Jerry Izenberg covered the first 53 Super Bowls in person, not to mention more Muhammad Ali fights than any other sports writer, so when the iconic columnist says the NFL’s biggest game has lost its edge, he does so as a foremost expert.
‘The first five or six Super Bowls were fabulous because there was real drama,’ the best-selling author told the Daily Mail from his Nevada home. ‘Now, everybody’s a business partner. There’s no incentive at all among the owners, and it’s altogether different.’
Now 95, Izenberg’s new book, ‘Damn You, Josh Gibson,’ takes baseball fans through the shrouded history of one of the game’s greatest talents. He also remains an active columnist the out-of-print Newark Star-Ledger’s surviving website, NJ.com. And it’s in that role where Izenberg continues to write about the Super Bowl, albeit, begrudgingly.
His nostalgia is easily explained.
The Super Bowl Izenberg began covering in 1967 was far from the commercialized spectacle it’s become and vastly more consequential for everyone involved. The AFL was still the NFL’s off-brand little brother three years ahead of the leagues’ merger, so teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and New York Jets were fighting for legitimacy.
Rival owners wanted to win because they largely despised one another, according to Izenberg, while players couldn’t afford defeat on their salaries because they needed the winners’ bonus checks. And Izenberg knew all of this because reporters were granted endless access by coaches, owners and players desperately seeking the spotlight. He even befriended not one, but two commissioners: the legendary Pete Rozelle and his successor, Paul Tagliabue.
It didn’t sell out, but Izenberg said Super Bowl I offered more drama than Sunday’s game
Jerry Izenberg remains an active columnist the out-of-print Newark Star-Ledger’s surviving website, NJ.com. And it’s in that role where Izenberg continues to write about the Super Bowl
Now 95, legendary Star-Ledger columnist Jerry Izenberg’s new book, ‘Damn You, Josh Gibson,’takes baseball fans through the shrouded history of one of the game’s top talents
‘Super Bowl I was played before the NFL Gestapo took over,’ Izenberg said of the league’s media-relations tactics. ‘You can’t go anywhere with them 1770503036, you meet them at the hotel at an appointed time. When I covered the first six, seven Super Bowls, I interviewed guys in their rooms.’
It was in those hotel rooms in Los Angeles, Miami and New Orleans where Izenberg discovered the real drama of the Super Bowl.
‘Two days before [Super Bowl I in Los Angeles], I’m having lunch with an EJ Holub, nicknamed “The Beast,” the middle linebacker of the Kansas City Chiefs,’ Izenberg said of the Super Bowl winner and three-time AFL champion.
‘We’re sitting there, and I said, “are you nervous?” And he put his hands out. He said, “feel my palms.”‘
Izenberg felt the massive linebacker’s sweaty palms and, realizing Holub’s emotional state, asked if a Super Bowl win could prove ‘he belonged’ with the best in football.
But Holub’s damp palms weren’t caused by any such introspection.
‘He said, “no, we win this game, we make $15,000,”‘ Izenberg continued. ‘That’s tip money today, but [Holub said]: “I’m scared to death because my wife has already spent it.”
‘That’s the way the Super Bowl was.’
Holub’s Chiefs would lose Super Bowl I to the Green Bay Packers, but he still got a $7,500 bonus — a sum that might cover two tickets to Sunday’s game in Santa Clara. Of course, Super Bowl LX is among the most sought-after tickets in sports, whereas the inaugural event failed to sell out.
Chiefs linebacker EJ Holub told Izenberg he needed to win Super Bowl I for the $15,000 bonus check because his wife already spent the money. Kansas City would lose to Green Bay
The Packers were victorious again in Super Bowl II, this time beating the Raiders, but it wasn’t until its third installment that the game, and the upstart AFL, were finally legitimized.
Most football fans know the story by now: New York quarterback Joe Namath famously predicted Jets’ win over a Baltimore Colts team believed by many to be the greatest ever assembled.
The moment came at a banquet dinner honoring Namath as MVP. When hecklers in the room predicted doom for the 19.5-point underdog Jets, Namath snapped back: ‘We’re going to win the game. I guarantee it.’
To the public, Namath’s remark seemed like a knee-jerk reaction, but as Izenberg told the Daily Mail, it wasn’t the first time Broadway Joe predicted glory that week.
Days before that famed dinner, Namath and his roommate were grabbing a bite at a Miami restaurant, where they spotted two Colts players.
‘[The Colts] come over to see [Namath], and one guy says: “You know, you just talk too much. Real athletes don’t have to talk to prove himself. They don’t have to convince themselves.”‘
New York Jets QB Joe Namath sits at a press conference before Super Bowl III, where the AFL champions would upset a Baltimore Colts team believed to be the greatest ever assembled
Namath kept eating, Izenberg explained. Ultimately the former Alabama quarterback turned to his Super Bowl rivals and asked: ‘You guys still here?’
‘They said: “That’s what I’m talking about,”‘ Izenberg continued. ‘[Namath] said: “I’ll keep on talking because we got something to talk about.”‘
When their dinners ended at their respective tables, Namath added another dig with the help of his enviable six-figure salary.
‘The dinner ended, the checks came,’ Izenberg said. ‘There were different tables. [Namath] picked up both checks. Then he drove [the Colts players] back to their hotel.
‘The last thing he told them was: “I’ll see you Sunday, and we’re going to kick the crap out of you.”‘
Days later Namath would make his famed guarantee at the awards dinner, which Izenberg attributes to the quarterback’s ‘favorite traveling companion’ at the time, ‘Johnny Walker Red.’
Namath, who has since announced his sobriety, would ultimately win Super Bowl III MVP after the 16-7 upset, although Izenberg still sees running back Matt Snell as the Jets’ true hero for his 121-yard, one-touchdown effort.
Tailback Emerson Boozer runs the ball for the Jets in Super Bowl III, which served to legitimize the AFL and ultimately led to its merger with the NFL three seasons later
The Colts brought an injured Johnny Unitas off the bench for Earl Morrall, but still lost 16-7
Izenberg’s grievances with the Super Bowl are less about the game itself, which he still finds compelling on some level.
He happily cites David Tyree’s ‘helmet catch’ in the New York Giants’ improbable upset of the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII as one of the game’s greatest moments. Izenberg also includes St. Louis Rams linebacker’s Mike Jones’ game-saving tackle on the Tennessee Titans’ Kevin Dyson in Super Bowl XXXIV as another high point.
The change, he said, is off the field, where money has softened competition and distracted from the product.
‘Well, it changed when everybody was making money and [the teams] were all merged,’ he said. ‘So now they’re 32 business partners. Yeah, same team. It’s called the “Green Team.”‘
Izenberg befriended commissioners Pete Rozelle (right) and successor Paul Tagliabue (left)
Rozelle awards the Super Bowl XV trophy to Raiders owner Al Davis, who had pushed the NFL commissioner years earlier to consider a championship game between the two leagues
Owners have already won the Super Bowl, regardless of the outcome of the actual game, argues columnist Jerry Izenberg. In this shot, Robert Kraft is seen celebrating with the Patriots
Things were different under Rozelle, who Izenberg chronicled in what the author humbly described as ‘the only good [biography] ever done’ on the late commissioner.
Speaking with Rozelle years before the book’s publication, Izenberg asked the commissioner if the NFL would ever consider charging for the Super Bowl in a pay-per-view scenario.
Rozelle wouldn’t hear of it.
‘He said, “you’re out of your mind,”‘ Izenberg recalled. ‘”That’s the greatest ad the NFL ever had. Seeing a Super Bowl for nothing, I’m not going to charge for that.”‘
But Izenberg believes the NFL’s 32 ownership groups will ultimately move towards pay-per-view because they’re more concerned with profiting off the Super Bowl than actually winning it.
‘You wait now, within the next few years, they’ll be charged,’ Izenberg said. ‘Nothing gets in the way of their unsatiated quest for money, money, money.’
What did Izenberg think of the Super Bowl III halftime show? ‘I never saw a halftime show,’ he said. ‘I was always working at halftime, and then I used it as an excuse to go take a piss’
It’s the same reason Bad Bunny’s controversial selection as halftime performer has drawn more headlines than any single aspect of Sunday’s Seahawks-Patriots game: The business of the Super Bowl now overshadows the competition.
And Izenberg has never had any patience for the mid-game concerts, now dubbed the ‘biggest stage in music.’
‘I never saw a halftime show,’ Izenberg said. ‘I was always working at halftime, and then I used it as an excuse to go take a piss, so I don’t want to see that crap. It’s got nothing to do with football.’
As for Sunday, Izenberg still plans on watching and even writing about the game, which he predicts will be won by Seattle.
He even suggested a prop bet, telling readers to take Seahawks receiver Cooper Kupp to catch more than 2.5 passes.
Izenberg thinks gamblers should pick Cooper Kupp (right) to beat the 2.5-catch over-under
‘[The Rams] double teamed those other guys,’ Izenberg said of LA’s defense against Seattle wideouts Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rashid Shaheed in the NFC championship. ‘Who ended up on Cooper Kupp? A linebacker.
‘He got open by default,’ Izenberg continued. ‘And I think there’s going to be a lot of that this Sunday too. [The Patriots] can’t afford to give up on those other two receivers.’
But don’t take Izenberg’s earnest predictions as a reluctant sign of approval for what the Super Bowl has become. All 32 owners will win regardless of the final score, while the well-paid players will receive either $178,000 or $103,000 in bonus money, depending on the result.
The game is so wildly popular it no longer needs columnists like Izenberg to promote its existence, so he’s happy to take an adversarial role by reminding the NFL what it left behind.
‘The game has lost its way as it fell into more gold than Fort Knox,’ Izenberg said. ‘It’s about greed. And I’m tired of the stuff I’m hearing that old so and so’s girlfriend was resplendent in a skin-tight gown. Who cares about that s***? I’m not saying the game is such a great thing, but it was better when it didn’t have the crowds.’
