The Making of the Super Bowl

Authors:

By Don Weiss, Chuck Day

Format:

Hardback

Availability:

In print, limited availability. Try our second hand search facility.

Price:

£15.99

Tagged with:

American Football, Behind the Scenes, Super Bowl

Member Reviews

• Login or join us to post the first review!

You Can

• Send to a friend
• Contact us about this item

Further Details

• Published: 1st Oct 2002
• ISBN: 0071395059
• Pages: 288

From Word of Sport:

An insider's look at the history of America's greatest championship from the man in charge. Don Weiss, former executive director of the NFL and the man incharge of game-day operations for every Super Bowl played, offers a rare insight into the history and extraordinary growth of the Great American Time Out.

From the Publisher:

Over 36 years, the Super Bowl has established itself as the most important single-day sporting event on the planet. Watched by more than 800 million viewers, it dominates television ratings year after year. Time magazine called it the Great American Time Out. The Los Angeles Times declared it to be New Year's Eve, the Fourth of July, and Mardi Gras rolled into one. And former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle liked to describe it as the last chapter of a hair-raising mystery. No one would miss it. But how did its greatness come to be?

In The Making of the Super Bowl, Don Weiss, former executive director of the NFL and the man in charge of game-day operations for every Super Bowl played, offers a unique, first-hand glimpse into the history and extraordinary growth of the world's most celebrated sporting event.

The origins of the Super Bowl began humbly on an autumn day in 1966, not on the green grass of the gridiron, but in a New York City boardroom where businesspeople, politicians, and a few ardent football fans battled to bring the world championship to bear. Congress had just passed legislation that would allow the upstart American Football League to merge with the favored National Football League. In a mere 90 days, the respective champions of these rivalrous gangs would clash, settling their bragging rights in a hastily organized affair ambitiously billed as the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game of Professional Football. But when game day at last arrived, Los Angeles's Memorial Coliseum--where seating had been scaled back to accommodate 93,000 people--was barelytwo-thirds full. A humble beginning, indeed. And, as everyone had predicted, Vince Lombardi's (NFL) Green Bay Packers easily trounced the (AFL) Kansas City Chiefs. It was not a helluva game, but Super Sunday was born.

In the years that followed, this relatively modest sporting event was transformed into the sports/media/entertainment/marketing extravaganza it is today, and Don Weiss witnessed it all. Throughout this fascinating book, in punchy prose and lavish full-color illustrations, Weiss shares his insider's view of the Super Bowl, making the most of his unique access to league officials, owners, coaches, and players to present an unprecedented behind-the-scenes chronicle of the true story behind our ultimate game.