Running back Mercury Morris left and the 1972 Miami Dolphins defeated Washington in the Super Bowl to finish the season undefeated ever beat an NFL club That changed in shocking fashion in 1969 The NFL champion Baltimore Colts were expected to thrash the AFL’s New York Jets The Colts were favored by three touchdowns New York’s brash young quarterback Broadway Joe Namath guaranteed a Jets win a few days before the game That brought added attention to the game Then Namath led the Jets to the biggest upset in pro football history They beat the mighty Colts 16 7 The Super Bowl had finally become super 8
The popularity of the NFL’s biggest game took off from there Great teams won it The 1972 Miami Dolphins went 17 0 They remain the only undefeated Super Bowl champs Great teams also lost it In 2007 the New England Patriots won their first 18 games But they lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl DIG IN Chowing down at parties has become a big part of the Super Bowl tradition Americans eat more food on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year besides Thanksgiving Fans eat approximately 100 million pounds of avocado used in guacamole and more than 1 billion chicken wings that day Some teams became dynasties In the 1970s the Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years The San Francisco 49ers won four championships in the 1980s The Dallas Cowboys won three titles in four years in the 1990s New England did the same in the 2000s And one team the Buffalo Bills went to four straight Super Bowls from 1991 94 But they lost them all 9
2 GOING BOWLING On January 12 2015 Ohio State won the first College Football Playoff For years the top level of college football used polls to determine its champion Sports writers voted in the Associated Press poll Coaches voted in the United Press International and later USA Today poll Sometimes the writers and coaches didn’t agree Two teams had to share the title Finally a plan came along that allowed the teams to decide it on the field Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott 15 and Corey Smith celebrate during the first College Football Playoff National Championship 10 10
