Top 100 momentsNo. 19
Super Bowl I
Green Bay beats Kansas City in Los Angeles. Two leagues share a title game; a few years later they share a league. The broadcast becomes an American holiday.
The NFL and the AFL agree to a championship game before they agree to a merger. Super Bowl I is played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The seats are not full. Vince Lombardi’s Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Two networks broadcast it. The name “Super Bowl” is still a little embarrassing.
Within a few years the leagues are one, the game is the highest-rated show in America, and February is a national unofficial holiday. Halftime becomes an industry. The commercials cost more than the original teams.
Super Bowl I is small in the rearview. It is the contract that made the rest possible: one game to settle two leagues, then one league, then a spectacle that barely needs the football.