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.

The public was right.

In the entertainment business, the last thing promoters want is to have the general consensus that their product is boring. The league seemed to be able to bend Super Bowls to more competitive games. Since the Super Bowl played in January 2000 between the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans, Super Bowl games have been mostly highly competitive. In that contest, the Rams won while tackling a Tennessee receiver inches from a potential tying touchdown on the last play of the game.

There have been only a few blowouts since. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers crushed the Oakland Raiders to complete the 2002 season, the Seattle Seahawks ran away from Peyton Manning and his Colts in Super Bowl XLVII, and Tom Brady and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers dominated Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs four years ago, 31-9.

What’s notable about those three lopsided wins is that the underdog won all three. A team that carries the weight of being favored in the Super Bowl has not gone out and dominated their opponent since the Baltimore Ravens suffocated the New York Giants to complete the 2000 season in Super Bowl XXXV, 34-7.

All the attention during the week while being favored to win does little to motivate a team to play their best. It is worth noting that the only team to complete a perfect season during the Super Bowl era, the Miami Dolphins in 1972, were underdogs to the Washington Redskins in the Roman Numeral game. When the New England Patriots looked to match the Dolphins perfection 17 years ago they were double-digit favorites over the New York Giants and lost the game, 17-14.

In recent weeks, the NFL has been saddled with increasing scrutiny of their officiating. The contention that the Kansas City Chiefs get more favorable calls than a father would give his five-year-old in a driveway basketball game seems supported by visual evidence. In the Chiefs victory over the Buffalo Bills last week, there were two critical calls that went Kansas City’s way. First, on a controversial catch near the goal in what could have been given the defense based on who had possession when the two players hit the ground; could have been called incomplete given the ball touched the ground; and yet ended up being ruled a completion by the Chiefs receiver.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Josh Allen used a play that had been reliable for the Bills all year long to gain short yardage. The official on one side of the field signaled first down, the one on the other indicated the Bills quarterback came up short. The short call was first recognized by the referee and then upheld on an inconclusive video replay.

The call went, wait for it … the Chiefs way.

Now, I don’t think the fix is in. I think these part-time officials that the league employs to ref their games are less than we could get if the league had a dedicated full-time staff that honed their craft 12 months a year and were in the prime of their athletic prowess. I cringe when I see a 58-year-old school administrator trying to keep up with a receiver and defender in their 20’s and at the height of their physical capabilities.

Now, if the league wanted to keep the games competitive to enhance viewership and interest the officials are a really good place to start. For years I watched Monday Night Football contests that were lopsided at halftime and then the trailing team seemingly got a number of calls go their way in an attempt to make the game more competitive in the second half.

The officials are not the only place the NFL can go to shift the advantage away from a team running away on the scoreboard. In Super Bowl XLVII, the Baltimore Ravens were dominating the San Francisco 49ers and appeared well on their way to a blowout win, then the lights went out. The unscheduled 34-minute break in the action seemed to shift the momentum of the game dramatically, with the 49ers returning from the break with a renewed level of competitive juices while the Ravens were flat, still holding on for a narrow three-point win, 34-31.

Did the powers-to-be orchestrate the outage to interrupt the Ravens dominance?

Conspiracy theorists can have a field day with that between their claims of us not landing on the moon and who killed Kennedy.

I worked in the NFL, saw the dedication the coaches and players made in an effort to end their season in a hail of confetti while accepting the Vince Lombardi Trophy. I come from the premise that the game is on the up-and-up … but I am not naive to what Al Davis taught me in 1974 … the league is entertainment first and how much of that can be left to chance is debatable.