Tales of the tape
Special to SuperBowl.com
Note: This story appears in the Official Super Bowl XLI Game Program, which is available now at NFLShop.com.
Steve Sabol uses NFL Network's America's Game series to take fans inside the Super Bowl like never before.
America's Game, the landmark series that has been running on NFL Network since November, is the latest project to stir the football passions of NFL Films president Steve Sabol.
"This series is really about NFL mythology," says Sabol, 64, who has been part of NFL Films since his father shot the league's 1962 title game between the Packers and Giants. "And mythology -- whether it's the labors of Hercules or Jason and the Golden Fleece -- it's the same stories told over and over. Yet it's so meaningful and there's such truth to it that it never gets stale. We're dealing here with NFL mythology; we're just telling it in a new way."
As part of the series, NFL Network ranked the top 20 Super Bowl champions of all time. A blue-ribbon panel of experts voted on these teams, with the first 20 episodes of America's Game featuring the countdown from No. 20 to No. 1 (with the top two teams airing on CBS on Feb. 3, one day before Super Bowl XLI).
Prior to the launch of America's Game, Sabol took time to discuss the project.
Craig Ellenport: How did you settle on the America's Game concept?
Steve Sabol: There were two ways to go with it. One was to celebrate the greatest players, which to me wasn't as appealing as picking the greatest team. The essence of football is teamwork. Of all the popular sports, football is the greatest of all team sports. We thought this should be a series that celebrates the greatest teams, not the individuals.
CE: Tell us about the "blue-ribbon panel" that ranked the top teams.
SS: The initial thought was to create interest in this by opening it to a vote for the greatest team. But I didn't think it should be a fan vote, because a fan votes with his heart, not his head. If this was going to be meaningful, we had to come up with the "mother of all panels." It had to be the greatest panel of football experts ever assembled. So I got our producers together and we devised a list of historians, trained observers, beat writers, columnists, statisticians, former players, coaches, general mangers and scouts. I've never seen a panel with this much knowledge assembled for any sport. If football knowledge and football facts were grains of rice, this panel could feed an army!
CE: The voting was so spirited that you actually made a 41st episode all about the selection process. Which teams stood out the most?
SS: I can break it down by decade ...
In the 1960s, you've got Lombardi's Packers, winners of the first two Super Bowls. But most of the panel felt that the greatest Lombardi team was 1962, and they weren't eligible. The '66 Packers, though, did make the top 20. Then the discussion shifted to the Jets -- a team that was better than people thought.
But if the Jets' victory in Super Bowl III made the Super Bowl "theater for the masses," it didn't sell everyone on the idea that the AFL was serious competition for the NFL. The Chiefs were still a heavy underdog in the next Super Bowl, a 14-point underdog to the NFL's Vikings. But they pounded the Vikings, and in many voters' minds they were a strong contender in the top 20 because of the whipping they put on a good Minnesota team.
Then you get to the 1970s, and that was really the golden age of dynasties. We found in the voting that the teams that got the most votes were the ones that repeated, because that repetition validated the greatness of these teams over many years.
You had several dynasties at work, starting with the Dolphins. This was a team that won with the running game, won with the no-name defense -- the first of the great zone defenses. Then you have the Oakland Raiders. Al Davis' Raiders. When you look at that team, it was more than "Just win, baby." It was always total annihilation and destruction. Burn the crops, level the buildings, poison the water, and strip the corpses. Total destruction. They only won one Super Bowl in that era, but they went to five AFC Championship Games.
Then you get to the Dallas Cowboys. And the Cowboys were America's Team. The corporate, slick, computerized, Tom Landry-style that won with system and strategy. They had the flex defense and multiple sets. That was a team with a certain style. And then the final team of that era -- the Tyrannosaurus Rex of dynasties -- that's the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won with intimidation, with speed. They could beat you with a running game featuring Franco Harris and a passing game that had Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. They had that great defense. And they also have more Hall of Famers than anyone else. The issue became which of the Steelers teams do you vote for? Some of the great dynasties like that suffered. With the Steelers, some voted for their 1978 team; others voted for the '79 team.
In the 1980s, you have two distinctive teams involved there. You have the 49ers, who are without question the greatest dynasty in the history of the game. From 1981 to 1994, they never had less than 10 wins except for the strike season, they were always in the playoffs, and they won five Super Bowls. But, again, you get into that dilemma over which 49ers team was the best?
The '84 team lost only one game and that was a disputed loss to the Steelers in the middle of the season. But how could you vote for the 1984 team when it didn't have Jerry Rice? Few teams went through the playoffs as dominant as the 49ers did in 1989. So those votes, in essence, were split.
And right in the middle of the 49ers dynasty, you've got the Chicago Bears of 1985. The Bears defense that season committed the most sustained work of defensive devastation ever seen on a pro field at any time. They were a force of completely unimaginable proportions. I liken those '85 Bears to one of those singing groups that had one great hit and then disappeared.
I've always felt that true greatness on a football team was the juncture of excellence and originality. This was a team that not only had great players in guys like Walter Payton, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary. They were also running a style of defense -- the 46 -- that was so original no one could figure it out, at least for one year. The next year they were knocked out in the playoffs, and they never came back as a contender again. The fact they were only great for that one year allowed voters to concentrate on that one team.
Then you go to the '90s and the Cowboys of Jimmy Johnson. The players there will tell you that if Jimmy hadn't left, they probably would have won four Super Bowls in a row as opposed to three out of four. And that's a team that had Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin all in their prime. That's a really strong team that got a lot of votes. Then you get to the current era and the Patriots -- their 2003 team gets into the top 20. There's a feeling that while they might not be the best team, they are the best organization. The Patriots are to today's game what the Cleveland Browns, under Paul Brown, were to the 1950s. Their organization has set the tone and the style for other organizations to emulate.
CE: What did you learn from this project?
SS: There's a fallacy that championship teams just sort of steamroll through the season -- never any injuries, never any problems, and never any controversies. The opposite is the truth. Almost every team ... did not sail through the season. There were quarterback controversies, dilemmas and injuries.
Just a few of the quarterback controversies: Staubach and Morton with the Cowboys; Bradshaw and Gilliam with the Steelers; Williams and Schroeder with the Redskins; Montana and Young with the 49ers. All of these were controversies that percolated and festered throughout the championship run, but the teams won in spite of it.
CE: Were there stories you had never heard before?
SS: There are one or two that stand out. In the 1974 season, things were going so bad for the Steelers that Joe Greene actually quit the team. He cleaned out his locker and went home; that's how frustrated he was. Chuck Noll and some of Greene's teammates convinced him to come back.
Another story is that before Super Bowl V (held at the Orange Bowl), rookie placekicker Jim O'Brien told Ernie Accorsi, who was the Colts' PR man at the time, that he didn't like to kick on artificial turf. "I hope this doesn't come down to me," he said. And of course the whole game comes down to him kicking a field goal at the end, and he made it.
CE: Which team sparked the most debate in the voting for greatest team?
SS: The Dolphins are the most fascinating team, and the one debated most passionately both for and against. Whether or not they are the greatest team is a matter of debate. What isn't up for debate in my mind is that the 1972 Dolphins stand for what is best about the game of football. They were the epitome of teamwork, intelligence and resourcefulness.
When you look at the Dolphins, they were not only undefeated, but they were the only team in history to lead the NFL in all meaningful offensive and defensive categories -- points scored, total yards. You can go on and on. They won the AFC Championship Game on the road against Pittsburgh. And yet in the public's mind, they came into the Super Bowl as three-point underdogs to George Allen's Redskins, who had lost three games. If Winston Churchill had been on our panel, he would have described the Miami Dolphins this way: They were criticized by many, they were praised by few, but they were defeated by none.
CE: In your years of covering the Super Bowl for NFL Films, which game is your favorite?
SS: I think my favorite would be Super Bowl IV, and not only because of the opportunity to put a microphone on Hank Stram -- and for the first time ever to put the fans in the mind of the decision-maker in a championship game. To me, Super Bowl IV is the game that made the Super Bowl.
The Jets' win over the Colts made the Super Bowl theater for the masses, but it wasn't until the next year, when the Chiefs beat the Vikings, that the Super Bowl became a legitimate competition. That was a (butt)-kicking. Not that the Jets' win was a fluke, but the Chiefs' win was so decisive that everybody realized the Super Bowl was going to be a legitimate competition between two equal conferences every year.
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By Craig EllenportSpecial to SuperBowl.com
Note: This story appears in the Official Super Bowl XLI Game Program, which is available now at NFLShop.com.
Steve Sabol uses NFL Network's America's Game series to take fans inside the Super Bowl like never before.
America's Game, the landmark series that has been running on NFL Network since November, is the latest project to stir the football passions of NFL Films president Steve Sabol.
You must be registered for see images
The Official Super Bowl XLI Game Program is available now on NFLShop.com. As perhaps the preeminent storyteller and mythmaker in all of sports, Sabol's challenge was to create a series celebrating the 40 Super Bowl champions in ways never before seen. Featuring new interviews with prominent figures from each of the winning teams, rare behind-the-scenes footage and untold stories, America's Game adds a new dimension to the legacies forged by these champions. "This series is really about NFL mythology," says Sabol, 64, who has been part of NFL Films since his father shot the league's 1962 title game between the Packers and Giants. "And mythology -- whether it's the labors of Hercules or Jason and the Golden Fleece -- it's the same stories told over and over. Yet it's so meaningful and there's such truth to it that it never gets stale. We're dealing here with NFL mythology; we're just telling it in a new way."
As part of the series, NFL Network ranked the top 20 Super Bowl champions of all time. A blue-ribbon panel of experts voted on these teams, with the first 20 episodes of America's Game featuring the countdown from No. 20 to No. 1 (with the top two teams airing on CBS on Feb. 3, one day before Super Bowl XLI).
Prior to the launch of America's Game, Sabol took time to discuss the project.
Craig Ellenport: How did you settle on the America's Game concept?
Steve Sabol: There were two ways to go with it. One was to celebrate the greatest players, which to me wasn't as appealing as picking the greatest team. The essence of football is teamwork. Of all the popular sports, football is the greatest of all team sports. We thought this should be a series that celebrates the greatest teams, not the individuals.
CE: Tell us about the "blue-ribbon panel" that ranked the top teams.
SS: The initial thought was to create interest in this by opening it to a vote for the greatest team. But I didn't think it should be a fan vote, because a fan votes with his heart, not his head. If this was going to be meaningful, we had to come up with the "mother of all panels." It had to be the greatest panel of football experts ever assembled. So I got our producers together and we devised a list of historians, trained observers, beat writers, columnists, statisticians, former players, coaches, general mangers and scouts. I've never seen a panel with this much knowledge assembled for any sport. If football knowledge and football facts were grains of rice, this panel could feed an army!
CE: The voting was so spirited that you actually made a 41st episode all about the selection process. Which teams stood out the most?
SS: I can break it down by decade ...
In the 1960s, you've got Lombardi's Packers, winners of the first two Super Bowls. But most of the panel felt that the greatest Lombardi team was 1962, and they weren't eligible. The '66 Packers, though, did make the top 20. Then the discussion shifted to the Jets -- a team that was better than people thought.
But if the Jets' victory in Super Bowl III made the Super Bowl "theater for the masses," it didn't sell everyone on the idea that the AFL was serious competition for the NFL. The Chiefs were still a heavy underdog in the next Super Bowl, a 14-point underdog to the NFL's Vikings. But they pounded the Vikings, and in many voters' minds they were a strong contender in the top 20 because of the whipping they put on a good Minnesota team.
Then you get to the 1970s, and that was really the golden age of dynasties. We found in the voting that the teams that got the most votes were the ones that repeated, because that repetition validated the greatness of these teams over many years.
You had several dynasties at work, starting with the Dolphins. This was a team that won with the running game, won with the no-name defense -- the first of the great zone defenses. Then you have the Oakland Raiders. Al Davis' Raiders. When you look at that team, it was more than "Just win, baby." It was always total annihilation and destruction. Burn the crops, level the buildings, poison the water, and strip the corpses. Total destruction. They only won one Super Bowl in that era, but they went to five AFC Championship Games.
Then you get to the Dallas Cowboys. And the Cowboys were America's Team. The corporate, slick, computerized, Tom Landry-style that won with system and strategy. They had the flex defense and multiple sets. That was a team with a certain style. And then the final team of that era -- the Tyrannosaurus Rex of dynasties -- that's the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won with intimidation, with speed. They could beat you with a running game featuring Franco Harris and a passing game that had Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. They had that great defense. And they also have more Hall of Famers than anyone else. The issue became which of the Steelers teams do you vote for? Some of the great dynasties like that suffered. With the Steelers, some voted for their 1978 team; others voted for the '79 team.
In the 1980s, you have two distinctive teams involved there. You have the 49ers, who are without question the greatest dynasty in the history of the game. From 1981 to 1994, they never had less than 10 wins except for the strike season, they were always in the playoffs, and they won five Super Bowls. But, again, you get into that dilemma over which 49ers team was the best?
The '84 team lost only one game and that was a disputed loss to the Steelers in the middle of the season. But how could you vote for the 1984 team when it didn't have Jerry Rice? Few teams went through the playoffs as dominant as the 49ers did in 1989. So those votes, in essence, were split.
And right in the middle of the 49ers dynasty, you've got the Chicago Bears of 1985. The Bears defense that season committed the most sustained work of defensive devastation ever seen on a pro field at any time. They were a force of completely unimaginable proportions. I liken those '85 Bears to one of those singing groups that had one great hit and then disappeared.
I've always felt that true greatness on a football team was the juncture of excellence and originality. This was a team that not only had great players in guys like Walter Payton, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary. They were also running a style of defense -- the 46 -- that was so original no one could figure it out, at least for one year. The next year they were knocked out in the playoffs, and they never came back as a contender again. The fact they were only great for that one year allowed voters to concentrate on that one team.
Then you go to the '90s and the Cowboys of Jimmy Johnson. The players there will tell you that if Jimmy hadn't left, they probably would have won four Super Bowls in a row as opposed to three out of four. And that's a team that had Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin all in their prime. That's a really strong team that got a lot of votes. Then you get to the current era and the Patriots -- their 2003 team gets into the top 20. There's a feeling that while they might not be the best team, they are the best organization. The Patriots are to today's game what the Cleveland Browns, under Paul Brown, were to the 1950s. Their organization has set the tone and the style for other organizations to emulate.
CE: What did you learn from this project?
SS: There's a fallacy that championship teams just sort of steamroll through the season -- never any injuries, never any problems, and never any controversies. The opposite is the truth. Almost every team ... did not sail through the season. There were quarterback controversies, dilemmas and injuries.
Just a few of the quarterback controversies: Staubach and Morton with the Cowboys; Bradshaw and Gilliam with the Steelers; Williams and Schroeder with the Redskins; Montana and Young with the 49ers. All of these were controversies that percolated and festered throughout the championship run, but the teams won in spite of it.
CE: Were there stories you had never heard before?
SS: There are one or two that stand out. In the 1974 season, things were going so bad for the Steelers that Joe Greene actually quit the team. He cleaned out his locker and went home; that's how frustrated he was. Chuck Noll and some of Greene's teammates convinced him to come back.
Another story is that before Super Bowl V (held at the Orange Bowl), rookie placekicker Jim O'Brien told Ernie Accorsi, who was the Colts' PR man at the time, that he didn't like to kick on artificial turf. "I hope this doesn't come down to me," he said. And of course the whole game comes down to him kicking a field goal at the end, and he made it.
CE: Which team sparked the most debate in the voting for greatest team?
SS: The Dolphins are the most fascinating team, and the one debated most passionately both for and against. Whether or not they are the greatest team is a matter of debate. What isn't up for debate in my mind is that the 1972 Dolphins stand for what is best about the game of football. They were the epitome of teamwork, intelligence and resourcefulness.
When you look at the Dolphins, they were not only undefeated, but they were the only team in history to lead the NFL in all meaningful offensive and defensive categories -- points scored, total yards. You can go on and on. They won the AFC Championship Game on the road against Pittsburgh. And yet in the public's mind, they came into the Super Bowl as three-point underdogs to George Allen's Redskins, who had lost three games. If Winston Churchill had been on our panel, he would have described the Miami Dolphins this way: They were criticized by many, they were praised by few, but they were defeated by none.
CE: In your years of covering the Super Bowl for NFL Films, which game is your favorite?
SS: I think my favorite would be Super Bowl IV, and not only because of the opportunity to put a microphone on Hank Stram -- and for the first time ever to put the fans in the mind of the decision-maker in a championship game. To me, Super Bowl IV is the game that made the Super Bowl.
The Jets' win over the Colts made the Super Bowl theater for the masses, but it wasn't until the next year, when the Chiefs beat the Vikings, that the Super Bowl became a legitimate competition. That was a (butt)-kicking. Not that the Jets' win was a fluke, but the Chiefs' win was so decisive that everybody realized the Super Bowl was going to be a legitimate competition between two equal conferences every year.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/skys...vip=no;sz=160x600;tile=7;ord=530051169831880?
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