February 3, 2013: Power Failure at the Super Bowl

February 3, 2013: Super Bowl XLVII is played at the Superdome in New Orleans. It was the 7th time the building had hosted, a record. But it was the 1st time since Hurricane Katrina forced the building's renovation in 2005-06. (UPDATE: There has since been an 8th played there.)

The San Francisco 49ers were the NFC Champions for the 1st time since the 1994 season. They came in with a 5-0 record in Super Bowls. The Baltimore Ravens were the AFC Champions, having made 1 previous Super Bowl appearance, winning Super Bowl XXXV in 2001.

The 49ers' head coach was Jim Harbaugh. The Ravens' head coach was his younger brother, John Harbaugh. On John's staff was Jim's son, Jay Harbaugh. The family is from the Toledo area in northwestern Ohio. Jim and John were the sons of Jack Harbaugh, a running back at Bowling Green University in Ohio, who later served as head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky.

John (left) and Jim Harbaugh

Jim had played quarterback for the University of Michigan, and had gotten both the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts to Conference Championship Games. He had even played the 1998 season with the Ravens. He was on Jon Gruden's staff when the Oakland Raiders reached Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. John had played safety at Miami University of Ohio, a.k.a. "The Cradle of Coaches," and went right into coaching, serving on Andy Reid's staff as the Philadelphia Eagles reached Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. Jay's playing career ended with an injury as a high school defensive lineman. He graduated from Oregon State, and went into coaching.

This was the first time I followed a Super Bowl on social media, in my case both Facebook and Twitter. And when Jacoby Jones of the Ravens took the 49ers' opening kickoff of the 2nd half a Super Bowl record 108 yards for a touchdown, the score was Ravens 28, 49ers 6. I wrote on Twitter, "It's been a while since we had a good old-fashioned smackdown in a Super Bowl."

Beyoncé Knowles reunited with her Destiny's Child teammates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams to perform the halftime show. A little while later, with the score unchanged, I wrote: "Looks like the Ravens are following Beyoncé's advice: They're putting a ring on it."

A moment after that, I cited the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback turned ABC Monday Night Football announcer, who liked to announce a blowout by singing a Willie Nelson song, before his retirement in 1985 and his death in 2010: "Cue the ghost of Don Meredith: Turn out the lights! The party's over!"

And then, somebody did turn out the lights. A power outage caused the lights to go out in half of the stadium, stopping play for 34 minutes. The outage was caused by equipment failure near the stadium.

Thinking of the line about the roof being on fire in House Party, I wrote, "The roof! The roof! The roof is ill-wired!" About a dozen others, thinking of the Superdome being an inappropriate haven for refugees during Hurricane Katrina, wrote words to the effect of, "Now it's the rich people trapped in the Superdome."

But once power was restored, the 49ers seemed restored as well. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick drove them, and threw a touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree, cutting the deficit to 28-13. They forced the Ravens to end their next drive with a punt, and Kaepernick went to work again, the drive ending with a 6-yard touchdown run by Frank Gore. It was 28-20, and the Niners were back in the game. On the Ravens' next drive, Tarell Brown forced a fumble by Ray Rice, and recovered it. David Akers missed a field goal attempt, but a Raven penalty gave him a second chance, and he cut the lead to 28-23.

The Ravens finally woke up, but their drive stalled, and a Justin Tucker field goal made it 31-23. The 49ers' last drive included the last catch of Randy Moss' career -- in spite of regular-season totals of 983 catches for 15,295 yards and 157 touchdowns, he went 0-2 in Super Bowls -- and Kaepernick rushing for 15 yards, the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in Super Bowl history. But they missed what would have been a tying 2-point conversion, and the score stayed 31-29.

With 4:19 left in regulation, another Tucker field goal made it 34-29. The 49ers got to a 1st & goal on the Ravens' 7, but couldn't punch it in, and turned the ball over on downs with 1:46 left. The Ravens took an intentional safety, leaving time for one more play, a kickoff from their 20. Ted Ginn Jr. could only return it 31 yards, and the Ravens won, 34-31.

Those of us who saw the 49ers go 5-0 in Super Bowls from 1982 to 1995 had begun to think they would pull off the great comeback. But then, as Rick Pitino would say, Joe Montana, Roger Craig and Jerry Rice weren't walking through that door.

The Ravens had their 2nd title, and the 5th NFL Championship for the City of Baltimore. Raven linebacker Ray Lewis kept his word, and retired. In the end, though, despite the controversy that followed him during the Ravens' successful pursuit of Super Bowl XXXV, the most controversial player in this game turned out to be Colin Kaepernick -- not because he lied to the police, as Lewis did, but because he exposed them.

UPDATE: Jay Harbaugh won a Super Bowl ring in 2026, as special teams coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks.

*

February 3, 2013 was, like all Super Bowl days, a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-104 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Miami Heat beat the Toronto Raptors, 100-85 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 98-97 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 3-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators, 2-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 6-3 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Chris Kunitz scored 4 goals for the Penguins. Neither Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby nor Washington's Alex Ovechkin scored a goal, although Crosby had 2 assists, and Ovechkin 1.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

 

January 28, 2001: Baltimore Football Finally Moves On

January 28, 2001: Super Bowl XXXV is played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The Baltimore Ravens beat the New York Giants, 34-7. It is the 1st NFL Championship won by the franchise formerly known as the Cleveland Browns in 36 years, and the 1st by a Baltimore-based team in 30 years.

Since the Giants' only touchdown is scored on a kickoff return -- by Ron Dixon, followed immediately by the Ravens doing the same, by Jermaine Lewis -- the Giants became the only team in Super Bowl history whose offense scored no points.

It marks Kerry Collins as the worst quarterback in Super Bowl history. He went 15-for-39, for 112 yards, 4 interceptions, and no touchdowns. In contrast, Trent Dilfer -- who has often been mocked as the worst quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl, and indeed became the 1st winning quarterback ever let go before the next season (as opposed to retiring) -- went 12-for-25, 153 yards, 1 touchdown and no interceptions. Quarterback ratings: Dilfer 80.9, Collins 7.1.

Under head coach Brian Billick and defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis, the Ravens' defense drew comparisons to the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and the 1985 Chicago Bears in terms of effectiveness and ferocity. Linebacker Ray Lewis was the best player and the emotional leader of a side that also included defensive end Michael McCrary, linebacker Peter Boulware, safety Ed Reed, and cornerback Rod Woodson, who won his 1st title after a long career with the Steelers. The offense was led by Dilfer, veteran running back Earnest Byner and rookie running back Jamal Lewis, with protection from tackle Jonathan Ogden.

A cloud hung over the team, particularly over Ray Lewis. In 2000, he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the stabbing deaths of two men at a Super Bowl afterparty in Atlanta. He testified as a key witness at the trial, and a jury determined the killings were acts of self-defense. Ever since, people who don't like the Ravens have speculated that he had more to do with those deaths than has been publicly let on.

It had now been 5 full seasons since the Ravens arrived, 17 years since the Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis, 23 years since the Colts' last Playoff berth in Baltimore, and 30 years since their last Super Bowl win in Baltimore. What's more, the Ravens had not only been to a Super Bowl, while the Colts had not yet been to one since they moved, but won it.

This game, putting Baltimore back on top of the football world, enabled their fans to finally move on from the legend and mystique of the Colts: They could celebrate their former team, but they no longer had to mourn it. Baltimore was now the NFL Champions of 1958, 1959, 1970 and 2000, and Indianapolis was still waiting.

The Colts didn't just bury the Giants, they laid the legend of the Baltimore Colts to rest, giving it the memorial service it deserved.

Over the next 11 seasons, the Colts would win a Super Bowl as an Indianapolis team, and lose another; while the Ravens made the Playoffs 7 times, including 2 trips to the AFC Championship Game. In the 2012 season, with Lewis the only holdover from the 2000 season, they won Super Bowl XLVII, for the team's 2nd title, and the city's 5th. At that point, the only cities with more were Green Bay with 13, Chicago with 11 (9 by the Bears, 2 by the Cardinals), New York with 9 (8 by the Giants, 1 by the Jets), the San Francisco Bay Area with 7 (5 by the 49ers, 2 by the Raiders), and Pittsburgh with 6. Boston now has 6, and if Providence (the 1928 Steam Roller) is counted as part of their area, that's 7. Dallas also has 5, and now, so does Philadelphia (4 by the Eagles, 1 by the 1926 Frankford Yellow Jackets).

UPDATE: Philadelphia now has 6.

The Ravens have a Ring of Honor. It honors Ravens founder Art Modell, head coach Brian Billick; Super Bowl XXXV winners Earnest Byner, Michael McCrary, Peter Boulware, Jonathan Ogden, Matt Stover, Jamal Lewis, Ray Lewis; Super Bowl XLVII winners Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Marshal Yanda; and Todd Heap, who played between the Super Bowl wins. It also honors Colts Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Art Donovan, Jim Parker, Raymond Berry, Gino Marchetti, John Mackey and Ted Hendricks.

*

January 28, 2001, like all Super Bowl gamedays, was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. Knowing that TV ratings would probably not be good, the NBA scheduled only 2 games for the day. The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 91-81 at Madison Square Garden. And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 86-81 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.