Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Super Bowl VI

I'm pretty sure Super Bowl VI--on Sunday, Jan. 16, 1972--was the first featured on TIME's cover, and there's starting to be quite a bit of mirth-making in the culture around the priorities-out-of-balance spectacle of the game specifically and football generally.


This all reminds me of the handwringing among my ilk (and me, to some extent) in the 1980s about whether R.E.M., U2 or Natalie Merchant had "sold out."



I ultimately sided with the sellers back then, too. Those ads are from the pull-out Super Bowl advertising supplement published in the Jan. 10, 1972, Sports Illustrated, and so is this beautiful thing:


Speaking of commercialism, out-of-whack priorities out and spectacles, I am thrilled to announce that 1972 me--I'm still not certain whether he is an adult or child or what his story is exactly--did receive NFL Strategy at Christmas71! I plan to be getting out that game and my football-card Cowboys and Dolphins to play with during Super Bowl VI.


I am rooting for Miami in today's game, but most of the (so-called) "experts" appear to be picking Dallas.



There has been so much great stuff work put out on today's game by the reporters, editors, photographers, illustrators, agate typists and other artists at America's great newspapers. I appreciate all of them and their work, and I want to give a special shout-out for the fine treatment provided by the Toledo (Ohio) Blade.


The Apache Belles obviously put in their work, too, and thank you to those folks, too (spoiler alert, resultwise, in the following video).


OK, it's almost time for the 1:50 p.m. Central kickoff ...


Thank you to NFL, TV and Internet for making this full-game video available, and thank you, HP, for giving me a framework for getting to have so much fun!

58 comments:

  1. Halftime of Super Bowl VI will feature age-group finals in the national Punt, Pass and Kick competition. There was a local qualifier in Hopkinsville back on Oct. 2, 1971. Here’s how it worked, per the Kentucky New Era:

    This year the local level of PP&K will be co-sponsored by the Hopkinsville Jaycees in conjunction with Barnes Motor Co. …

    Participants in the Punt, Pass & Kick program compete only against boys their own age. Any boy eight through 13 years of age may register to compete at Barnes Motor Co. There is no entrance fee and no body contact during competition. No special equipment is needed and participation does not impair a boy’s amateur standing.

    Scoring is based on accuracy and range with one point added for every foot of punting, passing and kicking distance and a point subtracted for every foot off a center line.

    Twelve national finalists will compete for the national champonships in their age group during the half time of the Super Bowl Game in New Orleans January 16, 1972. Winners will have their names permanently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Their trophies will be presented by Football Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

    Boys, accompanied by a parent or guardian, may register for PP&K at Barnes Motor Co.

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  2. Man, I'd love to see that upcoming CBS special, I'm a Fan, starring Dick Van Dyke and Carol Channing, but it does not appear to be available on YouTube.

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  3. Herb Adderley, a cornerback with the Cowboys, is playing in his fourth Super Bowl--two with Green Bay and now two with Dallas.

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  4. Charlie Jones amps up the Black & Decker pressure. You buy the hedge trimmer, and you get a coupon for a cut rate on a gardening book. You buy a drill, and you get a coupon for a cut rate on a home-repairs book.

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  5. The Dallas defense and Miami offense are introduced one by one to great fanfare and the narration of CBS's play-by-play man, Ray Scott, and color commentator, Pat Summerall. Pat wryly points out that Bob Kuechenberg has the unenviable assignment of blocking Lilly, and the AP this week said that Kuechenberg "performs with exhuberance that tends to make him gulty of penalties."

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  6. Miami's first possession got off to a bad start as Griese threw behind a slanting Warfield on first down. Three and out.

    Dallas got a first down on a Duane Thomas run, but then things started closing in on Roger Staubach. Sacks by Manny Fernandez and Jim Riley lead to a Cowboy punt.

    0-0. Dolphin ball at the Miami 42 ...

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  7. Little pulls right, levels cornerback Adderly and Csonka cuts behind that traffic to run for a first-down first down into Dallas territory.

    I've heard a fair amount of my life that Larry Little was overrated because he made his reputation blocking cornerbacks on pulling-guard stuff, and, for the last 10 or 15 years, I've been confused as to why Bob Kuechenberg, a perennial All-Pro of my youth through two sets of Super Bowl teams, has failed to garner Hall-of-Fame traction. I'll bet the first impressions of non-Dophins fans of both of those players were cemented by this very broadcast.

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  8. And now Csonka--the No. 2 American Football Conference regular-season rusher of NFL71 with 1,051 yards and nary a fumble on 195 attempts--fumbles. Super Bowl V MVP Chuck Howley recovers at the Dallas 48, and on comes the Cowboy offense ...

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  9. Miami's defensive line is all over the Dallas backfield, and the Dolphins' zone apparently is effectively sealing off passing routes. But Roger Staubach's scrambling gets the Cowboy drive started, and then a couple of Walt Garrison quick-hitters move Dallas down to inside the Miami 30 ...

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  10. Then, after a sack, Staubach hits Bob Hayes and Duane Thomas for completions to set up a first-and-goal. Miami’s defense stiffens, and Mike Clark kicks through a short field goal.

    3-0, Cowboys.

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  11. Highlighted by Tim Foley's diving deflection of a deep Staubach pass, the Dolphin defense holds Dallas at midfield, and now Miami has a little something going. With about 11 minutes to go, Griese completes his first pass--a buttonhook for about 20 yards to Howard Twilley near the 50.

    I'm pretty sure I read in Bob and Brian Griese's book that the Grieses and Twilleys often doubledated.

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  12. Despite a strong tailwind, Garo Yepremian's 49-yard try for a field goal drops just short of the crossbar (still at the goal line, not the back of the end zone).

    Still 3-0, Cowboys.

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  13. Thomas and Garrison are both gashing the left side of Miami's defense.

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  14. Mike Ditka, wide open in the middle of the field and deep in Miami territory, lets Staubach's dart bounce away from his belly and hands. Miami takes over at its 26 after a punt.

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  15. Punt back to Dallas.

    Ray Scott adroitly points out that Calvin Hill has not yet played, suggesting that maybe he won't. Poor Calvin Hill has been limited by injuries (and the emergence of Thomas and, to a lesser extent, Garrison) ever since his phenomenal rookie season. All the week leading to the game, there was wondering whether Hill would be able to start alongside Thomas, with Hill insisting he would be physically ready. But the writers kept pointing out that Hill was visibly limping.

    4:17 to go in the half ... Dallas nearing midfield ...

    AND HERE COMES CALVIN HILL!

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  16. Again, Staubach has a man open in the middle of the field, deep in Dolphin territory, but this time it's Lance Alworth, who comes down with the line-drive throw.

    And now Hill runs through a couple of giant holes and over a couple of colliding Miami tacklers to take the Cowboys to the Dolphin 12. This feels like a crucial, must-not-break moment for the Bill Arnsparger's bend-don't-break-by-design defense ...

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  17. Not that I remember his being weak-armed at all, but I didn't remember Staubach having such a gun arm.

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  18. 14 seconds to go in the half ... Dallas 24 ...

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  19. Ouch! Griese hits Warfield at about the 2, but he comes down just out of bounds!

    Yepremian ... 31-yard try ... good!

    10-3.

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  20. And Dallas appears to have almost no difficulty driving for a touchdown: 17-3. This is starting to look bad.

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  21. With this NFL71 season in its final moments, Pat Summerall reassures us with a rundown of the upcoming “Sports Variety on CBS.” Here are the five enticements displayed on the screen:

    — NIT Basketball
    — ABA Basketball
    — Triple Crown of Racing
    — CBS Tennis Classic
    — AAU International Champions

    With MLB72 and the NCAA basketball Final Four ahead on WPSD Channel 6 NBC and the Sapporo 1972 Olympics and NBA72 playoffs in the offing on WSIL Channel 3 ABC, I’ll bet the local suits at KFVS Channel 12 CBS are not exactly riveted by Pat’s report.

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  22. Riley, an all-American defensive lineman under Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma, was the Dolphins' second-round draft choice in NFL67. That's the same draft that Miami chose Griese in the first round, so one could imagine that the second-year team felt it had maybe identified its offensive and defensive leaders for a decade in Griese and Riley, its top two draft choices.

    Riley emerged as a starter at left end midway through NFL68, and, according to the player profiles one of the wire services circulated before Super Bowl VI, he had bounced back from a subpar NFL70 to have his best season in NFL71. So Riley was, indeed, a young anchor of Bill Arnsparger's gestating "No-name Defense."

    But either because of this injury that Ray Scott reported or some other injury or simply his being lapped by competition from his own teammates, Super Bowl VI is going to be Jim Riley's last NFL game.

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  23. Now if you're as old as Morissey or so young to think Dan Marino was the best quarterback in Dolphins history, you probably don't know much at all about Vern Den Herder. But if you're a Gen-Xer who collected Topps football cards, you have a pretty strong feeling about Vern Den Herder--he turned up in every set from NFL74 through NFL81, save the NFL78 issue.

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  24. Now if you were stupid like me, you thought Vern Den Herder was kind of a scrub player. Here was this guy who always looked really neat and prim in his posed photos or he looked really haggard and distressed in his live-action shots, and his cards never bore the All-Pro insignias on the front. It never really occured to you that making an NFL team year after year and being notable enough for Topps to make you one of the 15 to 25 guys per team they made cards of in a season probably should indicate that the guy was pretty good. No, you figured Vern Den Herder to be the Topps equivalent of Lenny or Squiggy--a lesser character in the show only to highlight the goodness of the major characters. And so when you played with your football cards in the floor, you were constantly having Vern Den Herder decimated by the blocking of some opposing All-Pro offensive lineman like Rayfield Wright or Ron Yary, or, if you were pretending to be the Dolphins' general manager, you were packaging Vern Den Herder and some other undesirables in a miraculous trade for, say, "Mean Joe" Greene and ensuring Miami's Super Bowl dominance for the second half of the 1970s, as well.

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  25. According to his bio at Jim Riley Outreach Inc., he was a member of the perfect NFL72 Dolphins--though he did not play again after the NFL71 Super Bowl. That bio goes on to read, "Shortly into his pro career, addiction began to play a deadly role in Jim’s life. For many years, Jim and his family struggled because of his addiction. In 1985, Jim Riley won the most important game of his life, his battle with alcoholism. Since that time, Jim and his wife Robin have dedicated their lives to helping others with addiction problems through The Jim Riley Outreach, headquartered in Edmond, OK."

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  26. So, good for Jim Riley and his wife and friends, good for Vern Den Herder and good for the journalists and the internet, which, as previously reported, is amazing.

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  27. Pat Summerall reports that Don Rickles has a new sitcom on CBS. I wonder if he and Bob Newhart are already big friends at this point. Bob Newhart has his show coming out on CBS this fall. I read a report the other day in the 1972 newspapers that Suzanne Pleschette has signed on to play Bob's wife in the not-yet-named show.

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  28. Yeah, Ray Scott has decided it's over. He's moved on to talking about the Jack Whitaker/Tom Brookshier post-game show.

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  29. Staubach ... Ditka ... touchdown ... Dan Reeves hold ... Mike Clark kick ... 24-3.

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  30. Griese fumble, pulling away from center Bob Demarco ...

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  31. Pat Summerall has left Ray Scott behind to join Tom Brookshier in the Cowboys' locker room. I'm taking this harder than I expected to.

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  32. It was going to be worse, but Calvin Hill just fumbled at the goal line after Dallas had converted a fake field goal.

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  33. What a sham championship this must've seen to old-time NFL fans: The Cowboys, formed just 12 years ago, over the Dolphins, formed just six years ago.

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  34. I tend to want to crack on Tex Maule for his predictions that seem to always assume the same things are going to keep happening. But three things about Tex Maule:

    -- One, he was totally right that the Cowboys clobber the Dolphins in this game.

    -- Two, he is always fantastic in coming up with a plausible explanation of what just happened in a game or season. In Super Bowl VI, he explained that the key was that meticulous Tom Landry had two weeks to prepare a plan that would both exploit the laudable discipline of Miami's young defense and account for the inventiveness of the Dolphins' veteran, quick-thinking-on-the-fly middle linebacker, Nick Buoniconti. (NFL Films arrived at the same analysis for its movie on the game, but, of course, Tex Maule had to hustle up his take in time for next week's issue of SI.)

    -- Three, he was a freaking beautiful writer.

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