America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions
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| America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions |
|
|---|---|
| Format | Documentary Sports |
| Created by | NFL Films NFL Network Steve Sabol |
| Starring | Varies |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 41 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 Minutes (with commercials), 44 Minutes (without) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NFL Network CBS |
| Original run | November 17, 2006 – September 5, 2007 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions is an annual 41-part documentary series created by NFL Films (broadcast on the NFL Network and CBS) that profiles the first 41 winning teams of the National Football League's annual Super Bowl championship game.
The 2007 New York Giants will be chronicled in the series' 42nd installment. The episode will air in September 2008 on NFL Network.[1] A spin-off will debut in September 2008 as well titled America's Game: The Missing Rings which will chronicle some of the best teams to never win the Super Bowl.[1]
Contents |
[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. Also, Joe Greene appeared twice - on the 1974 and 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers broadcasts. Ernie Accorsi and Rich Dalrymple are the only non-players or coaches to be interviewed for the series—both were team administrators.
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.
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.[2] Sabol stated that, while the panel chose the 1972 Dolphins as the #1 team, several voters hedged and said Miami's unbeaten season was "the greatest team achievement." Of the voting methods, Sabol said, "That's what I think people were voting on, rather than, 'Could this team beat the '85 Bears?'"[3]
[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.[2] 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.
After some speculation on the future of the series, the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLI had their episode air on September 5, 2007, one night before the season opener. [4] The 2007 New York Giants will also receive an episode, signaling the series' annual continuation.[1]
[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.[5] 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 2005 Steelers and teams onward were not eligible to be in the Top 20 as the voting was done prior to Super Bowl XL.
[edit] Notes
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- 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. All episodes except for the 2006 Colts are now available. As of February 7, 2008 The Colts episode is now available although it is incorrectly calls them the 2007 Colts (The year the Super Bowl victory aired), when in fact it should call them the 2006 Colts (as that's the season that the Super Bowl victory is for). As of now it is labeled "America's Game:2006 Colts".
- 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.
- Sky Sports began airing the show in August 2007.
[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.[6]
- 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c NFL Network and NFL Films win three sports Emmys. Retrieved on 2008-05-07.
- ^ a b Stewart, Larry. The most super of Super Bowl winners? NFL Network will rank the top 20. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
- ^ The Great Debate: If they win, are Pats best ever?. USA Today. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ Colts on the Air. Colts.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
- ^ NFL Network Freeview under way now!. NFL.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
- ^ Flores Calls Ranking 'Ridiculous'. Raiders.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
