Customer Reviews

The Super Bowl: An Official Retrospective

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It's hard to imagine picking out one book about the Super Bowl, one of the most overcovered events of our time, that's worth looking at, but this would definitely be one worthy of attention.

The best part of the book is the amazing pictures. Instead of including all the well-known Super Bowl photos, they dug deep and found several ones that are spectacular in their own right and just as interesting. Three examples: (1) a two-page spread even before the text starts, of Max McGee in Super Bowl I, having a catch broken up by several KC Chiefs - you can see the grit in McGee's face; (2) another shot of McGee from the back of the end zone, catching one of his TDs in the first Super Bowl; (3) Joe Namath running off the field in Super Bowl III - it's not the famous "we're number one" picture; he's in a knot of people and there's a guy in front of him clearing the way. I'm a lover of football history and don't know if I'd ever seen ANY of the shots in this book. It has at least 30 photographs of Super Bowls that are among the best I've ever seen.

The text is clever too, focusing on worthy topics like 10 significant game-breaking moments, or unsung heros often forgotten today, such as Timmy Smith in Super Bowl XXII (he still holds the SB rushing record; his 204 yards in that game represents one-third of his total regular season yards in his NFL career), or George Sauer and Matt Snell of the Jets (Sauer's 8 catches for 133 yards accounted for almost half of Namath's completions, and two thirds of his passing yards; Snell had 121 of NY's 142 rushing yards in the game).

There are two nitpicks I have with the book.

First, there are no game pictures from the fourth Super Bowl, between the Chiefs and the Vikings. This game was significant for being the first real manhandling of an NFL team by an AFL team (the Jets had beaten the Colts the year before, but this was at least as much a product of the Colts turning the ball over and losing their poise as it was of pure football superiority), and it was the final game played involving an American Football League team. Yet it's (I think) the only Super Bowl from the first 25 to not have a picture or some descriptive text.

The bigger nit is that, what with this book being an "official" retrospective, it has nothing but great things to say about what an overblown spectacle the game has become. Tickets to Super Bowl XL have $600 and $700 face values, pricing them way out of reach of "regular Joes." The long and overproduced halftime shows, the excessive TV timeouts, etc., stretch the game into being a four-hour marathon whose momentum changes and ebbs and flows get killed with all the interruptions. But all the book has to say about this is how great the economic impact is for the host city, and what a "hot ticket" it is to go to the Commissioner's Party.

One would have to work pretty hard to crank out yet one more Super Bowl book, and make it worth owning, but Ken Leiker has done just that.

The Super Bowl: An Official Retrospective is an outstanding look back at the National Football League's (NFL) championship game, commonly known as the Super Bowl. The book is organized into seven chapters that contain short anecdotes, quotes, and memories from Super Bowls past, along with a narrative that ties it all together. The book covers Super Bowls 1-39 and does an outstanding job of evoking nostalgia and bringing to life just how important this game is to the players and coaches who were part of it.

The Super Bowl: An Official Retrospective is an oversized book that is dominated by fantastic photography, and creative use of quotes, box stories, photos, and essays that run throughout the narrative of each chapter. In some ways the use of various imagery is effective in drawing out and highlighting the importance of each short Super Bowl remembrance it represents. The drawback is the narrative becomes hard to follow at times, as this technique breaks up the flow of the story each chapter it is trying to tell. At the end, however, this is a minor quibble as the book as a whole is excellent.

Each chapter, except the last one, also includes essays from six quarterbacks named MVP of the Super Bowl, which are very nicely done and again, bringing to light just how BIG a game the Super Bowl really is.

And the best part of all, the book comes with a bonus DVD that is just outstandingly edited and lets the players and coaches tell, in their own words, their remembrances of the Super Bowl and what it means to them. The DVD really is quite well done, much better than most poorly edited NFL Films productions I own. It will evoke emotions if you are a professional football fan.

Normally I don't do a chapter by chapter analysis of books, but this one merits a note about each chapter.

I. Raising the Curtain

As the name implies, this chapter focuses on the origins of the Super Bowl and how it has evolved over time. Fittingly, it includes an essay by Bart Starr, quarterback of the Green Bay Packers and Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Super Bowls I and II. This chapter lays the groundwork for the rest of the book.

II. Guiding Lights

Guiding lights focuses on the coaches, winners and losers, who have made an impact on the Super Bowl. It talks about the kind of coach it takes to win a Super Bowl and some of the things coaches do that often undermine their teams chances in the big game. Even though I was a tiny baby in 1966 and 1967, the quotes by and about Vince Lombardi sent chills down my spine thinking about the origins of this game and the leadership of this coach whose name is immortally etched on the trophy given to the Super Bowl winner - the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

This chapter features and essay by Phil Simms talking about the leadership of Bill Parcels in the New York Giant's two Super Bowl victories.

III. Dominance by Decade

This is my favorite chapter, mainly because I am a New England Patriots fan and this retrospective reminds me that my team is the team of the '00s. This chapter features the five dynasties ( loosely defined) of the decades in which the Super Bowl has been played.

Let's name them to give each team its due:

Green Bay Packers of the 1960s
Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s
San Francisco 49'ers of the 1980's
Dallas Cowboys of the 1990's
New England Patriots of the 2000's

There are excellent fact boxes, quotes, and stories about the players on these teams, culminating with an essay by Terry Bradshaw, winner of 4 Super Bowls in six seasons, and two time MVP, in which he talks about the joy and pride he takes in having played on what he considers the best team ever.

IV. Grace Under Pressure

This chapter focuses not on quarterbacks and the poise and calm it takes to play your best football under the intense pressure of the Super Bowl. I thought it would be after reading the title and starting off with Joe Montana, who won three Super Bowls and was MVP twice. This chapter focuses on key big plays that turned a Super Bowl around for the winning team. Some of the plays are heroic efforts, but most are just simply big plays that players expect to make in given situations. The theme is it's not the heroic athletic plays that win championships, but the prepared players who make the plays they are supposed to make, and execute plays like they are supposed to be executed, under intense pressure, that make the difference in the game. That's not to say there haven't been some heroic plays that turn the tide of the game, as there have been. But it's preparation and proper execution that count most.

Fittingly, this chapter features an essay by Tom Brady, (3 Super Bowl wins, 2 MVPs), who in his performances in three Super Bowls, is the epitome of grace under pressure.

V. Unsung and Under the Radar

This chapter is about the players who are unsung heroes in Super Bowls, or who were Super Bowl heroes that came out of nowhere, and in one case, came out of nowhere and disappeared. This chapter gives these unsung heroes their due. It features an essay by Doug Williams, MVP of Super Bowl XXII and was unsung hero himself before this accomplishment.

VI. Greatest Show on Earth

To this reader, this is the most frivolous chapter as it details the pre-game and half time entertainment in Super Bowl history. The theme is what a big spectacle the Super Bowl has become. This chapter features an essay by Roger Staubach talking about just that - what a big spectacle the Super Bowl has become. I found this particular essay a bit odd in its focus on the "bigness" of the Super Bowl today, but it fit with the chapter.

VII. For the Record

This chapter provides a list of Super Bowl results, MVPs, and other Super Bowl statistics.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for football fans - it's sure to bring back memories and does an excellent job of evoking what the Super Bowl really means.

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