America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions Explained
America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions is an American annual documentary series created by NFL Films (broadcast on NFL Network and CBS). Its 57 installments profile the 57 winning teams of the National Football League (NFL)'s annual Super Bowl championship game; each episode chronicles an individual team.
A spin-off debuted on September 18, 2008, titled America's Game: The Missing Rings which chronicled five of the best teams to never win the Super Bowl.[2]
Format
America's Game weaves together archival NFL Films footage, videotape, audio clips, and interviews into a new program with new talking head style interviews from three or more of the winning team (players, coaches, or administrators) and narration from a celebrity.
In instances of teams winning multiple Super Bowls closely together different people are interviewed for each episode. For example, though Bill Belichick coached the New England Patriots to three Super Bowls in four years (2001, 2003, and 2004) he was only interviewed for the episode on the 2004 team. For the original run of 40 episodes, only two subjects were interviewed twice: Bill Curry (1966 Green Bay Packers and 1970 Baltimore Colts) and Joe Greene (1974 and 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers). Recurring interviewers would become more commonplace when the show resumed on an annual format: Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin (2007 and 2011 New York Giants), Ray Lewis (2000 and 2012 Baltimore Ravens), Peyton Manning (2006 Indianapolis Colts and 2015 Denver Broncos), Julian Edelman (2014, 2016 and 2018 New England Patriots), LeGarrette Blount (2016 New England Patriots and 2017 Philadelphia Eagles), Rob Gronkowski and Devin McCourty (2014 and 2018 New England Patriots), Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes (2019, 2022 and 2023 Kansas City Chiefs). Ernie Accorsi and Rich Dalrymple are the only non-players or coaches to be interviewed for the series—both were their respective team's director of public relations (Accorsi was later promoted to general manager by the Colts).
Of the "Blue Ribbon" top 20 teams, the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys are represented most often as a franchise with three championship teams each. The Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders are each represented twice.
According to Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, only 20 teams were ranked instead of 40 because they feared negative mail from fans of the franchise whose team was ranked the lowest. Sabol stated that, while the panel chose the 1972 Dolphins as the #1 team, several voters hedged and said Miami's unbeaten season was "the greatest team achievement." Of the voting methods, Sabol said, "That's what I think people were voting on, rather than, 'Could this team beat the '85 Bears?'"[3]
Airing
For its initial airings the show was divided into two waves, with the first series being a weekly series counting down the top 20 winning teams, as selected by a 53-person panel of "Blue Ribbon" experts on the NFL.[4] The first 18 episodes aired on NFL Network beginning in November 2006 and the final two programs on CBS the day before Super Bowl XLI in February 2007.
The remaining 20 champions' episodes aired during the NFL's off-season, February through April, before the 2007 season began. The first episode of the remaining 20 champions aired on Thursday, February 8, 2007.
The show began its run with a one-hour "preview special" at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on November 17, 2006, followed by the first of the countdown shows the following week. The "official" premiere episode aired on November 24, the day after the first live regular season game telecast on NFL Network.
After some speculation on the future of the series, the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, winners of Super Bowl XLI had their episode air on September 5, 2007, one night before the season opener.[5] The 2007 New York Giants also received an episode, signaling that the series would be annually renewed at the beginning of the next NFL season; annual releases have come every year since.
Unannounced episodes
- Although the 1990 New York Giants, winners of Super Bowl XXV, did not make the top 20 as chosen by the Blue Ribbon panel, their episode's debut was moved up from spring 2007 to the free-preview period of NFL Network that was offered on Cablevision and Time Warner Cable in late 2006. The program debuted on December 29 at 12:31 a.m Eastern (December 28, 9:31 p.m. Pacific). It started 31 minutes late because of the length of the Texas Bowl and a full one-hour NFL Total Access that followed. Although most participating systems were located in the New York tri-state area, some cable viewers in Kansas also received it.[6] Alec Baldwin narrated and Ottis Anderson, Carl Banks and Jeff Hostetler told their experiences of the season.
- The special of the 1971 Dallas Cowboys aired at 1 a.m. Eastern time December 30 (10 p.m. Pacific December 29) as part of the same preview, one week before the scheduled premiere. This was an hour behind schedule, as the Insight Bowl (that aired in place of what would have been a new episode) ended in overtime.
Top twenty
The following list compiles the top 20 Super Bowl teams, as determined by the experts. The teams listed below were revealed in countdown form in the weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLI. The first 18 episodes aired on NFL Network, while the top two teams' specials were shown on CBS on February 3, the day before Super Bowl XLI. Each episode in the top 20 would be introduced with, "NFL Network presents America's Game, a countdown of the 20 greatest Super Bowl champions, and now, number ___"
| Rank | Year | Team | Game | Narrator | Team Commentary | Air Date |
|---|
| 20 | 1983 | Los Angeles Raiders | Super Bowl XVIII | Alec Baldwin | Marcus Allen, Todd Christensen and Howie Long | November 24, 2006 |
| 19 | 1999 | St. Louis Rams | Super Bowl XXXIV | Martin Sheen | D'Marco Farr, Dick Vermeil and Kurt Warner | December 1, 2006 |
| 18 | 1969 | Kansas City Chiefs | Super Bowl IV | Martin Sheen | Len Dawson, Willie Lanier and Jim Lynch | December 8, 2006 |
| 17 | 1994 | San Francisco 49ers | Super Bowl XXIX | Bruce Willis | Steve Young, Brent Jones and Merton Hanks | December 15, 2006 |
| 16 | 1996 | Green Bay Packers | Super Bowl XXXI | Kevin Bacon | Brett Favre, Mike Holmgren and Desmond Howard | December 22, 2006 |
| 15 | 1971 | Dallas Cowboys | Super Bowl VI | Martin Sheen | Bob Lilly, Roger Staubach and Duane Thomas | January 5, 2007 |
| 14 | 1991 | Washington Redskins | Super Bowl XXVI | Donald Sutherland | Joe Gibbs, Mark Rypien and Charles Mann | January 12, 2007 |
| 13 | 1986 | New York Giants | Super Bowl XXI | Laurence Fishburne | Bill Parcells, Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor | January 19, 2007 |
| 12 | 1998 | Denver Broncos | Super Bowl XXXIII | Kevin Bacon | Terrell Davis, Mark Schlereth and Shannon Sharpe | January 26, 2007 |
| 11 | 1977 | Dallas Cowboys | Super Bowl XII | Laurence Fishburne | Thomas Henderson, Tony Dorsett, Drew Pearson and Charlie Waters | January 27, 2007 |
| 10 | 1976 | Oakland Raiders | Super Bowl XI | Laurence Fishburne | John Madden, Ken Stabler and Phil Villapiano | January 27, 2007 |
| 09 | 2004 | New England Patriots | Super Bowl XXXIX | Laurence Fishburne | Troy Brown, Tedy Bruschi and Bill Belichick | January 28, 2007 |
| 08 | 1984 | San Francisco 49ers | Super Bowl XIX | Gene Hackman | Russ Francis, Keena Turner and Dwight Hicks | January 29, 2007 |
| 07 | 1975 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Super Bowl X | Bruce Willis | Lynn Swann, Dwight White and Mike Wagner | January 29, 2007 |
| 06 | 1966 | Green Bay Packers | Super Bowl I | Donald Sutherland | Bill Curry, Willie Davis and Bart Starr | January 30, 2007 |
| 05 | 1992 | Dallas Cowboys | Super Bowl XXVII | Alec Baldwin | Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Ken Norton, Jr. | January 31, 2007 |
| 04 | 1989 | San Francisco 49ers | Super Bowl XXIV | Gene Hackman | Tom Rathman, George Seifert and Jerry Rice | February 2, 2007 |
| 03 | 1978 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Super Bowl XIII | Bruce Willis | Rocky Bleier, Mel Blount, Randy Grossman and Joe Greene | February 2, 2007 |
| 02 | 1985 | Chicago Bears | Super Bowl XX | Alec Baldwin | Mike Ditka, Jim McMahon and Mike Singletary | February 3, 2007 on CBS |
| 01 | 1972 | Miami Dolphins | Super Bowl VII | Alec Baldwin | Manny Fernandez, Don Shula and Larry Csonka | February 3, 2007 on CBS | |
Non-ranked episodes
Beginning February 8, NFL Network began to broadcast the remaining twenty champions' episodes. The 2005 Steelers were not eligible to be in the Top 20 as the voting was done prior to Super Bowl XL.
| Eps | Year | Team | Game | Narrator | Team Commentary | Air Date |
|---|
| 1 | 1970 | Baltimore Colts | Super Bowl V | Ed Harris | Bill Curry, Mike Curtis, Bubba Smith and Ernie Accorsi | February 9, 2007 |
| 2 | 1980 | Oakland Raiders | Super Bowl XV | Ed Harris | Jim Plunkett, Gene Upshaw and Matt Millen | February 16, 2007 |
| 3 | 1990 | New York Giants | Super Bowl XXV | Alec Baldwin | Ottis Anderson, Carl Banks and Jeff Hostetler | December 29, 2006
re-aired February 15, 2007 |
| 4 | 2001 | New England Patriots | Super Bowl XXXVI | Martin Sheen | Tom Brady, Lawyer Milloy and Adam Vinatieri | February 8, 2007 |
| 5 | 1993 | Dallas Cowboys | Super Bowl XXVIII | Ed Harris | Bill Bates, Emmitt Smith and Jimmy Johnson | February 22, 2007 |
| 6 | 1979 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Super Bowl XIV | Ed Harris | John Banaszak, L. C. Greenwood and John Stallworth | February 23, 2007 |
| 7 | 1973 | Miami Dolphins | Super Bowl VIII | Ed Harris | Dick Anderson, Bob Kuechenberg and Mercury Morris | March 1, 2007 |
| 8 | 1987 | Washington Redskins | Super Bowl XXII | Gene Hackman | Doug Williams, Jeff Bostic and Darrell Green | March 2, 2007 |
| 9 | 1988 | San Francisco 49ers | Super Bowl XXIII | Ed Harris | Bill Walsh, Harris Barton and Roger Craig | March 8, 2007 |
| 10 | 1974 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Super Bowl IX | Ed Harris | Franco Harris, Joe Greene and Andy Russell | March 9, 2007 |
| 11 | 2000 | Baltimore Ravens | Super Bowl XXXV | Alec Baldwin | Brian Billick, Trent Dilfer and Ray Lewis | March 15, 2007 |
| 12 | 1995 | Dallas Cowboys | Super Bowl XXX | Ed Harris | Darren Woodson, Rich Dalrymple, Daryl Johnston and Larry Brown | March 16, 2007 |
| 13 | 1982 | Washington Redskins | Super Bowl XVII | Alec Baldwin | Russ Grimm, Joe Theismann and Rick Walker | March 22, 2007 |
| 14 | 1981 | San Francisco 49ers | Super Bowl XVI | Gene Hackman | Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott and Randy Cross | March 23, 2007 |
| 15 | 1997 | Denver Broncos | Super Bowl XXXII | Alec Baldwin | John Elway, Howard Griffith and Neil Smith | March 29, 2007 |
| 16 | 1968 | New York Jets | Super Bowl III | Alec Baldwin | Joe Namath, Gerry Philbin and Don Maynard | April 2, 2007 |
| 17 | 2005 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Super Bowl XL | Tom Selleck | Jerome Bettis, Joey Porter and Bill Cowher | April 9, 2007 |
| 18 | 1967 | Green Bay Packers | Super Bowl II | Tom Selleck | Chuck Mercein, Dave Robinson and Jerry Kramer | April 16, 2007 |
| 19 | 2002 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Super Bowl XXXVII | Laurence Fishburne | Warren Sapp, Jon Gruden and John Lynch | April 23, 2007 |
| 20 | 2003 | New England Patriots | Super Bowl XXXVIII | Tom Selleck | Charlie Weis, Rodney Harrison and Willie McGinest | April 30, 2007 |
|
Annual specials
Following the original 40-episode run, the show took on an annual format. Beginning with Super Bowl XLI and the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, a new episode would air each September, usually the day before the regular season started, in order to commemorate the reigning Super Bowl Champions. The new episodes would air on NFL Network.
| Eps | Year | Team | Game | Narrator | Team Commentary | Air Date |
|---|
| 1 | 2006 | Indianapolis Colts | Super Bowl XLI | Donald Sutherland | Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy and Jeff Saturday | September 5, 2007 |
| 2 | 2007 | New York Giants | Super Bowl XLII | James Gandolfini | Eli Manning, Tom Coughlin and Michael Strahan | September 3, 2008 |
| 3 | 2008 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Super Bowl XLIII | Jon Hamm | Ben Roethlisberger, Mike Tomlin and Troy Polamalu | September 9, 2009 |
| 4 | 2009 | New Orleans Saints | Super Bowl XLIV | Brad Pitt | Sean Payton, Drew Brees and Jonathan Vilma | September 8, 2010 |
| 5 | 2010 | Green Bay Packers | Super Bowl XLV | John Slattery | Mike McCarthy, Aaron Rodgers and Charles Woodson | September 7, 2011 |
| 6 | 2011 | New York Giants | Super Bowl XLVI | Alec Baldwin | Eli Manning, Victor Cruz, Tom Coughlin and Justin Tuck | September 4, 2012 |
| 7 | 2012 | Baltimore Ravens | Super Bowl XLVII | Edward Norton | Joe Flacco, John Harbaugh, and Ray Lewis | September 2, 2013 |
| 8 | 2013 | Seattle Seahawks | Super Bowl XLVIII | Jim Caviezel | Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, and Pete Carroll | September 3, 2014 |
| 9 | 2014 | New England Patriots | Super Bowl XLIX | Chris Evans | Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and Devin McCourty | September 8, 2015 |
| 10 | 2015 | Denver Broncos | Super Bowl 50 | Trey Parker | DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller, and Peyton Manning | September 7, 2016 |
| 11 | 2016 | New England Patriots | Super Bowl LI | Chris Evans | LeGarrette Blount, Julian Edelman, and Dont'a Hightower | September 6, 2017 |
| 12 | 2017 | Philadelphia Eagles | Super Bowl LII | David Boreanaz | Carson Wentz, Nick Foles, Brandon Graham, and LeGarrette Blount | September 5, 2018 |
| 13 | 2018 | New England Patriots | Super Bowl LIII | John Cena | Julian Edelman, Devin McCourty, Jason McCourty, and Rob Gronkowski | September 4, 2019 |
| 14 | 2019 | Kansas City Chiefs | Super Bowl LIV | Paul Rudd | Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyrann Mathieu | September 9, 2020 |
| 15 | 2020 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Super Bowl LV | John Cena | Mike Evans, Devin White, and Leonard Fournette | September 8, 2021 |
| 16 | 2021 | Los Angeles Rams | Super Bowl LVI | Bryan Cranston | Andrew Whitworth, Matthew Stafford, and Aaron Donald | September 7, 2022 |
| 17 | 2022 | Kansas City Chiefs | Super Bowl LVII | Paul Rudd | Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones | September 6, 2023 |
| 18 | 2023 | Kansas City Chiefs | Super Bowl LVIII | Paul Rudd | Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid | September 4, 2024 | |
The Missing Rings
A spinoff series, America's Game: The Missing Rings, debuted on September 18, 2008 and aired for five consecutive Thursdays after that, starting at 10 p.m. ET. In this series, the producers picked five very good teams that came close to winning it all but finished short of Super Bowl victories, and devoted an hour to each of them. The basic format of the show was the same. However, the theme song cut off abruptly before the show started, symbolizing the unfinished goals of the teams being profiled.[7]
| Eps | Year | Team | Narrator | Team Commentary | Air Date |
|---|
| 1 | 1981 | San Diego Chargers | Tom Selleck | Dan Fouts, Hank Bauer, and Kellen Winslow | September 18, 2008 |
| 2 | 1969 | Minnesota Vikings | Tom Selleck | Jim Marshall, Joe Kapp and Bud Grant | September 25, 2008 |
| 3 | 1990 | Buffalo Bills | Alec Baldwin | Marv Levy, Jim Kelly, and Darryl Talley | October 2, 2008 |
| 4 | 1988 | Cincinnati Bengals | Jeffrey Wright | Boomer Esiason, Sam Wyche and Tim Krumrie | October 9, 2008 |
| 5 | 1998 | Minnesota Vikings | James Gandolfini | Dennis Green, Cris Carter, and John Randle | October 16, 2008 |
|
Availability outside of NFL Network
- The episodes for the #1-ranked and #2-ranked Super Bowl champion teams first aired on CBS on February 3, 2007, the day before Super Bowl XLI. They were reshown on NFL Network, with slightly more footage, on February 5.
- On January 30, 2007, iTunes made twelve episodes (#20 through #9 of the countdown) available for purchase at US $1.99 an episode or US $29.99 for the top twenty teams' episodes.[8] All episodes, including the "Missing Rings" episodes, are now available.
- During the top-20 countdown portion of the series, episodes were individually made available on DVD on the NFL's official web store, NFLShop.com, the day after their debut. Each episode's DVD art features a close-up of the team's Super Bowl ring.[9]
- Currently, the only format available is Full Frame DVD. The program was filmed and broadcast in high definition but the DVD collection has been formatted as full frame.
- Sky Sports began airing the show in August 2007.
- In Australia, America's Game was previously shown on Network Ten and One HD, but is now aired by 7mate in support of its NFL broadcast rights.
- Hulu reached a deal with the NFL and had almost every episode of America's Game viewable for free on their website. As of late 2012, the series is no longer on Hulu.
- This series has aired on the Televisa Deportes cable network in Mexico in recent years.
- TSN airs America's Game in Canada.
- Gaora Sports airs America's Game in Japan.
- In Australia, Channel One HD played America's Game during the 2011–2013 NFL seasons. 7Mate took over for the 2014 Season but have only showed 2 episodes just prior to Super Bowl XLIX. After Super Bowl XLIX, 7Mate started airing episodes every Saturday from 6 AM. Currently, 7Mate is screening all episodes in the series in order at 9 AM each weekday (although, for no apparent reason, at least two of those episodes were skipped and remain unaired).
Notes and References
- Web site: David Robidoux. APM Music. 2012-11-28.
- Web site: NFL Network and NFL Films win three sports Emmys . NFL.com . 2008-05-07 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090201173332/http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story?id=09000d5d8080fe91&template=without-video&confirm=true. . 2009-02-01 .
- News: The Great Debate: If they win, are Pats best ever?. USA Today . 2008-02-05 . Tom . Weir . February 3, 2008.
- News: Stewart . Larry . Larry Stewart (journalist) . The most super of Super Bowl winners? NFL Network will rank the top 20 . 2007-01-28 . Los Angeles Times.
- Web site: Colts on the Air . Colts.com . 2007-09-03 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071114044944/http://colts.com/sub.cfm?page=article7&news_id=e2bf37bd-f7ac-45bc-af65-7e5a8d79e6f5 . 2007-11-14 .
- Web site: NFL Network Freeview under way now! . NFL.com . 2007-01-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070125152535/http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/9893219 . 2007-01-25 . dead .
- Advertisement in the New York Post, Sep. 2, 2008
- Web site: iTunes Store . . 2012-10-14.
- Web site: America's Games DVDs . NFLShop.com . 2007-01-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070928092137/http://www.nflshop.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2562286 . 2007-09-28 . dead.
