1. The first Super Bowl I can remember watching was the 1977 version, the one where Fran Tarkenton's Minnesota Vikings took on the Oakland Raiders. I was convinced that the Vikings would win, because their uniforms had color. For some reason, I watched it not on the big TV in the family room, but on the small one that I had moved from the kitchen into the living room. I can actually remember the physical experience of disappointment as the Raiders basically mopped the floor with Tarkenton. As a side note, this year began a stretch of almost a decade where I really cared about the Super Bowl.
2. I know that this is horribly fashionable, and that tons of people lie about it, but I actually remember Apple's 1984 ad. Bear in mind that (a) computers were how the really brainy math kids spent their time while the rest of the class took the other 55 minutes to do their math tests; (b) our family was alread the proud owner of an Apple 2+; and (c) a couple of years later, I used a bunch of savings and Christmas presents to buy my first Mac, the vaunted SE, with two (count 'em, two!) 3.5 inch drives. Everyone in the country had read Orwell the year before, and so we were primed for a commercial that would convince us that we could buy a machine that at the same time meant that we were special. As a side note, this year began a stretch of almost a lifetime where I really cared about being special. Ha.
3. Two years later, while I was still in high school, and Walter Payton was still generating offense, the Bears went to the Super Bowl for the first and only time. As a lifelong Bears fan, I was in heaven for almost the entire season, and I could even almost forgive them for the Super Bowl Shuffle. Almost. Totally unforgivable, though, was the fact that in a 36-point blowout, Ditka never let Payton take a crack at the end zone. Refrigerator Perry scored a touchdown, and Walter Payton did not. That may be the first entry in my top ten list of sports injustice. I would have rather seen Payton get stopped four times in a row at the line of scrimmage than see Perry go in when the game was already out of reach at 37-3.
4. Just two years ago, I remember sitting down to watch what I thought would be a complete blowout as the Rams brought their high octane offense to bear upon the Patriots. The Pats were 14-point 'dogs, I think, and I seem to remember that this was the biggest spread in SB history. I can still remember just being stunned as they handled the Rams (who haven't been the same since), and won their first ever. Say what you will about him, but I don't doubt that Bill Belichick will go down in history (with Buddy Ryan maybe) as one of the all-time elite, defensive coaches in the history of the NFL. I've stopped even thinking about betting against him, especially when he's got a couple of weeks to prepare for a team.
5. I don't really have a fifth moment--I've been trying for the past couple of hours, but the Super Bowl really hasn't been an especially defining time for me. Which is odd, because it usually lands smack in the middle of prime relationship failure season for me. Perhaps if I cared more about it, and I dated women who hated it more, I could attribute some of those failures to it. Alas. I can remember rooting against the 49ers, who were the Bears' nemesis in the late 80s, and for the Bills, who could never quite break through. And I can remember the stretch of time where media self-satisfaction and self-obsession led to the whole, stupid "rate the Super Bowl commercials" craze (which hasn't really ended yet). "Watching the Super Bowl for the commercials" is our generation's version of reading Playboy for the articles, I think. Mostly, I just hope for a good game, one that lasts long enough into the broadcast to make it worth watching.
"We're not here to start no trouble/We're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle." OMG, how embarrassing is that?
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