By Charles Jay
A player once said, “If the Super Bowl is the ultimate game, why are they playing it again next year”.

Of course, the player had a point. But who cares?

Generally speaking, the Super Bowl is, quite simply, the ultimate EVENT. Unlike the World Series, the NBA Finals, or the Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl is a one-shot-only proposition.

It’s second only to the World Cup in terms of its worldwide interest. And who the hell cares about the World Cup in America anyway?

Betting on the Super Bowl runs into the billions of dollars, both legal and illegal, every year. And there’s no wonder. Is there anything that really comes pre-packaged with more hype than the Super Bowl? I mean, it really doesn’t matter who is IN the game, which differentiates it from other kinds of “mega-events”, such as heavyweight championship fights and the like. The site of the Super Bowl is the ONE place to be in the sports world, and the two teams involved, whoever they may be, are the focus of the entire sports world’s attention.

It’s at the point where one of the very real factors that determines the winner or loser of the Super Bowl game is how well a team is able to deal with the surroundings; not so much the pressures involved with playing the game itself, but with the non-stop distractions that happen in the two weeks leading up to the game.

There is probably no sporting event in the world where the participants, as a matter of course, are expected to be so accessible. And no event where there are so many people looking for that access.

As a game in and of itself, the Super Bowl has been much more style than substance. A disappointment, actually, as too many of the games have degenerated into mismatches. Very few of the games have seen their result in doubt entering the fourth quarter.

But it’s just BIG. Everything is bigger when it comes to the Super Bowl; being a Super Bowl hero can make a career, while being a Super Bowl zero is an albatross a player or coach might never be able to remove from his neck.

Interestingly enough, the “goat” label probably carries a lot more weight to it. You’d have to go a long way to find a football fan doesn’t know who Scott Norwood is, not for anything he might have done for the Buffalo Bills, but for a field goal that could have won a Super Bowl, but sailed wide to the right.

It can be argued that Jackie Smith was one of the finest tight ends ever to put on a uniform, but he’ll be remembered by millions of fans solely because he dropped a sure touchdown pass in a Super Bowl that might have made the difference between the Dallas Cowboys being Super Bowl champs and Super Bowl champs.

Would the average fan not look differently upon the coaching careers of Bud Grant and Marv Levy, for example, if their teams had been eliminated earlier in the playoffs, rather than reach the Super Bowl and LOSE it four times? Maybe. Probably.

Looking at the other side of coin, this is not to say that Super Bowl heroism is any guarantee that a player will achieve immortality. Timmy Smith, for example, is the only player in the history of the Super Bowl to rush for more than 200 yards in a game. Yet who, besides the real aficionado, even remembers who he is? Years from now, will many people remember Rod Martin, who had THREE interceptions in Super Bowl XV, or Kenny King, who made a record 80-yard touchdown reception in the same game? How many people, in the years to come, will recall that it was Mike Jones of the Rams who stopped Tennessee’s Kevin Dyson one yard short of a touchdown in the most dramatic last-play finish in Super Bowl history?

There is no question that Super Bowl performance, or lack of it, leaves a lasting impression on our higher-profile stars. Will quarterbacks Dan Marino and Fran Tarkenton ever live down the fact that they didn’t win “The Big One”, since they don’t have a Super Bowl ring? And hasn’t John Elway been perceived somewhat differently since winning his two Super Bowl titles?

Think about it.