The Fix Is In, page 31
What’s perhaps the most amazing aspect of the Patriots’ undefeated season is that the four record-setting ratings games—vs. the Colts, the Eagles, the Ravens, and the Giants—all were won by the Patriots in come-from-behind fashion. In fact, the Patriots managed just a three-point win against each the Eagles, Ravens, and Giants while eking out a four-point victory against the Colts. That wouldn’t seem odd except for the fact that the Patriots won their 12 other games by a grand total of 435 to 167 points. The closest of these games was a 20-10 victory over the New York Jets that was played in a combination snow- and windstorm that rocked the East Coast late in December and hindered play on the field. Two of the teams the Patriots struggled to beat, the Eagles who posted an 8-8 record and the Ravens who went 5-11 and fired their head coach, failed to make the playoffs. So were the four games made a touch more dramatic to hold the viewers’ attention throughout and maybe make some of those sponsors that shelled out all that extra cash for an advertising spot a little less apprehensive?
None of those four games were without controversy, especially the Patriots’ last-minute win over the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens held a 24-20 lead as the Patriots took possession of the ball for what would be a do-or-die last drive. The Ravens defense didn’t know what they would be up against in those final minutes. Some 70 yards later, and after the Patriots converted two separate fourth-down situations (one of which came on a highly questionable defensive holding penalty), Tom Brady’s eight-yard touchdown pass put the Patriots in the lead for good 27-24 with just 44 seconds left in the game. Though it was the Patriots that won the game, several members of the Ravens pointed their fingers at the referees, crediting them more than anyone for the Patriots’ victory. The complaints over the officiating in the last moments of the game were so overwhelming, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating Mike Pereira had to later make a pronouncement that all of the calls made in the game were indeed correct. Correct, that is, if you were rooting for the Patriots. As for the Ravens, Baltimore cornerback Chris McAlister summed it up best when he said, “It’s hard to go out there and play the Patriots and the refs at the same time. They put the crown on top of them, they want them to win. They won.”57
As if that weren’t enough, late in the 2007 season it was revealed that CBS, the network that broadcasts the AFC’s games of which the Patriots are members, had made a deal with Patriots owner Bob Kraft to open up a CBS-themed restaurant in the Patriots’ home, Gillette Stadium. The restaurant, named “CBS Scene,” was a joint venture with the team. CBS Sports president Sean McManus said, “It’s not a business we’ve been in before, but we thought it was a no-brainer to further associate ourselves with NFL football and the Patriots.”58 Of course, this deal begins and ends with the restaurant, right? Even though McManus also said, “It’s hard to overestimate the value of NFL programming, especially when you’re having the kind of season that we’re having with the Patriots. That obviously translates into significant revenue.”59It’s just a coincidence that since 2005, Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been on the board of directors for the media giant Viacom, the company that up until Kraft joined was partnered with/owned CBS. So, it’s safe to assume that the Kraft/Viacom/CBS connection was simply circumstantial. Right? We’re supposed to believe that all this revenue generated by the Patriots and such direct deals with CBS in no way, shape, or form could influence the outcome of any game involving their money-making machine. That’s where the line is drawn in these business deals, right on the sidelines. Nothing crosses over onto the field of play. It’s blasphemy to even think such thoughts.
The Patriots’ perfect run lasted all the way to the Super Bowl. Out of all the major sports leagues only the NFL has a single game championship to determine its ultimate winner. No other league possesses such a simple setup to culminate its season. That is why Super Bowl Sunday has turned into such an event. The day has become a new national holiday celebrated among friends and families with parties raging from coast to coast. In many circles, the activities surrounding the game—the pregame concerts, the halftime show, and the commercials—overshadow the game itself. Many who tune in to watch the game do so not caring about the outcome, unless some sort of office betting pool hangs in the balance. This has made the Super Bowl consistently one of the most-watched televised events every year. Out of the top 10 most-watched prime-time telecasts in the United States since 2000, the Super Bowl holds all 10 slots, and by a significant margin. Number 10 is Super Bowl XXXV with some 84 million viewers compared to the number 12 telecast, the final episode of Friends, with 52 million viewers. Number 11 is the 2007 NFC Championship Game between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants that garnered some 54 million viewers. The Super Bowl also holds 17 of the top 30 slots as the most-watched television programs ever aired.
This is why most would slough off any notion that the NFL actually cares which two teams meet up in the Super Bowl. If the ratings are always through the roof, if a 30-second commercial is selling for over $2.5 million (and for Super Bowl XLII, the 58 commercial “units” for the game were 90 percent sold out by November 1st, some three months prior to kickoff), and if the day is nearly a national holiday and seen by people worldwide, does it really matter who’s playing? On the surface, that would seem very true; however, two teams do ultimately have to take the field. Not only that, but one of them has to win.
If the NFL has the ability to sculpt a season in a certain team’s favor thanks to the parity scheme, similar manipulations within playoff schedules leading to the Super Bowl would be possible. Late in a season, when wildcard weekend kicks off, the NFL knows well which teams and players will star in their storylines, and generate the most money. With the assistance of their contacts in Las Vegas and the gambling world, they know which teams the public favors over their opponents. All that information can be quite advantageous. If something wasn’t arranged prior to the start of the season, by the time the playoffs arrive it would take just two or three properly arranged games to propel any playoff team into the Super Bowl. An unlikely underdog, a league powerhouse, whatever the league might feel is the team du jour could easily have their way paved to a championship.
If the NFL truly wants to appear magnanimous in sharing every aspect of the league among its owners, then why wouldn’t it also be willing to share Super Bowl rings in a similar fashion? Does that mean it happens every year and every team is given its time in the spotlight? No, but parity enables the possibility of it. Constant upheaval wouldn’t benefit the league as suspicion could be aroused if a different team won every season. Random outcomes allow teams to repeat occasionally, so accommodating dynasties is necessary for the illusion to seem real.
A brief look back at the past 14 Super Bowls might clear this idea up as it reveals some very odd occurrences that sometimes hint at, and other times reek of, league-sponsored chicanery and subterfuge.
Super Bowl XXX - Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Dallas Cowboys - January 28, 1996. Having defeated the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game, the Cowboys were playing in their third Super Bowl in four years, officially making them a dynasty. The Steelers, the number-two seeded team in the AFC, were captained by quarterback Neil O’Donnell who had (still to this day) the lowest interception per pass attempt ratio of any quarterback in NFL history. On the surface, the game harkened back to both teams’ 1970s glory days in which these teams twice matched up in what are remembered as two of the greatest Super Bowls ever played. Fans nationwide were hoping this game would be on par with those previous Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowls; hence the game garnered the third most viewers in American television history, averaging over 94 million people for the course of the game.
The game itself didn’t disappoint, unless you were a Steelers fan and believed in the accuracy of O’Donnell. The Cowboys jumped out to a 13-0 lead, thanks in part to O’Donnell’s shaky passing; he was constantly heaving passes high or behind his receivers, and a botched shotgun snap sailed over O’Donnell’s head resulting in a drive-killing sack. The Steelers managed to claw their way back into the game, however, cutting the Cowboys’ lead to 13-7 at halftime.
Then O’Donnell came completely apart, and that was something he could not afford to have happen. Title aside, O’Donnell was set to become a free agent at season’s end, and a great performance in the Super Bowl would only up his asking price. This was not to be. The man who almost never threw interceptions gift-wrapped not one but two to the Cowboys’ DB Larry Brown and added a third to Cowboys safety Brock Marion. Both of Brown’s interceptions looked like he, not a Steelers receiver, was O’Donnell’s intended target. It was the second interception by Brown that was the game-killer, coming with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the Cowboys’ lead cut down to 20-17. The Steelers, despite holding the NFL’s all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith to just 49 yards for the game while outgaining the Cowboys 201 yards to a mere 61 yards in the second half, couldn’t overcome O’Donnell’s penchant for throwing the ball directly to Brown. For his two interceptions, Brown was named the game’s MVP, the first and only defensive back ever to receive the honor. As Steelers running back Eric Pegram was quoted as saying after the game, “All Brown did was stand out there. No MVP award should have been given. It’s the first MVP award where the guy didn’t earn the thing.”60
In the ensuing off-season, both O’Donnell and Brown left their respective teams via free agency. Despite playing a horrific Super Bowl, O’Donnell found that the New York Jets were willing to invest $25 million for a quarterback who “choked” on the biggest stage there is in professional football. O’Donnell would play in only 21 games for the Jets over two mediocre seasons before he was sent packing to the Bengals, and a year later to the Titans. Brown would also sign a multimillion-dollar contract in the neighborhood of $12-$15 million with the Oakland Raiders right after his Super Bowl MVP performance. Brown, too, would be a major disappointment for his new team, intercepting fewer passes (one) in the three seasons he spent in the Raiders than he did in Super Bowl XXX alone. In fact, Brown would only play in 16 games in those three seasons with the Raiders. Were these two paid off via free agency for services rendered in the Super Bowl? Certainly, their high (or low) career watermarks took place in Super Bowl XXX.
Super Bowl XXXI - Green Bay Packers vs. New England Patriots - January 26, 1997. While being one of, if not the, most dominant teams in the NFL during the regular season, the Packers caught a bit of a break in the playoffs. The Packers avoided meeting their archrivals the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs thanks to the surprising success of the expansion Carolina Panthers who eliminated the Cowboys 26-17 the week before. The Packers subsequently dismantled the Panthers in the NFC Championship game 30-13 for a Super Bowl berth. Even though fate seemed to be on the Packers’ side, the team somehow earned itself a new nickname as the season wore on, courtesy of the NFL’s marketing department. The Packers were inexplicably dubbed “America’s Team.” Which is very strange, considering that nickname had long been (and still is) attributed to the Dallas Cowboys, who were at that time the reigning NFL champions.
Meanwhile, the New England Patriots also had their paths cleared for them to play in the Super Bowl. The team tied with the Packers for the best record in the league that season, the 13-3 Denver Broncos, met their match at the hands of the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars who topped the Broncos 30-27 in the playoffs. The Jaguars’ win was convenient enough for the Patriots who swept them aside 20-6 a week later in the AFC Championship game to reach Super Bowl XXXI.
While the Packers seemed destined for greatness, as time would reveal, their Super Bowl opponents were destined to unravel. The Patriots were coached by the legendary Bill Parcells, who had led the New York Giants to two previous Super Bowl victories. Parcells, however, wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with the Patriots’ new owner, Robert Kraft. Their relationship was so tumultuous that Parcells was actively seeking employment with other teams, specifically the New York Jets, during the very week leading up to the Super Bowl. According to the book Patriot Reign, author William Morrow revealed that telephone records from the New Orleans Marriott where the Patriots stayed prior to the Super Bowl showed numerous calls between Parcells and the Jets organization. Clearly, Parcells wasn’t focusing on the task at hand. Morrow quoted the (then) Patriots assistant coach Bill Belichick as saying, “Yeah, I’d say it was a little bit of a distraction all the way around. I can tell you first-hand, there was a lot of stuff going on prior to the game. I mean, him [Parcells] talking to other teams. He was trying to make up his mind about what he was going to do. Which, honestly, I felt [was] totally inappropriate. How many chances do you get to play for the Super Bowl? Tell them to get back to you in a couple of days. I’m not saying it was disrespectful to me, but it was in terms of the overall commitment to the team.”61
With their head coach not paying attention to the upcoming game, was the ultimate result, a 35--21 Packers victory, really surprising? Especially when one examines how the game transpired. Parcells, highly respected and regarded for his coaching genius, repeatedly kicked the ball to Green Bay Packers return specialist Desmond Howard who had led the NFL in punt return yardage that season. Howard responded by posting a still-standing Super Bowl record of 244 total return yards, including a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown late in the third quarter. That TD return was both a rally and game-killer for the Patriots who could never recover from it. After the final gun sounded, Howard was named the game’s MVP, the only return specialist to ever receive the award.
Once again in the succeeding off-season, much like O’Donnell and Brown, two of the biggest names in the Super Bowl signed multimillion-dollar deals with other teams. Five days after losing the Super Bowl, Parcells quit the Patriots and signed a $14 million deal with the Jets. Parcells would never reach the Super Bowl again. Howard jumped ship after the Super Bowl to sign a $6 million deal with the Oakland Raiders. Three years later, Howard would be back with the Packers for half a season, but never achieved the level of success he did playing on “America’s Team” in 1996.
Perhaps the most interesting story was the one that spans both that Super Bowl and the one played the following year. Prior to the start of the Packers’ 1996 season, their MVP quarterback Brett Favre publicly admitted to having an addiction to the painkiller Vicodin. Favre’s father would also claim his son was battling an alcohol addiction at the time. The revelation of Favre’s drinking was somewhat less shocking as Favre had shown up drunk at a few practices while a member of the Atlanta Falcons, actions that created his nickname, “Barfly.” Favre’s Vicodin addiction was so bad that he pressured both his girlfriend (and future wife) Deanna as well as his brother Scott into obtaining the pills for him when he ran out. Favre also admitted to taking them by the handful, getting so sick on them at some times that he’d vomit out the pills, wash them off, and then take the same pills again. Due to this addiction, Favre entered rehab. The NFL did nothing to punish him—no suspension or fine. Most likely it was because Favre did this of his own accord, but perhaps it was because the NFL wanted to keep an ace up its sleeve.
As part of his recovery, Favre was supposed to stop taking Vicodin and quit drinking alcohol. During the week leading up to the Super Bowl, however, Favre was seen drinking in and around New Orleans. The NFL willingly covered up for the two-time MVP, saying Favre was cleared to drink. Yet Favre himself revealed in his book Favre: For the Record that the NFL had in fact not done this (in fact, Favre reportedly didn’t stop drinking until his wife issued him an ultimatum sometime in 1999). Then, just prior to Super Bowl XXXI’s kickoff, Favre was reportedly seen having dry heaves. The cover story was that Favre had the flu, yet considering his tales of addiction and the fact that he was drinking in the week leading up to the game, his flu very well may have been more of a hangover or something worse. The NFL, of course, did nothing publicly to punish the star.
Super Bowl XXXII - Green Bay Packers vs. Denver Broncos - January 25, 1998. Brett Favre’s punishment for his past transgressions may have been losing Super Bowl XXXII to the Broncos. If Favre wasn’t sticking to his recovery plan, he was open to punishment in the NFL’s substance abuse program. After that season, Favre was named MVP for an unprecedented third time, and what were the chances that the NFL would suspend such a player for that sort of failing? Instead of a public humiliation followed by more rehab, perhaps Favre was ordered to take a dive in the Super Bowl. Though his stat line in the game was an impressive 25 for 42 passing for 256 yards and three touchdowns, Favre had two costly turnovers, an interception and a fumble, that occurred on back-to-back possessions early in the game. Both turnovers led directly to Broncos scores, giving them a 17-7 lead that the Packers never overcame.
Maybe that was not just Brett Favre’s fault. Head coach Mike Holmgren should take a great deal of blame as well. In fact, the Packers’ former general manager Ron Wolf seems to completely blame Holmgren for the loss. He said in 2007, “Certain calls were to be made that weren’t made. Mike Holmgren refused those calls. There would have been an adjustment on the blocking scheme and it would have been over.”62 “Adjustment on the blocking scheme” refers to the fact that the Packers did not make any on-the-fly changes in an attempt to stop the Broncos’ constant blitzing that resulted in Favre’s two turnovers. Not only did the Packers offense not make any needed adjustments, according to Packers safety Le Roy Butler, the defense didn’t attempt to switch things up either. Butler said, “At halftime, we made no adjustments. We just sat there and drank Kool-Aid, and they bitched at us for a while.”63 What was perhaps even more revealing was that Holmgren later admitted that he let the other team win.
