America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions

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America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions

Genre	Documentary Sports
Creator(s)	NFL Films NFL Network Steve Sabol
Starring	Varies
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	40
Production
Running time	60 Minutes (with commercials), 44 Minutes (without)
Broadcast
Original channel	NFL Network CBS
Original run	November 17, 2006 – February 3, 2007

America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions is a 40-part documentary series created by NFL Films (broadcast on the NFL Network and CBS) that profiles the first 40 winning teams of the National Football League's annual Super Bowl championship game.

1 Format
2 Airing
- 2.1 Unannounced episodes
3 Top twenty
4 Non-ranked episodes
5 Notes
6 Availability outside of the NFL Network
7 Ranking criticisms
8 References

[edit] Format

America's Game weaves together archival NFL Films footage, videotape, audio clips, and interviews into a new program with new talking head style interviews from three or more of the winning team (players, coaches, or administrators) and narration from a celebrity.

In instances of teams winning multiple Super Bowls closely together different people are interviewed for each episode. For example; though Bill Belichick coached the New England Patriots to three Super Bowls in four years (2001, 2003, and 2004) he was only interviewed for the episode on the 2004 team. However, Bill Curry was interviewed twice - as a member of the 1966 Green Bay Packers and the 1970 Baltimore Colts.

[edit] Airing

For its initial airings the show was divided into two waves, with the first series being a weekly series counting down the top 20 winning teams, as selected by a 53 person panel of "Blue Ribbon" experts on the NFL.^[1] The first 18 episodes aired on the NFL Network beginning in November 2006 and the final two programs on CBS the day before Super Bowl XLI in February 2007.

The remaining 20 champions' episodes will be aired during the NFL's off-season, February through April, before the 2007 season begins. The first episode of the remaining 20 champions aired on Thursday, February 8, 2007.

The show began its run with a one-hour "preview special" at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on November 17, 2006, followed by the first of the countdown shows the following week. The "official" premiere episode aired on November 24, the day after the first live regular season game telecast on NFL Network.

[edit] Unannounced episodes

Although the 1990 New York Giants, winners of Super Bowl XXV, did not make the top 20 as chosen by the Blue Ribbon panel, their episodes debut was moved up from spring 2007 to the free-preview period of NFL Network that was offered on Cablevision and Time Warner Cable in late 2006. The program debuted on December 29 at 12:31 a.m Eastern (December 28, 9:31 p.m. Pacific). It started 31 minutes late because of the length of the Texas Bowl and a full one-hour NFL Total Access that followed. Although most participating systems were located in the New York tri-state area, some cable viewers in Kansas also received it.^[2] Alec Baldwin narrated and Ottis Anderson, Carl Banks and Jeff Hostetler told their experiences of the season.

The special of the 1971 Dallas Cowboys aired at 1 a.m. Eastern time December 30 (10 p.m. Pacific December 29) as part of the same preview, one week before the scheduled premiere. This was an hour behind schedule, as the Insight Bowl (that aired in place of what would have been a new episode) ended in overtime.

[edit] Top twenty

The following list compiles the top 20 Super Bowl teams, as determined by the experts. The teams listed below were revealed in countdown form in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLI. The first 18 episodes aired on the NFL Network, while the top two teams' specials was shown on CBS on February 3, the day before Super Bowl XLI.

[edit] Non-ranked episodes

Beginning February 8, the NFL Network began to broadcast the remaining twenty champions' episodes.

The 1970 Baltimore Colts (Super Bowl V) Narrated by Ed Harris, as told by Bill Curry, Mike Curtis, Bubba Smith and Ernie Accorsi (first aired February 9, 2007)
The 1980 Oakland Raiders (Super Bowl XV) Narrated by Ed Harris, as told by Jim Plunkett, Gene Upshaw and Matt Millen (first aired February 16, 2007)
The 1990 New York Giants (Super Bowl XXV) Narrated by Alec Baldwin, as told by Ottis Anderson, Carl Banks and Jeff Hostetler (first aired December 29, 2006, re-aired in its regular slot on February 15, 2007)
The 2001 New England Patriots (Super Bowl XXXVI) Narrated by Martin Sheen, as told by Tom Brady, Lawyer Milloy and Adam Vinatieri (first aired February 8, 2007)
The 1993 Dallas Cowboys (Super Bowl XXVIII) as told by Bill Bates, Emmitt Smith, and Jimmy Johnson (first aired February 22, 2007)
The 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl XIV) as told by John Banaszak, L.C. Greenwood, and John Stallworth (first aired February 23, 2007)
The 1973 Miami Dolphins (Super Bowl VIII) as told by Dick Anderson, Bob Kuechenberg, and Mercury Morris (first aired March 1, 2007)
The 1987 Washington Redskins (Super Bowl XXII) as told by Doug Williams, Jeff Bostic, and Darrell Green (first aired March 2, 2007)
The 1988 San Francisco 49ers (Super Bowl XXIII) as told by Bill Walsh, Harris Barton, and Roger Craig (first aired March 8, 2007)
The 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl IX) as told by Franco Harris, Joe Greene, and Andy Russell (first aired March 9, 2007)
The 2000 Baltimore Ravens (Super Bowl XXXV) as told by Brian Billick, Trent Dilfer, and Ray Lewis. (first aired March 15, 2007)
The 1995 Dallas Cowboys (Super Bowl XXX) as told by Darren Woodson, Rich Dalrymple, Daryl Johnston and Larry Brown(first aired March 16, 2007)
The 1982 Washington Redskins (Super Bowl XVII) as told by Russ Grimm, Joe Theismann, and Rick Walker (first aired March 22, 2007)
The 1981 San Francisco 49ers (Super Bowl XVI) as told by Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott, and Randy Cross (first aired March 23, 2007)
The 1997 Denver Broncos (Super Bowl XXXII) as told by John Elway, Howard Griffith, and Neil Smith (airs March 29, 2007)
The 1968 New York Jets (Super Bowl III) as told by Joe Namath and Don Maynard (airs April 2, 2007)
The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl XL) as told by Jerome Bettis, Joey Porter, and Bill Cowher (airs April 9, 2007)
The 1967 Green Bay Packers (Super Bowl II) (airs April 16, 2007)
The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Super Bowl XXXVII) (airs April 23, 2007)
The 2003 New England Patriots (Super Bowl XXXVIII) (airs April 30, 2007)

[edit] Notes

It is currently unknown if or when the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLI, will receive an episode.
Of the "Blue Ribbon" top 20 teams, the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys are represented most often as a franchise with three championship teams each. The Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders are each represented twice.
Since voting took place during the 2005 season, the ballot the panel voted from did not include the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of Super Bowl XL. An episode was created for the team, however, and is set to air after the 2006 season along with the rest of the champions not in the Blue Ribbon selected top 20.
According to Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, only 20 teams were ranked instead of 40 because they feared negative mail from fans of the franchise whose team was ranked the lowest.^[1]
America's Game is also a title of a book about NFL history, written by Michael MacCambridge in 2004. The book and show are in no way related and MacCambridge was not part of the panel of experts consulted for this show.
Among those not interviewed for the program were Hall of Fame quarterbacks Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana; both were significant parts of the respective 1970s Steelers and 1980s 49ers dynasties. In February 2006, just before production began on this series, they had grabbed media attention when they did not show up at a reunion of Super Bowl most valuable players that was held before Super Bowl XL. Whether they actually refused to be interviewed for the series has not been disclosed, nor is it known if the events are connected.
The series was spoofed on the latest NFL Films "follies" program, Legends of the Follies, that premiered on NFL Network on March 28, 2007. The parody featured highlights of a game between a Pop Warner youth football team and a group of NFL team mascots. According to the script, that the youth team won the game, but was later forced to forfeit due to a player "testing positive" for corn syrup, as found in a breakfast cereal.

[edit] Availability outside of the NFL Network

The final two episodes aired on CBS on February 3, the day before Super Bowl XLI. They were reshown on NFL Network, with slightly more footage, on February 5.

On January 30, 2007, iTunes made twelve (#20 through #9 of the countdown) available for purchase at USD$1.99 an episode or USD$29.99 for the top twenty teams' episodes. Future episodes will be made available once they have been broadcast.

During the top 20 countdown portion of the series, episodes were individually made available on DVD on the NFL's official web store, NFLShop.com, the day after their debut. Each episode's DVD art features a close up of the teams Super Bowl ring.

[edit] Ranking criticisms

Tom Flores, who coached the 1983 Raiders team that was ranked #20, released a statement on the Raiders official website calling the ranking "ridiculous" and "a disgrace." He contended that his team was easily among the top 5 Super Bowl winners.^[3]
On the December 21, 2006 edition of NFL Total Access on Location (from Green Bay), Marshall Faulk said he believed the 1999 St. Louis Rams (#19) was the best of all time, while Deion Sanders believed both his 1994 San Francisco 49ers (#17) and 1995 Dallas Cowboys belonged in the top ten. Sanders has also said, on numerous episodes of Total Access, that he believes that not only should the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, winners of Super Bowl XXXV, be included in the top twenty, but likely in the top five.