Long Incomplete, a Full Version of the First Super Bowl Is Assembled for Broadcast
The Packers’ Max McGee making a one-handed touchdown catch in Super Bowl I on Jan. 15, 1967. Credit NFL Films
NFL Network will show Super Bowl I on Friday night, which should please and surprise anyone who thought copies of the game had been lost, erased or turned to video dust.
In resurrected form, it is a relic of the time before Super Bowl excess: a daytime game, contested in a stadium with swaths of empty seats, televised by CBS and NBC, and played by men of reasonable dimensions, at least by today’s standards. It featured the Grambling College marching band at halftime — and a bizarre second-half kickoff that had to be rebooted because NBC was late returning to the first one from a commercial break.
And it had a few Packers on the sideline happy to see Fred Williamson, the loudmouth Chiefs cornerback, laid out on the field and carried away in a stretcher.
But this is not an original broadcast from Jan. 15, 1967; no complete copy of either network’s production appears to exist.
It should be interesting to see how much has changed in how the game is played and officiated.
Sounds like fun, I will seek it out.
It will be fun to watch.
I'm not a fan of either team but I do enjoy watching football and I love to see the older games. Those players were incredibly tough. It's also incredible to see how much technology has improved. Although there is one aspect of the games that I don't think has improved but actually has gotten worse and that is the commentating.
Intresting... A look at a different world where 33,000 seats went unsold for a Super Bowl