The Super Bowl: Celebrating a Quarter-Century of America's Greatest Game

by Pete Rozelle

Book Overview

To mark the Super Bowl's 25th Anniversary, the NFL has created the most ambitious commemorative sports gift book ever published. Six of the nation's most respected sports journalists present the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671727982
• ISBN13: 9780671727987
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 4.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great recaps & retrospectives of the first XXIV games!

Although 11 games out of date as of my writing this, THE SUPER BOWL is one of the best publications about "The Great American Time-Out" I've ever flipped through. Featuring a foreword by the late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle discussing his great and not-so-great Super Bowl memories, this heavy hardcover coffee-table monster gives the reader some pretty good views (both in pictures and text) of the country's biggest sporting event. Each contest includes a foldout page featuring all of the players' names in the starting lineups & substitutions, all of the offensive, defensive & special teams stats, and every single play that was made. On the reverse side of each foldout is a painting or other illustration relating to its respective game. The article for each game, about ten pages in length, goes into the backstory of the teams that competed and some of the more colorful moments leading up to the big dance, as well as the highlights (and lowlights) of the game itself.Although I'm a 49ers & Redskins follower, I found the two Steeler-Cowboys contests, X & XIII, to be the most interesting write-ups. They were two teams that apparently were polar opposites (at least from the text I read here), and couldn't stand each other. Plenty of trash-talking and genuine disgust abound. This enmity made for a couple of the most hard-fought championships in pro football. They were full of great moments like Thomas 'Hollywood' Henderson's shocking game-opening reverse/ kickoff return & Lynn Swann's amazing catch in X, and not-so-great moments like Dallas TE Jackie Smith's drop of a "sure-thing" Cowboys touchdown and a controversial pass-interference call in XIII.But, there's also plenty of other notable moments in this book. Vince Lombardi's legend, Joe Namath's guarantee, Garo's gaffe capping the only undefeated season in league history, the Niners' drive to victory, the rise of the Steeler & 49er dynasties, the sad performances of four-time losers Minnesota & Denver, and more are mentioned and recapped in good detail. The appendix features Super Bowl team & individual records, and composite standings. Of course, due this publication being over a decade old, many of the records no longer stand. Also included is the all-time Super Bowl roster of every player that set foot on the field or warmed the bench in each of the first XXIV contests. All in all, a wonderful compendium of Super Bowl stats and information-well, at least for the time it was published, anyway.Sadly, although I found this volume to be very enjoyable, the dust jacket isn't very durable. I had to tape the corners and edges of the jacket a few months after I bought it to curtail further disintegration. Other than that, I'm hoping the publishers will see fit to produce an new, updated edition one of these years. Unfortunately, I doubt it'll happen any time soon. More than likely, they'll wait until the 50th anniversary (that's Super Bowl L to the Roman-numerically-declined out there) to