The football game that changed America How the NFL created a national holiday

A statistics-driven history of the Super Bowl celebrates the annual mega-event at the confluence of athletics, business, entertainment, and patriotism. Born of the 1966 merger between the National Football League and its younger rival, the American Football League, the inaugural inter-league championship game was thrown together in less than two months' time. Differences in television network practices, rules, and even footballs used by each league made for a less polished event than originally envisioned by league commissioner Pete Rozelle, who wanted a dramatic spectacle involving balloons, doves, and two jetpack pilots symbolically shaking hands. But soon the Super Bowl became the biggest extravaganza in sports. The most watched television event every year since 1972, it has an estimated annual economic impact of $48 billion (including $6 billion of lost productivity the Monday afterwards). A former sports broadcasting executive, Deninger emphasizes the Super Bowl's symbiotic relationship with television and shares revealing statistics. Acknowledging that event organizers and broadcasters haven't always responded nimbly to controversies, such as players kneeling in protest or concerns about concussions, Deninger remains optimistic about the big game's potential to unify Americans.

This entertaining history from Deninger (Live Sports Media), a former ESPN producer, traces how the Super Bowl became "the largest shared American experience of the year." He explains how the American Football League's 1960 launch threatened the National Football League's monopoly, motivating the latter to initiate a 1966 merger that stipulated a "world championship game" between the top teams from each league. The Super Bowl got off to a shaky start, Deninger writes, noting that a third of the tickets went unsold at the first game in 1967, and that the NFL's dominance over the AFL in the first two Super Bowls led the leagues to consider abandoning the matchups until the unexpected triumph of the Jets, an AFL team, at Super Bowl III. Elsewhere, Deninger discusses how the Super Bowl became an advertising bonanza and chronicles the evolution of the halftime show. He details mind-boggling statistics about the game (it provides a $41.9 billion annual boost to the national economy) and serves up plenty of amusing tidbits (the name "Super Bowl" was proposed in jest by AFL cofounder Lamar Hunt, who wrote in a memo, "We should coin a phrase for the championship game.... I have kiddingly called it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon"). Football fans will find much to cheer for. (Sept.)