Sports 11

Ryan Ahlerrcahler97@gmail.com

Super Bowl has now become the Harbowl

Superbowl XLVII is taking place at the Superdome in New Orleans on Feb 3, 2013. � e game will match the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens against the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers.

� e Baltimore Ravens have taken a wild path to reach the Super Bowl. A team many were leaving for dead a� er a disappointing end to the regular season was revitalized by the announcement that this would be 17-year veteran middle linebacker Ray Lewis’s last year. � e Ravens went 10-6 during the regular season. � is is the second Super Bowl appearance in Ravens history.

In the wild card game their defense held the Colts without a touchdown as they won 24-9. � e Ravens were heavy underdogs going into the divisional playo� against the Denver Broncos but hit a � eld goal in double overtime to win 38-35. Baltimore avenged their AFC championship loss last year by beating the New England Patriots 28-13 in the AFC championship this year.

� e storied San Francisco 49ers are going for their sixth Super Bowl championship, and � rst since the ‘94 season. � e team has gone through quarterback controversy during this season. Starter Alex Smith went down with an injury and was replaced with second year man Colin Kaepernick. Management decided to keep playing Kaepernick even a� er Smith was healthy because of his ability to be an explosive runner.

San Francisco posted a 11-4-1 record this. � ey beat the Green Bay Packers 45-31 in the divisional playo� behind a team playo� record 579 yards of o� ense. San Francisco came back from down 17-0 to beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-24 in the NFC championship.

Maybe the most interesting story going into the Super Bowl is the head coaches. San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh and Baltimore coach John Harbaugh are brothers. � ey are the � rst set of brothers to ever both coach in the NFL, and now they are facing o� in the Super Bowl.

Jim Harbaugh is a former quarterback who was most notable for leading the cinderella Colts within a controversial call of the Super Bowl in 1995, later he coached current Colts quarterback Andrew Luck at Stanford. Since taking over in San Francisco, he has led a

team that was irrelevant for a decade to two straight division championships and now the Super Bowl.

John Harbaugh never played in the NFL but was a successful special teams coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles. He has been the head coach in Baltimore for � ve years, and has led them to the playo� s every year.

History of the evolution of the Super BowlPro football was in a very

di� erent situation in the 1960s. � ere were two di� erent leagues competing for supremacy, � e American Football League (AFL) and � e National Football League (NFL). � e long established NFL had dominated professional football since 1920, while the AFL had been formed in 1960 and had been � ghting an uphill battle with the more established league. � e AFL had gained a strong footing with the American people with its wide-open passing attacks and unpredictability, which many people found more entertaining than the more conservative, run-� rst football of the NFL.

By the mid ‘60s the leagues had gained a virtual parity in attendance, TV revenue and the signing of major collegiate athletes. � e competition had forced a raise in player salaries that was starting to � nancially

strain owners, so Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Dallas Cowboys General Manager Tex Schramm started working out a merger of the two leagues to prevent the monetary collapse of both.

In the four years before the complete merger the champions of both leagues would meet to play in the AFL-NFL world championship game, which would later be renamed the Super Bowl by Lamar Hunt; a� er the “Super Ball” a children’s toy.

Super Bowls I and II were won by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers in a dominant fashion. Defeating the Kansas City 35-10 in Super Bowl I and demolishing the Oakland Raiders 33-14 in Super Bowl II.

� e NFL’s decisive victories in the � rst two games led many

people to think the elder league was far superior, so going into Super Bowl III Baltimore was two touchdown favorites over the New York Jets. Baltimore,

led by career backup-turned NFL MVP Earl Morrall had steamrolled through the NFL season, going 13-1 and defeating the Cleveland Browns 34-0 in

the NFL championship.Quarterbacked by media

darling Joe Namath New York went 11-3 and defeated Oakland in the AFL championship. During a pregame interview Namath guaranteed victory. He was correct, the New York defense was able to confuse Morrall and forced him to throw two costly end zone interceptions. With the Jets leading 16-0 Baltimore coach Don Shula benched Morrall for the legendary Johnny Unitas,

who had injured his shoulder during the preseason and was kept on the bench because of Morral’s sucsess. Unitas was more successful than Morrall but again the colts were picked o� in the endzone, and New York would end up winning 16-7.

� e AFL victory sent shockwaves through the football world, most people had never thought that New York could defeat a Baltimore team that was considered an all-time great. � e next year the AFL proved its victory wasn’t a � uke when Kansas City beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.

� e � rst four Super Bowls would be landmarks in sports history. � e newly expanded NFL became even more popular in the next decades, with Monday Night Football in 1970 and the Super Bowl becoming more and more the media extravaganza it is today.

“Steelers, because they are totally still in the playo� s” Sophomore Shannon O’malley said

Who Tigers want to win

“The Ravens, because Ray Lewis needs another ring before he retires,” Freshman Jack Dopker said.

“49ers all the way. I think the scores going to be 34-17” Freshman Nick Harding said.

MCT Campus

MCT Campus

Abigale Hutton

Abigale Hutton

Abig

ale

Hutton

Ravens wideout Torey Smithc e l e b r a t e s their vitory withcoach John H a r b a u g h .

Coach Jim H a r b a u g h congratulates quarterback C o l i n Kaepern ick during their win over Atlanta.

MCT Campus

MCT Campus

The Super Bowl by the #’s

$4,000,000: Cost of a 30 second advertisment during Super Bowl XLVII

3: number of Super Bowls won on last second � eld goals, V, XXXVI, and XXXVIII

6: Most Super Bowls won by one team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, IX, X, XIII, XIV, LX, and LXIII

1: Number of teams who have gone through the NFL season and playo� s undefeated, the 1972 Miami Dolphins

14: Number of teams who have never won a Super Bowl, four of which have never even apeared.