Tag Archives: dallas cowboys

All Hail Concusso, the God of Football!

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In honor of the holiest of all Sundays, a FactSlap Super Bowl edition:

  • The first Super Bowl game was played on January 15, 1967, as a playoff between the AFL and NFL champions. The game was called the “World Championship of Professional Football.” Image result for The first Super Bowl game was played on January 15, 1967,"
  • No network footage exists of Super Bowl I. Apparently it was taped over for a soap opera. Image result for 1967 soap opera"
  • At every Super Bowl, two Lombardi trophies are present in the unfortunate event that one is accidentally destroyed in the celebrations.Image result for two Lombardi trophies"
  • Super Bowl day is the second-largest U.S. food consumption day, following Thanksgiving.
  • Mike Ditka and Tom Flores are the only two men to win a Super Bowl both as a player and a coach.Image result for Mike Ditka and Tom Flores"Image result for Mike Ditka and Tom Flores"
  • Each Super Bowl trophy is handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. master artisans at their workshop in Parsippany, New Jersey, and is valued at $12,500.
  • The lowest amount of points scored in a Super Bowl is 3, scored by the Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
  • Each Super Bowl trophy takes approximately four months and 72 man-hours to create.
  • The name ‘Super Bowl’ came from AFL founder and Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt. He had jokingly referred to the proposed interleague championship as the “Super Bowl” after seeing his daughter playing with a toy called a Super Ball. The ball is now on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.Image result for super ball"
  • The original Super Bowl XXXVI logo was re-designed following the September 11, 2001 attacks.Image result for The original Super Bowl XXXVI logo"
  • The Minnesota Vikings have played in four Super Bowls, but has never led a Super Bowl for even a single second.
  • Chuck Howley, the MVP winner from the 1971 Super Bowl, is the only player from a losing team to be named MVP.Image result for Chuck Howley, the MPV winner from the 1971 Super Bowl"
  • The last true day game (one which ended before local sunset) was Super Bowl XI in January 1977.
  • In 1978, both Randy White and Harvey Martin were co-winners of the MPV award.Image result for Randy White and Harvey Martin"
  • The only player to win a Super Bowl ring and an Olympic gold medal was Bob Hayes. He won the 100m at the 1964 Olympic Games, and was part of the winning Dallas Cowboys team of 1972.Image result for Super Bowl ring and an Olympic gold medal was Bob Hayes"
  • The record crowd at a Super Bowl game was 103,985 in 1980 at the Rose Bowl stadium.
  • In what is now known as the Philly Special, during the 2018 Super Bowl Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles caught a touchdown pass, and became first player in Super Bowl history to both throw and catch a touchdown.

Muffing the Punt

 

Donald Trump is to football what, well, Donald Trump is: out of his depth.

He put that on display this week when he un-invited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles to the White House, a once-annual tradition for champions in professional football, basketball and baseball.

In depositions from NFL owners obtained by the Wall Street Journal last week, as part of a grievance case filed by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones testified the president told him in regard to the issue: “You can’t win this one.”

“This is a very winning, strong issue for me,” Jones recalled Trump saying. “Tell everybody, you can’t win this one. This one lifts me.” Like a Super Bowl-winning coach, I suppose.

But is this the hoist he expects? Certainly, Trump has managed to turn the national anthem into a political atom-splitter. While kneeling for the anthem is actually a  protest of police conduct, the administration has Frankensteined it into a protest of patriotism.

Consider the wording from the bone-spurs-in-chief: “The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!”

To Trump’s credit, he spelled ‘canceled’ correctly (though I would pay money to learn his capitalization code: Locker Room?). And his followers, as fervent as holy rollers, will amen the ‘I dumped him, he didn’t dump me’ stratagem.

But, as with all Trump’s words, a few need parsing and correcting. First, not a single Eagle took a knee or stood in the lOCKER rOOM for the anthem last year. Zero.

Also, Pennsylvania was a critical swing state for Trump, who beat Clinton by about 44,000 votes in ’16. Clearly, the state was split over Hillary’s viability.

One thing Pennsylvanians are not split on, however, are the Eagles. They love ’em the way Trump loves bronzer. When the city won the Super Bowl, its first, Eagles fans nearly burned down the city in victorious fervor. They tipped over police cars. They punched patrol horses. They broke off and carried traffic signs, for some reason.

And you’re going to un-invite them to their first White House recognition?

This deserves the math refresher. You won PA by 44,000 votes. Lincoln Financial Field, which hosts the Eagles, holds 69,176 spectators. And you want to piss off that many people?

Even Jerry Jones would think twice. And he’s Republican.