Why does the Super Bowl matter so much to me?
Yes, I enjoy sports, especially pro football and hockey. Yes, I dedicated nearly two decades to working in an industry that provides information about sports to its subscribers. However, for me it runs a bit deeper.
It has a lot to do with beginnings, and a lot to do with history for me.
I arrived on the scene one month and eight days before the first "AFL-NFL Championship" did. I arrived in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the first of three children to two very hardworking parents.
I don't need to remind you who won what now is referred to as Super Bowl I. (or Super Bowl II for that matter). ...
Before there were 24-hour sports networks, online sports sites and enough statistical data to fill the whale that swallowed Jonah, there was one 24/7 sports operation carved into my mind and that of pretty much every other male in Northeastern Wisconsin: The Green Bay Packers.
As a child I lived close enough to Lambeau Field to ride my bike to training camp and watch practices. My godparent's daughter was "adopted" by safety Johnny Gray one summer (he rode her bike to the locker room after practice each day). She and I also met then-coach Bart Starr one summer at team photo day. 30 years later, I remember him being one of the kindest people I've ever met. We weren't special, Bart has been nice to thousands, maybe millions, of people.
Bart Starr was MVP of Super Bowls I and II. ...
While neither averse to nor in love with televised sports, my wife of 14-plus years has grown to at least tolerate them. I left her little choice on Sunday afternoons in the fall (and a lot of Saturdays). When asked recently by a co-worker to name her favorite NFL team growing up, she paused and said, "The Chiefs."
Starr and the Packers defeated the Chiefs in Super Bowl I. ...
I worked at a newspaper in Green Bay during the mid and late 1990s. To supplement my income (and build my sports apparel wardrobe) in the fall of 1996, I worked morning shifts at a sports store in a mall on the near west side of town. Many Tuesdays, various athletic-looking individuals would visit the store. We'd talk as they asked about what jerseys were selling, both Packers and players from other teams in the league. Thanks to my night job and an insatiable taste for all things NFL, I realized who many of them were instantly. I'd often joke, "We're out of the Brian Williams jerseys, or too bad they don't make Desmond Howard or Shannon Clavelle jerseys!" We'd get a good laugh and that's as much as would be said about their day jobs. Sometimes they'd buy gifts for family members "back home," ask where the nearest post office was and if we had any wrapping. Mostly, they just wanted to be regular people on their day off, and a mall at 10 a.m. in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on a Tuesday was a good place for that. ...
The Packers defeated the New England Patriots to win it all for the first time since January 1968. Quarterback Brett Favre, if ever there was a hero who fit the city he played in during the past two decades it's him, got the Packers started toward the victory, Super Bowl XXXI MVP Desmond Howard returned a kickoff for a touchdown when things got close, and the late Reggie White sealed it with three sacks in the second half to finish off Boston's best.
Desmond Howard was one of my frequent Tuesday visitors. ...
What rational person would stay up all night reading, re-reading and re-reading again the same stories? Fortunately, I was paid to do it, but given the excitement of seeing my hometown team win a Super Bowl for the first time in 29 years, I would have done it for free. A co-worker and I stayed up all night to produce updated Super Bow Champions editions and commemorative editions of the Green Bay Press-Gazette after Super Bowl XXXI. After all, there was a parade in town the next day, and we knew that we could not print enough papers that proclaimed, "The Lombardi Trophy is coming home!" ...
It was freezing! Below freezing! I think it was made worse by the lack of sleep, but it didn't matter. My brother had driven up from Chicago to watch the game in Green Bay, and we were determined to watch a Super Bowl victory parade. The newspaper building afforded us a front-row seat for a second day we will never forget.
My first "adult" Packers jersey came from my brother - a green Reggie White model. ... No. 92. I was married in '92. ... For his wedding present, my wife and I took him and his wife to a Packers game at Lambeau Field. The Packers blew an opportunity to defeat the Rams in the final minute. Two months later, we realized a victory on that unseasonably warm October day would have positioned the Packers to reach the playoffs.
My sister-in-law is a Bears fan. The Packers crushed the Bears in their final game of the season on New Year's Eve. (Had to get that jab in there.) ...
Super Bowl I was played in Los Angeles. 40 years later, taking a path that led us through a combined six states, my wife and I have found ourselves first-time homeowners in the City of Angels. We're going to a Super Bowl party with her co-workers on Sunday.
Strange how that works out, isn't it?
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