In addition to supporting Durham and Surrey County cricket clubs, Newcastle United, Sunderland, and Crystal Palace in association Football, Warrington in Rugby League, I had followed the Chicago Bears and San Francisco Forty Niners for thirty years and in so doing watched more than half the Superbowls regarded as a World Cup in the USA despite the fact that only teams from the two Premier Football leagues in the USA compete.
On Sunday night into the early hours I watched Superbowl XLVII when I was almost in tears before the start as the Sandy Hook Elementary School chorus sang America the Brave with Jenifer Hudson..
I became interested in American Football game when it was first shown on television in the UK and watching a game on a projected large screen during my month at the Henley management Colleges was one of my highlights there. This was the era of the Chicago Bears and the fridge. Because a relative could not find a shirt for the Bears in the shops one Christmas I was given the bright red, white lettering with brown helmet shirt for the San Francisco 49ners instead. This was a shrewd purchase because the 49ners had commenced an extraordinary decade of triumphant under coach Bill Walsh and quarterbacks Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. My enthusiasm was such that I bought a computer game in the days of tapes and also saw two pre season warm up games at Wembley with the 49ers playing in one.
San Francisco won 5 Superbowls between 1981 and 1994 The team has remained in San Francisco throughout its Franchise and for a couple of decades had close rivals the when the Cleveland Rams moved and became the Los Angels Rams 1946-1994, a rivalry similar to that between Newcastle and Sunderland.
It was the arrival of Joe Montana as the Quarterback whose influence helped bring the first Superbowl title in 1981 breaking record after record and in the 1984 season the team lost only one game of the sixteen, winning all the others. And although a 16-0 has been achieved their record of 19 successive wins remains to this day. They beat the Chicago Bears to play in the final and beat the Miami Dolphins to take the title for the second time. Their entire defence was chosen for the subsequent Pro Bowl, the first time.
In 1985 there was the arrival of another legend Jerry Rice a draft pick from Mississippi State university. After winning their third Superbowl with Rice named the most valuable player (Montana was named three times) coach Bill Walsh retired but this did not stop the team continuing their run of success as they gained their fourth title beating Denver 55 to 10, the biggest margin of victory in the competition to-date. They were the first team to win back to back Superbowls under different coaches. The last of the five wins came in 1994 after a number of major team changes.
As the decade and millennium drew to a close family disputes led to legal actions over the controlling interests and which appeared to signal a downturn in the playing fortunes of the club.
The appointment of Jim Harbaugh as head coach in January two years ago and the arrival of Colin Keapernick as first choice quarterback. Has changed fortunes one more and brought the 49ners to the Superbowl once more.
Jim Harbaugh was born just before Christmas in 1963, the son of a college football coach and his brother John is head coach of the Superbowl rivals the Baltimore Ravens, A sister is married to the head coach of the men’s Indiana basketball team. He has had cardio vascular surgery to correct an abnormal heart beat and is a co owner of Indy car Racing Team, the Panther racers.
I first encountered Jim ( on TV) when after his career in college football he was a first draft pick as quarterback for the Chicago Bear in 1987, He moved to the Indianapolis Colts 1994-1997 and eh also played one season for the Ravens, he continued playing until 2001 but from 1994 he also gained experience as an Assistant coach to his father at Western Kentucky University. He then became quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders and in 2004 became head coach at the University of San Diego, moving to Stamford University for the 2007 season before his appointment to the 49ners.
A new stadium to replace that at Candlewick Park commenced to be built in 2012 at Santa Clara outside the City although all the titles and legacy will remain when the team moves to the new state of the art premises for the 2014 season, where on the site is already the training facilities and administrative offices.
The game was a great anticlimax as San Francisco made mistakes from almost the first moment when a gain of 20 yards first down was riles out because of an illegal line up formation. They never recovered from this with Baltimore scoring three touch downs and taking a 21 to 6 point lead just before half time. During the interval between the first and second quarters, the BBC (two) had a American football fan Olympic gold media list rower who was attending his first live game in the USA and was sitting a couple of rose away from legend Jerry Rice. He was too shy to ask for a photo with the man although the BBC team no doubt arranged for one after saying he should mention was an Olympic gold medallist, The second half guest while the entertainment was being prepared was the British Rugby player Martin Johnson who captained the Lions World Cup success in 2003. He had been a strong American Football and 49ners supports having attended their training session where he was introduced as the worlds greatest rugby union player. He had never seen the team play live and was very disappointed with how things were going. They went from bad to worse as at the kick off by the 49ners the received caught the ball on the one yard line and touched down to make the longest return run in the history of the competition for Baltimore with 109 yards in 11 seconds to lead 28 to 6. When the lights in part of the ground and there was a temporary delay I decided enough was enough and went to bed. I was both wrong and right.
In fact the temporary break provided the opportunity for the coach to impress upon he team the need for considerable improvement in he execution of he play book Colin Keapernick finds Michael Crabtree who avoids two tackles to reach the end zone and the score becomes 28 to 13 after the conversion. Frank Gore then runs the ball into the end zone to make the score 28 to 20 after the conversion and for the first time the Baltimore fans realise the game is not over. Could this be the greatest turn around in Superbowl history? After another couple of minutes San Francisco are able to add another three points with a field goal and the gap becomes 5 points. 17 points scored in four minutes of field play. This brought to an end the third quarter with everyone now tense as the fourth commenced. Of course by then I knew the outcome as I watched the rerun of the game the following day.
Baltimore can only get a field goal themselves tot take the score to 31 to 23 so San Francisco need a touch down with a two point conversion to tie the game. The clock is running down. San Francisco get another touch down. Is history to be written? Unfortunately the two point conversion attempt fails. It is 31 to 29. The Ravens retaliate with a field goal but the difference is only five points so the 49ers ruin the field clock down to the two minutes before making their push for a winning touch down. The play is brilliant and they get with six on the fourth which fails. The coach claims he player was held back but his pleas are ignored. Baltimore concedes a safety and two points. They know what they are doing. The final score is 43 to 32. In fairness the 49ners never took the lead and were always chasing the game after such a s disastrous start, There is always next year.
On Sunday night into the early hours I watched Superbowl XLVII when I was almost in tears before the start as the Sandy Hook Elementary School chorus sang America the Brave with Jenifer Hudson..
I became interested in American Football game when it was first shown on television in the UK and watching a game on a projected large screen during my month at the Henley management Colleges was one of my highlights there. This was the era of the Chicago Bears and the fridge. Because a relative could not find a shirt for the Bears in the shops one Christmas I was given the bright red, white lettering with brown helmet shirt for the San Francisco 49ners instead. This was a shrewd purchase because the 49ners had commenced an extraordinary decade of triumphant under coach Bill Walsh and quarterbacks Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. My enthusiasm was such that I bought a computer game in the days of tapes and also saw two pre season warm up games at Wembley with the 49ers playing in one.
San Francisco won 5 Superbowls between 1981 and 1994 The team has remained in San Francisco throughout its Franchise and for a couple of decades had close rivals the when the Cleveland Rams moved and became the Los Angels Rams 1946-1994, a rivalry similar to that between Newcastle and Sunderland.
It was the arrival of Joe Montana as the Quarterback whose influence helped bring the first Superbowl title in 1981 breaking record after record and in the 1984 season the team lost only one game of the sixteen, winning all the others. And although a 16-0 has been achieved their record of 19 successive wins remains to this day. They beat the Chicago Bears to play in the final and beat the Miami Dolphins to take the title for the second time. Their entire defence was chosen for the subsequent Pro Bowl, the first time.
In 1985 there was the arrival of another legend Jerry Rice a draft pick from Mississippi State university. After winning their third Superbowl with Rice named the most valuable player (Montana was named three times) coach Bill Walsh retired but this did not stop the team continuing their run of success as they gained their fourth title beating Denver 55 to 10, the biggest margin of victory in the competition to-date. They were the first team to win back to back Superbowls under different coaches. The last of the five wins came in 1994 after a number of major team changes.
As the decade and millennium drew to a close family disputes led to legal actions over the controlling interests and which appeared to signal a downturn in the playing fortunes of the club.
The appointment of Jim Harbaugh as head coach in January two years ago and the arrival of Colin Keapernick as first choice quarterback. Has changed fortunes one more and brought the 49ners to the Superbowl once more.
Jim Harbaugh was born just before Christmas in 1963, the son of a college football coach and his brother John is head coach of the Superbowl rivals the Baltimore Ravens, A sister is married to the head coach of the men’s Indiana basketball team. He has had cardio vascular surgery to correct an abnormal heart beat and is a co owner of Indy car Racing Team, the Panther racers.
I first encountered Jim ( on TV) when after his career in college football he was a first draft pick as quarterback for the Chicago Bear in 1987, He moved to the Indianapolis Colts 1994-1997 and eh also played one season for the Ravens, he continued playing until 2001 but from 1994 he also gained experience as an Assistant coach to his father at Western Kentucky University. He then became quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders and in 2004 became head coach at the University of San Diego, moving to Stamford University for the 2007 season before his appointment to the 49ners.
A new stadium to replace that at Candlewick Park commenced to be built in 2012 at Santa Clara outside the City although all the titles and legacy will remain when the team moves to the new state of the art premises for the 2014 season, where on the site is already the training facilities and administrative offices.
The game was a great anticlimax as San Francisco made mistakes from almost the first moment when a gain of 20 yards first down was riles out because of an illegal line up formation. They never recovered from this with Baltimore scoring three touch downs and taking a 21 to 6 point lead just before half time. During the interval between the first and second quarters, the BBC (two) had a American football fan Olympic gold media list rower who was attending his first live game in the USA and was sitting a couple of rose away from legend Jerry Rice. He was too shy to ask for a photo with the man although the BBC team no doubt arranged for one after saying he should mention was an Olympic gold medallist, The second half guest while the entertainment was being prepared was the British Rugby player Martin Johnson who captained the Lions World Cup success in 2003. He had been a strong American Football and 49ners supports having attended their training session where he was introduced as the worlds greatest rugby union player. He had never seen the team play live and was very disappointed with how things were going. They went from bad to worse as at the kick off by the 49ners the received caught the ball on the one yard line and touched down to make the longest return run in the history of the competition for Baltimore with 109 yards in 11 seconds to lead 28 to 6. When the lights in part of the ground and there was a temporary delay I decided enough was enough and went to bed. I was both wrong and right.
In fact the temporary break provided the opportunity for the coach to impress upon he team the need for considerable improvement in he execution of he play book Colin Keapernick finds Michael Crabtree who avoids two tackles to reach the end zone and the score becomes 28 to 13 after the conversion. Frank Gore then runs the ball into the end zone to make the score 28 to 20 after the conversion and for the first time the Baltimore fans realise the game is not over. Could this be the greatest turn around in Superbowl history? After another couple of minutes San Francisco are able to add another three points with a field goal and the gap becomes 5 points. 17 points scored in four minutes of field play. This brought to an end the third quarter with everyone now tense as the fourth commenced. Of course by then I knew the outcome as I watched the rerun of the game the following day.
Baltimore can only get a field goal themselves tot take the score to 31 to 23 so San Francisco need a touch down with a two point conversion to tie the game. The clock is running down. San Francisco get another touch down. Is history to be written? Unfortunately the two point conversion attempt fails. It is 31 to 29. The Ravens retaliate with a field goal but the difference is only five points so the 49ers ruin the field clock down to the two minutes before making their push for a winning touch down. The play is brilliant and they get with six on the fourth which fails. The coach claims he player was held back but his pleas are ignored. Baltimore concedes a safety and two points. They know what they are doing. The final score is 43 to 32. In fairness the 49ners never took the lead and were always chasing the game after such a s disastrous start, There is always next year.
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