We must always remember it’s only a GAME…
But the Super Bowl has become one of the most watched games on the face of the earth. It is said over 100 million people tuned in yesterday from around the world. They watched for a winner, the commercials, and the outlandish halftime show that never seems to work the best in a stadium experience.
The first Super Bowl was played just 2 days after my 12th birthday on 01/15/67… Yes.. It was early January, and not the near middle of February.
The First AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, known retroactively as Super Bowl I and referred to in some contemporaneous reports, including the game’s radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl, was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 35–10. (click here to read: Wikipedia)
Yes… I have been alive all 50 years of the Super Bowl and it’s amazing, I suspect, how little impact it has had on my life. In fact, that first game was on a Sunday, and my birthday of the 13th was the previous … wait for it … F-R-I-D-A-Y… Yes.. Friday the 13th.
I don’t have many memories of that birthday, or that weekend. What was my gift? Hmmm…
But I do remember the day after that first Super Bowl. I was in the 7th grade. Junior High. Channelview. Back then many coaching jobs also required the coach to teach a subject and at least one of my teachers was one of the coaches. Name? Sport? Team? I cannot even tell you which subject he taught. But the conversation the entire class period revolved around the game and specific plays that were made.
It seems like I was in a school where nearly everybody was interested in the game and had missed church to watch it. Okay. Yes. It is in Texas and football is a big thing. I would later become the school photographer and went to many a Friday night game. And, Houston (our metro neighbor) had a ball team… The Houston Oilers.
Was that first Super Bowl a day game, or was it night? No idea. Back then, Sunday was a church day, and nearly an all day event, including lunch with friends and hangouts at one-another’s house.
By the way, I just asked my cousin, Lyn, if he remembers the game. We were in the same grade at the same school. His memory? Nil. Nada. Nothing.
After this anniversary game of yesterday, among many things possible to remember, the thing that hits my news feed the most.
- Will Peyton Manning retire?
- Cam Newton was not his usual self.
Will this really be how an important anniversary is remembered? An aging and battered quarterback playing perhaps his last professional game? Another up and coming quarterback’s unusual performance as the loser of the competition?
No. Some will focus on the scores, the drives, the commercials and even the half-time show. But for those who really know how to drive the news, it will be about these two sticking points.
Pause for a moment. Your own personal memorial days. What do you remember the day after?
King David writes of a 1,000 years of our time in the sight of God are but as yesterday when it is passed. (Psalms 90:4) Nothing more than a watch in the night. In fact, I suspect we struggle with all the facts of yesterday because we have slept since then!
Just two years before the first Super Bowl, the Beatles sang a popular song, even today, many days’ past their existence and it’s performance (August, 1965), I remember nearly all the words.
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday
There are things that we have better memories of than a “game” played on a “church day”.
- I remember that after my 16th birthday when I started reading my gift bible through in its entirety. My first study bible and I was going to read all of it!
- I remember the days and weeks after my hiring by National Bank of Alaska in 1980 and how hard we prepared for that transition! My brother Vaughn helped my prepare my truck, even by adding another gas tank. Truck? 1977 GMC Sierra, Sea Mist Green, 3 speed auto, 305 cubic inch, A/C, AM/FM …
- I remember the days, even now, 41+ years after my wedding to my wonderful bride, Brenda. It’s almost like every day has been a memorable day.
- I remember the quiet joy of holding my two kids the moments after they were born, even now these memories pop fresh into my mind. Jason in Baytown, Elizabeth in Anchorage. 1978… 1981…
I remember these things more than I do anything about that first Super Bowl…Or even the 50th of Yesterday. Especially… I remember a special time of the event this song sings about.
I remember when my burdens rolled away;
I had carried them for years, night and day.
When I sought the blessèd Lord,
And I took Him at His word,
Then at once all my burdens rolled away.
Refrain
Rolled away, rolled away,
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Rolled away, rolled away,
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
(Minnie Steele, 1908, I Remember When My Burdens Rolled Away)
How about you? What are your memories like after that special day?