Veteran Green Bay receiver Max McGee, the player who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history, was an incorrigible carouser who broke curfew, stayed out all the night before the first NFL-AFL Championship game (which became the Super Bowl), and was so queasy in the huddle that he thought he might pass out. These fascinating details about the little-used sub who was pressed into action by a teammate’s injury are the kind that fill “50 Years, 50 Moments,” a series of behind-the-scenes explorations of the strategic decisions, record-breaking performances, and key plays (both good bad) in the Super Bowl history. All the telling details are brought back to life via interviews with the players, coaches, and executives involved.
The special dimension to this collaboration between sports journalist Randy Williams and three-time Super Bowl champion Jerry Rice of 49ers fame is that they rank the 50 greatest moments. McGee’s historic reception is only 47th on their list. The bookends are, at No. 1, Joe Namath’s audacious guarantee and the Jets’ realization of Namath’s prediction that New York’s AFL entry would upset the NFL’s Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, and, at No. 50, the comical-looking interception that Miami placekicker Garo Yepremian threw on a botched field goal try in Super Bowl VII.
Here’s an excerpt from 50 Years, 50 Moments:
“ ‘[Pittsburgh’s] Bradshaw couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the C and the T,’ declared Dallas Cowboy linebacker Thomas ‘Hollywood’ Henderson to a group of reporters during the week of Super Bowl XIII. It was one of the most instantly recognizable quotes in the history of the Super Bowl.
“It was also dead wrong.
“For his first eight years in the NFL, quarterback Terry Bradshaw had had his share of ups and downs. His early struggles with head coach Chuck Noll’s playbook were well documented, and yes, he’d been benched for Terry Hanratty and Joe Gilliam at times. But it was also blown out of proportion that he was some sort of country bumpkin right out of the comic strip Li’l Abner.”
