Your Team's First Super Bowl Win : SBs I to LV Quiz

Super Bowl I - January 1967.
The Packers occupy a special place in NFL lore. They play in the smallest city in the NFL (Green Bay, Wisconsin) yet they have one of the largest areas of influence and carry a devoted national fan base. They are the only major pro team in the United States owned by a corporation of public stockholders (360,000+ community members). The franchise was formed in 1919 and joined the American Professional Football Association, the forerunner of the NFL, in 1921. That makes the Packers the third oldest NFL team, after the Cardinals and Bears. Since 1957 they've played home games on the famed "frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field.

Their mystique was cemented during the 1960s, when they dominated the league under legendary coach Vince Lombardi, winning five NFL titles. Following the 1966 season, they added the very first Super Bowl championship, easily trouncing the Kansas City Chiefs, the champions from the rival upstart American Football League, by 35-10. The next year the Packers repeated the feat, defeating Oakland in Super Bowl II, 33-14.

Super Bowl V - January 1971
The Colts franchise is one of the more recent of these "oldest" NFL franchises. They were named after the tradition of horse racing in Baltimore, and were based there from 1953 through 1984. At that point, upon receiving a lucrative financial offer, owner Robert Irsay decided to move the team to Indianapolis, against the wishes of the city of Baltimore, outraging the loyal fan base. On March 24th, in the middle of the night, his employees loaded the physical assets of the team onto moving vans and drove them to new facilities in Indiana. There the the franchise remains as the Indianapolis Colts. After several angst ridden years with no team, Baltimore acquired a "new" one when Cleveland's Browns experienced similar turmoil, relocated east for the 1996 season, and were renamed the "Baltimore Ravens." Cleveland got a real new team in 1999 and kept the name "Browns".

Before all this drama, the Baltimore Colts beat the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl V, January 17th, 1971. This was their second appearance, having been on the losing end two years earlier in SB III, one of the defining moments in US pro sports. In that 1969 contest, the flashy New York Jets, from the now well established and comfortably bankrolled AFL, upset the Colts 16-7. Before the game, a brash and flamboyant quarterback named "Broadway" Joe Namath predicted victory for the Jets and then made it happen. It was great theater, with all the power and hype of the New York media pumping it up, and America's sporting public was sold. The merger of the two leagues and the formation of the modern, unified NFL soon followed.

Super Bowl IX - January 1975
What the Packers were in the 1960s, the Steelers became in the 1970s. By this time the merger between rival leagues was complete, with the Steelers having joined the Colts and the Cleveland Browns in the American Conference of the new NFL. Their ascendance took place under coach Chuck Noll and was led by quarterback Terry Bradshaw.

Between 1975 and 1980, the Steelers won four Super Bowls, the first being SB IX, a 16-6 triumph over the Minnesota Vikings. The dominant "steel curtain" defense and exciting big play offense of this team energized Pittsburgh, bringing pride and identity to a somewhat downtrodden rust belt city which had lost a lot of its manufacturing base, jobs and population starting in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. With the Pirates of Major League Baseball also winning two World Series titles in the '70s, Pittsburgh became the self-proclaimed "city of champions."

Super Bowl XVI - January 1982
In keeping with the decade of dominance theme, the 49ers hit their stride in the 1980s. Despite rivals for supremacy during this period (Cowboys, Giants, Redskins - NFC / Raiders, Dolphins, Broncos - AFC), the 49ers precision innovative offense and smooth excellence took them to four Super Bowls between 1981 and 1990, and they won them all.

Their first, SB XVI in January 1982, had the 'Niners defeating the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, in the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit, Michigan. Seven years later, the same two teams met, with a similar result. Hall of Fame QB Joe Montana added to his legend by engineering the game winning 92 yard drive with under three minutes to play, culminating in a perfectly thrown touchdown pass to John Taylor. A year later, San Francisco became the fourth team to win back to back Super Bowls (previously done by Packers, Dolphins and Steelers) as they trounced Denver 55-10 on January 28, 1990 in Louisiana.

Super Bowl XVII - January 1983
The Washington NFL franchise started in Boston as the Braves, under the ownership of George Preston Marshall, in 1932. The first time the team won a division title in 1936, the championship game was to be in Boston. Marshall was so annoyed by the lack of fan support and poor ticket sales, he agreed to move the championship game to New York's Polo Grounds. Having surrendered home field advantage, the team proceeded to lose to Green Bay. The next year Marshall moved the team to Washington D.C.

The franchise has a checkered history with long dry spells, controversy about its name, and longstanding issues in the front office which came to a head in the 21st century. In 2020 the team finally agreed to drop the name "Redskins," and after two years as "The Washington Football Team," they rebranded as the Commanders in 2022.

However, during a twelve year period from 1981 to 1992, the Redskins were a high-flying, functional and seemingly well oiled organization and team. They were in the playoffs nine times, appeared in four Super Bowls, and won three times. Much of this success is attributed to the expert and innovative coaching of Joe Gibbs. In his two stints as head coach of the Redskins, Gibbs compiled a 154-94 record as well as the three Super Bowl victories. In the first of these, following the 1982 season, the Redskins beat the Miami Dolphins 27-17. Trailing 17-10 at halftime, Washington scored 17 unanswered second half points. John Riggins led the comeback, set a record by rushing for 166 yards, and was named MVP.

Super Bowl XX - January 1986
"Da Bears" are the second oldest of all NFL franchises, dating all the way back to 1919 (behind the Cardinals). As "Monsters of the Midway" in the 1940s, they established a reputation for tough defense and generally hard-nosed blue-collar football. They have the most members in the pro football Hall of Fame and the most retired numbers of any team. Like many of the older teams, they've had their problems with long periods where winning didn't come easily, and they've often come up short when measured against their biggest rival, the Green Bay Packers.

Their brightest shining season was 1985. They lost only one game and punctuated the dominance with a 46-10 rout of the overmatched new England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. The Pats were held to minus 19 yards in the first half and were never really in the game, despite gaining an early 3-0 lead on a field goal in the first two minutes after a Bears turnover. Defensive end Richard Dent was the MVP after recording two sacks and forcing two fumbles.

Against my better instincts and musical taste, I must mention the "Super Bowl Shuffle." The team members produced this dance number in December and released it before the actual game, despite the misgivings of some fans at the hubris involved. The Patriots, however, seemed unable to garner any added motivation, and besides, it was all in fun, right? The record rose to #41 on the Billboard chart and sold over 500,000 copies, and the popularity of the whole extravaganza helped set the template for all the celebrating and showboating in the modern NFL.

Super Bowl XXI - January 1987
The New York Giants were founded in 1925 by Tim Mara, only five years after the modern NFL was formed. They won four championships before 1956, and appeared in the NFL title game five more times in six years from 1958-1963, but lost each time. Then came the dark years. From 1964-1980 the team had only two winning seasons. All the losing exacerbated an acrimonious ownership split amongst the Mara family, which was finally resolved when Tim (grandson of founder) Mara sold his share to his uncle Wellington. The franchise finally got going in the right direction when it hired George Young as their first general manager after the 1978 season.

The Giants rolled into the playoffs of the 1986 season behind a dominating defense led by Lawrence Taylor, an all-time great Hall of Fame linebacker. They crushed the 49ers in the division round 49-3, then shut out the Redskins in the Conference championship 17-0. In Super Bowl XXI, on January 25th 1987, they met the Denver Broncos. Denver held a narrow 10-9 halftime lead, but the game started to turn when Broncos QB John Elway was sacked in the end zone for a safety. The Giants quickly took control after half time, limiting Denver to only two yards in the third quarter. Giants QB Phil Simms had a career day, completing 22 of 25 passes, including three for touchdowns. He was named the MVP. The Giants added wins in Super Bowls XXV, XLII, and XLVI.

Super Bowl XXXIV - January 2000
The Rams franchise is the poster child for wanderlust, having relocated more than any other. They started in Cleveland in 1936, then moved to Los Angeles in 1946 where they stayed until 1994. Next stop was St. Louis, where they won their first Super Bowl following the 1999 season. In 2016 they moved back to Los Angeles, hopefully where they belong and will stay.

Super Bowl XXXIV, their first, was another that lived up to the hype. The Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans 23-16. The game ended when linebacker Mike Jones tackled Titans receiver Kevin Dyson one yard short of the goal line and what would have been a game tying touchdown. The Rams were led by coach Dick Vermeil, who had come out of a fifteen year retirement. He previously led the Philadelphia Eagles to Super Bowl XV following the 1980 season. QB Kurt Warner became the first undrafted player to win the MVP award. The Rams high powered offense was known as "The greatest show on turf."

Super Bowl LII - February 2018
The Eagles were established in 1933 when pioneer Bert Bell secured rights to replace the bankrupt Frankford Yellowjackets with an NFL team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles won NFL titles in 1948, 1949 and 1960 before the merger, then experienced many losing seasons and poor play through the early Super Bowl era. Despite a period of sustained excellence in the 2000s under coach Andy Reid, the team always seemed to come up short in the playoffs, including a tough loss to new England in Super Bowl XXXIX. However, unlike the Browns, the Cardinals, and the Lions, the Philadelphia NFL franchise finally rewarded its passionate fan base with a Super Bowl win following the 2017 season.

Can you say "Philly Special"? Super Bowl LII will be forever remembered for the creative gadget play the Eagles ran, on 4th down, from the New England 3 yard line just before halftime. The ball was direct snapped to running back Corey Clemens, who pitched it to backup tight end Trey Burton on a reverse. QB Nick Foles, who had moved up to the line, faked a block, then slipped into the end zone and received the most unlikely touchdown pass in Super Bowl history. Burton had never thrown a pass in an NFL game, and Foles had never caught one.

What made the play and the 41-33 triumph all the sweeter was that it came at the expense of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the "evil empire" of the NFL residing in Foxboro. Many Super Bowls have been rather dull or one sided affairs, but not this one. The second half only ratcheted up the tension as Foles continued his offensive magic and Brady brought the Patriots back and retook the lead, only to be stymied by and a strip sack and fumble recovery by Brandon Graham at the end. Check out the NFL Films official Turning Point video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6dVwDb_u0

The Detroit Lions have been one of the least successful of American professional sports franchises, with a litany of failure that is an ongoing source of frustration for their long suffering fans. In the first 55 years of the Super Bowl era, they joined the Cleveland Browns as the only old guard teams to never play in the title game and, unlike Cleveland, they never even came close. They also experienced the ignominy of being the first team to go through an entire 16 game season (2008) without winning a single game, a mark of futility also matched by the Browns in 2017.

What do Lions fans have to feel good about? How about the brilliant, albeit brief, incandescence of running back Barry Sanders, maybe the most gifted and amazing ball carrier ever to leave a defender on the ground grasping air. Ah well, there's always next year. Bring those paper bags with eye holes, it could be another long one.