costume, jumped into a truck filled with dead fish (the Bills had beaten the Dolphins in the AFC championship), pounded on an inflated dolphin and surfaced with a mock Super Bowl trophy.
* Last year, a Nashville radio station staged an ill-advised promotion. Music City 103.3 DJs announced they’d taped free Super Bowl tickets to the belly of a local police officer. The station ended the promotion after an hour, when several befuddled cops were chased and frisked by fans. No one found the tickets, stuck to the tummy of a motorcycle officer.
* In 1999, a Miami radio station offered two tickets to the fan who would perform the wackiest trick. One fan said he’d jump naked out of a helicopter into a pond, while another said he’d ask a friend to suck out his glass eye.
* In 1988, a 29-year-old Denver woman rode nude on an orange-painted horse through a downtown mall for two free tickets to see the Broncos play the Washington Redskins.
* When the Broncos played the Cowboys in 1978, a convict in Denver asked the court to delay his move to another jail so he could watch the game in familiar surroundings.
* Lisa Hermsen was born on Jan. 15, 1967, during the first Super Bowl. According to Lisa’s mother, the soon-to-be dad wasn’t pleased her labor couldn’t outlast the Green Bay Packers’ 35-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. “I dragged him away from the TV,” Lisa’s mother told the Green Bay Post-Gazette. “And the doctor was hauled out of a Super Bowl party.”
Over the top?
* At the 1997 Super Bowl in New Orleans, New England Patriot coach Bill Parcells was so vigilant about keeping his practices private that he ordered the StairMasters, treadmills and bikes in the Tulane University recreation center be turned away from the window overlooking the field.
Entertainment
* In what halftime-show choreographer Lesslee Kay Fitzmorris labeled a “crisis” in 1999, some male dancers’ biceps were too big for the costumes. The sleeves were strategically torn at the last moment to accommodate the bulges.
* In 1995 in Miami, Kathie Lee Gifford, wife of former Giants superstar running back Frank Gifford, was booed when she sang the national anthem.
* In pregame festivities at the 1970 Super Bowl, the Minnesota Vikings’ hot-air balloon – engaged in a race with the Kansas City Chiefs’ dirigible – crashed into the stands. No one was injured.
Oops!
* In 1995, the 49ers’ rookie kicker, Doug Brien, missed curfew during the week when NFL security wouldn’t let him into the hotel, thinking he was a teen-age fan.
* In 1995, an 18-year-old snookered the Miami Dolphins and Federal Express out of 262 Super Bowl tickets with a brilliant and complicated scam. About two weeks before the Super Bowl, Jimmy Sabatino – a Brooklyn-born, Staten-Island-raised teen with reported ties to the Colombo/Gambino crime families – called the Dolphins, pretending to be a vice-president under team owner Wayne Huizenga.
Sabatino asked for the tickets, and the gullible Dolphins promptly sent him a letter, in the name of team President Eddie Jones, detailing when and where the tickets would be sent. On shipment day, Sabatino called FedEx, claiming to be Jones, and demanded all 262 tickets be held back. “Jones” said he’d sent someone to pick up the tickets. FedEx handed them over, no questions asked. Sabatino then sold the tickets to brokers, reportedly at $900 a pop for a total of $235,000. He later served two years in jail for that caper and others.
* The NFL made some embarrassing goofs in its correspondence with Atlanta Falcon coach Dan Reeves prior to the 1999 Super Bowl.
The Falcons had beaten the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game to earn a trip to the Super Bowl. After the NFC game, Reeves was handed an itinerary for the Super Bowl.
A peeved Reeves told reporters: “It said, ‘The Minnesota Vikings’ will arrive at such and such a time on Sunday, ‘the Minnesota Vikings’ will do this.'” Another memo the following day was addressed to “Atlanta Falcon head coach Dennis Green.” Green is the Vikings’ coach. Finally, the NFL informed the Falcons they were to wear their red jerseys. The Falcons had not worn red on their uniforms since 1990.