My oldest brother, who was nine years my senior, gave me a trip to Super Bowl I for Christmas in 1966. Included was a plane ticket out of San Francisco that would have me make my first air flight and accommodations that had me stay with his girlfriend's family in Los Angeles. She had a younger brother just a year older than me, I was 16 years old.
The flight out of San Francisco was delayed by heavy fog, but the rest of the trip went smooth and while the game was not sold out it was lopsided on the scoreboard. Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers ran away from the overmatched Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. That final score began what turned into a problem for the NFL: Super Bowl games weren’t competitive.
The first four Super Bowls all had winners by wide margins with only the underdog New York Jets not winning by double-digits, their victory margin over the Baltimore Colts was nine points, 16-7. The first Super Bowl that was competitive on the scoreboard was Super Bowl V when the Baltimore Colts downed the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13. For the following 25 Super Bowls only five of the games were not decided by double-digits.
“What business are we in,” Al Davis asked me in a meeting discussing our public relations of the Oakland Raiders. Having been two years into my working relationship with him and his Raiders I thought I had the right answer when I said, “Winning.”
He laughed, appreciative of my focus on our goal, but then said, “No Dennis, that’s what we’re here to get done, but our business is entertainment.”
Despite the growing popularity of the Super Bowl, the contention by most of the public was that the games were boring. Mostly non-competitive blowouts.