Monday, January 25, 2016

Super Bowl XXXVI Memories









Super Bowl XXXVI  – New England Patriots 20 St. Louis Rams 17. Played on February 3, 2002 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. MVP Tom Brady. Favorite Rams by 14. National anthem Mariah Carey. Halftime show U2. Attendance 72,922. Network Fox. Announcers Pat Summerall and John Madden. Nielsen ratings 40.4. est. 86.8 million viewers. Market share 61. Cost of 30-second commercial US $1.9 million. Kurt Warner 28/44 365 1 2, Marshall Faulk 17 76, Tom Brady 16/27 145 1 0, Antwain Smith 18 92.  




This Super Bowl was played in the shadow of the September 11 attacks and the immediate aftermath. There was a wave of prominent nationalistic displays, and the actual day of the Super Bowl was pushed back by one week, making this the first Super Bowl to be played in February.

The New England Patriots have become the standard bearer of success in the 21st century in the NFL, having won four Super Bowl titles, and gone to six Super Bowls in all, both easily well ahead of everyone else. However, that was far from obviously going to be the case in 2001. In the 1980's and 1990's, the Patriots were by and large nothing special, to say the least. In 1990, they were one of the worst teams in history, going 1-15 on the season. Two years later in 1992, they finished 2-14. They got the first pick in the draft, and despite an offer by San Francisco to obtain very single draft pick from that team in that year's draft, New England opted to keep that pick in order to obtain the seeming quarterback prodigy of his generation, Drew Bledsoe.

That is when the Pats started improving, qualifying for the playoffs in 1994, and qualifying for the Super Bowl in 1996. But they were stagnating a bit by 2001, dropping their first two games and then seeing Bledsoe suffer a serious injury that would sideline him for quite some time. In came a very young quarterback with very limited experience by the name of Tom Brady, and expectations were low.

However, New England starting winning under Brady, and somehow, just kept on winning. They had a surprising 5-4 record when they played the Rams in a Sunday Night Football showdown St. Louis was everyone's favorite to win the big game that year.

The Rams had won the Super Bowl just two seasons before, and their offense became the first to score at least 500 points in three consecutive seasons from 1999 through 2001. They also became the first team in NFL history to begin three consecutive seasons with undefeated, 6-0 starts, although they lost their seventh game each time. A few years later, the Indianapolis Colts would have longer undefeated starts for three consecutive seasons.

St. Louis had the top offense in the league, as well as the number one ranked defense in the league, although that might have been partly due to the offense taking enormous leads early, and the defenses being able to kind of defend against the passing game exclusively, and forcing turnovers. They struggled a bit against the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, which might have been an early indicator that they were vulnerable, no matter how powerful they had appeared all season long.

Nonetheless, they entered the game as prohibitive favorites, with New England being 14-point underdogs. But the Pats came to play, and their defense stifled the Rams all game long, until the fourth quarter. New England had not exploded offensively, but held a 17-3 lead in that final quarter, when the Rams suddenly came alive, reminding everyone just why they were supposed to be so incredible on offense.

After the Rams scored on two possessions in that final quarter, the game was tied with very little time left to play. Most people, including myself, as well as John Madden, assumed that the Patriots would play it safe and run out the clock, which would have made this the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. However, Belichik had Brady drive down the field aggressively, and the Pats were successful. They got into field goal range, and in the game's final seconds, Adam Viniatieri kicked what would be the winning field goal to give New England their first Super Bowl title ever, shocking the heavily favored Rams in the process.

Personal Memories: I saw a preview of this game when I went to see the Patriots and Rams play in New England on Sunday Night Football in November of that 2001, Pats (5-4) hosting the Rams (8-1). Rams won that one, but lost the one that counted in the Super Bowl. It was the only time that I have managed to see such a thing, although I came fairly close in the 2009 preseason with a game between the Colts and the Vikings. If Favre had not thrown that interception, Minnesota may very well have won, and it would be twice. Still, seeing the two teams meet that would meet once again in that season's Super Bowl was pretty amazing! The outcome in that game was very different, however, as the St. Louis Rams, who looked like a powerhouse team at that point destined for another Super Bowl title, struggled but defeated the Patriots at Foxboro.

Mild winter, worked at a local airport on a temporary basis. Later that year, I would find steadier work in Pomona, New York. Still, the world had a depressing feel in those immediate months following the September 11th attacks, and by the autumn, George W. Bush and his administration were aggressively pining for war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, on the premise of his mass arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

http://www.infoplease.com/year/2002.html

Here are some of the major events that took place in 2002, the year this Super Bowl was played. The world's population was 6.24 billion people. Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s trial on charges of crimes against humanity opened at The Hague. Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan government signed a cease-fire agreement, ending 19 years of civil war. India's worst Hindu-Muslim violence in a decade rocked the state of Gujarat after a Muslim mob fire-bombed a train, killing Hindu activists. Hindus retaliated, and more than 1,000 died in the bloodshed. U.S. and Afghan troops launch Operation Anaconda against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Israeli tanks and warplanes attacked West Bank towns of Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, and others in response to string of Palestinian suicide attacks. In the first three months of 2002, 14 suicide bombers killed dozens of Israeli civilians, and wounded hundreds. International Criminal Court wins UN ratification; U.S. refuses to ratify. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was ousted in coup, then gets reinstated.   U.S. and Russia reached a landmark arms agreement to cut both countries' nuclear arsenals by up to two-thirds over the next 10 years. East Timor becomes a new nation. Terrorist bomb in Bali killed hundreds. Government suspended in Northern Ireland in protest of suspected IRA spy ring. North Korea admitted to developing nuclear arms in defiance of treaty.  Chechen rebels took 763 hostages in Moscow theater. Russian authorities release a gas into theater, killing 116 hostages and freeing remainder. China's Jiang Zemin officially retires as general secretary; Hu Jintao named as his successor.  UN Security Council passed unanimous resolution calling on Iraq to disarm or else face "serious consequences." . UN arms inspectors returned to Iraq.




http://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/98529-super-bowl-field-database-sb-xlvi-texture-added-122215/page-9

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