This year, Super Bowl 50 will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, on Feb. 7 with the Denver Broncos lining up against the Carolina Panthers. While none of the New York teams will be represented this year, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the more memorable local moments that have occurred during America’s greatest secular holiday.
The Guarantee
Arguably one of the greatest upsets in American sports history, Super Bowl III found the American Football League New York Jets as heavy underdogs against the National Football League behemoth Baltimore Colts. The Jets went into the game as 18-point underdogs against the Colts. Three days before the game, an intoxicated Joe Namath boldly predicted to a crowd at the Miami Touchdown Club that, “We’re gonna win the game, I guarantee it” after being heckled by a rowdy Colts fan. Broadway Joe kept his word and while his numbers were far from gaudy, (17-28, 206 yards, O TD/O INT), New York walked off the field with a 16-7 victory and the first victory for the upstart AFL.
Manning To Tyree
Super Bowl XLII found the New York Giants squad playing David to the New England Patriots Goliath, who entered the game as 12-point favorites thanks to the latter becoming the first team to complete a perfect regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. New York set the ball in motion for a victory with a fourth-quarter game-winning drive. Down 14–10, New York got the ball on their own 17-yard line with 2:39 left and marched 83 yards down the field. After Eli Manning dodged what could have been a game-changing sack scenario, his 32-yard pass to David Tyree wound up with the latter making a leaping one-handed catch and pinning the football with his right hand to the crown of his helmet. Wide receiver Plaxico Burress’ winning 13-yard touchdown on a 13-yard reception with 35 seconds remaining sealed the deal and handed the Pats their first defeat of the season.
Peyton Manning Crushed
Super Bowl XLVIII wound up (to this point) the only championship game played in an open-air stadium in a cold-weather city and the first NFL championship game held in the New York metropolitan area since a Dec. 30, 1962, matchup between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants at the old Yankee Stadium (Green Bay won 16-7). The Denver Broncos’ top-rated offense squared off against the Seattle Seahawks’ formidable, league-best Legion of Boom defense. Proving the adage that offense wins games and defense wins championships, the Seahawks got off to a quick start by scoring a safety on the first play from scrimmage, the quickest score in Super Bowl history. It was all downhill from here for Peyton Manning, whose regular season totals of 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdown completions both set new NFL records. By the time this 43-8 beatdown was over, Manning had gone 34-49 for 280 yards, one TD and a pair of interceptions. The Seahawks meanwhile became the first team in a Super Bowl to score on a kickoff return for a touchdown, a safety and an interception return for a touchdown.
Wide Right
Super Bowl XXV wound up being the proverbial unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, or in this case, the Buffalo Bills’ no-huddle, K-Gun offense (which led the league in total offense) squaring off against the New York Giants power defense (tops in the league for fewest points allowed). The game was a tight grind and by the time Bills quarterback Jim Kelly drove his team down the field for its last possession, he led his team down to New York’s 29-yard line with eight seconds left in the game. Out came kicker Scott Norwood for a potential 47-yard game-winning field goal, which wound up sailing wide right, less than a yard outside the goalpost upright. Norwood wound up promising to get the Bills to the Super Bowl the following year (which he did), but wound up getting released after that season and never played in the NFL again.
Kyle Arrington
Now while Arrington never played for the Giants, Jets or Bills, he is a local story in that the Maryland native is the last member of Hofstra University’s now-defunct college football program to play in the National Football League. While the Maryland native was originally signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent in 2008, it would be when he was signed to the practice squad of the hated New England Patriots in 2009 when he eventually became part of the Super Bowl’s legacy for one season. Fast forward to Feb. 1 of last year at University of Phoenix Stadium, the site of Super Bowl XLIX, when Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll arguably makes one of the worst calls in Super Bowl history and Arrington winds up experiencing a piece of Lombardi Trophy glory.
