HBO recalls when 'I' was lonelier number
Super Sunday wasn't always America's "undeclared national holiday," one generally marked by hosting or attending a house party. That's why "The Wild Ride to Super Bowl I," the HBO documentary that debuted last night, is must viewing, especially if you're a football fan not old enough to remember the championship game's origin. (The show re-airs on HBO2 at 10 tonight, on HBO tomorrow at 8, and on HBO2 Thursday at both 4:15 and 11 p.m.)
Super Bowl I is best remembered as the test of whether the upstart American Football League even belonged on the same playing field as the established National Football League. When the Chiefs met the Packers that year, the AFL was seeking legitimacy. The NFL owners were hoping for a 60-0 blowout.
Seats in the Los Angeles Coliseum were priced between $6 and $12, but, even so, there were 30,000-plus that remained empty, even though the game was blacked out on TV locally. That's a far cry from today's $500 ticket prices.
Leading up to the game, CBS (network of the NFL) and NBC (network of the AFL) fought over which would televise it. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle knew the answer: Both of them. He wanted America to be a captive audience on the afternoon of Jan. 15, 1967. It was; 70 million of us watched. Still, that's a far cry from the 130 million in this country who now see the game.
But how different it was then. The pregame "hype" consisted of a daily story in the paper. In fact, few papers or local TV stations sent reporters. The commercials, which have become a sideshow unto themselves, cost $42,000 (now they're more like $2.3 million for 30 seconds).
There was no ESPN (or cable TV, for that matter), no Internet, and no widespread talk shows. The NFL's modest goal was that people would come to equate the game with baseball's World Series. But the game had great characters, prime among them the Packers' Max McGee and the Chiefs' Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. McGee stayed out all night before the game, thinking he'd never play, then wound up as the hero, while Williamson was carried off after getting his bell rung.
Many connected with the game were embarrassed by the pretentiousness of "Super Bowl" as a name. It came from the sons of Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who were playing with a Super Ball toy. In those days, the term "bowl" belonged to college games.
Pregame entertainment? That was trumpeter Al Hirt, with two college marching bands, though one was the renowned Grambling assemblage.
Today, nothing is too big. Whenever you think the event is too overhyped, overcommercialized, and overmarketed, it only gets bigger. Just witness Sunday's TV schedule, which begins at 11 a.m. on CBS for the 6:25 p.m. kickoff.
Air attack
One of the curiosities of WEEI is the way hosts insult, denigrate, and otherwise snipe at their colleagues on the air, behavior that would get people sacked in any other business (newspaper columnists being excepted). John Dennis and Gerry Callahan of the morning drive show -- on their way out of town last Friday for eight days at the Super Bowl -- took it a step further by going on a seemingly uncalled for rant about Callahan's Herald colleague Howard Bryant. The show seemed to have no real purpose other than to move the clock to 10 a.m. and get the hosts to the weekend. The recent spate of Patriots "good news," doesn't fit the station's "edgy" format. Bryant had no doubt that Friday's rant was payback for his taking Dennis and Callahan to task last fall when they were suspended following Metco wisecracks. "They can attack me every day and it doesn't change what they did," said Bryant. "Their show isn't part of my universe, and I certainly have much better things to do at 6 in the morning -- like sleeping. I'm flattered I'm so big. The Patriots are in the Super Bowl, and in this great sports town, they're talking about me. This cult of the media attacking the media and the media being part of the celebrity culture is something that's special to Boston. If Gerry is so offended by my lack of input to the paper, there are plenty of other people to read. He can even read his own column."
Healthy share
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello did a double-take last week when he checked the Boston market's TV numbers for the Patriots-Colts AFC Championship game. The 46.5 rating wasn't a surprise, but the 75 share was. (The share is the percentage of TV sets being used that are tuned to a show.) "When you have three out of four sets tuned to the game, it shows the team's hold on the region," he said . . . The radio picture for the Super Bowl is complicated. In Boston, we'll get the WBCN call by Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti. The rest of the Patriots' New England network will get the national Westwood One feed with Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason. However, fans who buy a one-month ($9.95) subscription to www.NFL.com's "Field Pass" will have their choice of the Westwood One, Carolina, or New England radio feeds via the Internet, plus they'll get a Super Bowl program. WEEI, the Boston Westwood One affiliate, is blacked out from carrying the national feed against WBCN's. . . . Add CN8 to the Super Bowl media crush. Phil Burton will file reports from Houston tonight for both "Sports Pulse" at 10 and "Sports Connection" at 11. "Sports Pulse" host Ed Berliner will originate the show from Houston starting tomorrow night. Berliner will have video of Tom Brady's high school career and a phone interview with his high school coach . . . Channel 25's Butch Stearns used a "Super Bowl Countdown" clock during "Sports Sunday." There were 163 hours to go . . . Fox Sports Net's "Best Damn Sports Show Period" is taping at Houston's Minute Maid Park (home of the Astros). Thursday is Patriots day, with an all-Patriots audience . . . FSNE and Sam Adams have taken over O'Neill's Restaurant and Irish Pub in Houston's Rice Village section for a "Boston D Party" Saturday from 4-7 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the Boys & Girls Club, chosen charity of Patriot Richard Seymour.
Sox news on deck
Once the Super Bowl furor subsides, expect an announcement that Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano are coming back as Red Sox announcers on WEEI with new deals . . . NESN has hired Bill Borson as vice president of programming and production. Borson most recently has been with Fox Sports Net in Los Angeles, where he worked on national programming and specials for the past five years . . . Channel 5 had live coverage of "The Winter X Games" Saturday, including motorcycle jumper Brian Deegan's nasty spill (broken leg, two broken wrists). Sunday's action was postponed, not by the crash but by a snowstorm . . . NESN has the opening round of the Beanpot next Monday (Northeastern-Boston University at 5 p.m., Boston College-Harvard at 8 p.m.), with both games available in HD. Sox announcer Don Orsillo, just back from host duties on the Red Sox cruise, goes back to his hockey roots to call the action for a fourth time. Andy Brickley is analyst . . . That 7:30 p.m. starting time for Thursday night's Bruins-Islanders game is correct. The game is an exclusive ESPN telecast and will also be shown in high definition on ESPN HD.
Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com
