NEW ORLEANS — When the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles meet in Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 in the Caesars Superdome, New Orleans will make history by tying Miami for the most Super Bowls hosted (11).
But it’s the games themselves that have produced plenty of history for the Crescent City.
In the city’s first Super Bowl (IV), the Chiefs made their only previous title game appearance in New Orleans at Tulane Stadium, which was the site of three Super Bowls before the Superdome came along.
The previous year, the New York Jets made Joe Namath a prophet by upsetting the heavily favored Baltimore Colts and demonstrating that the AFL and the NFL were more competitive than had generally been accepted, with the merger of the two leagues approaching.
When Hank Stram’s Chiefs rolled into New Orleans and upset the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in the last game involving the AFL, it further solidified the incoming teams’ legitimacy.
Fast forward 43 years, and the last Super Bowl played in New Orleans made history as the first one in which the two head coaches were brothers when John Harbaugh led the Baltimore Ravens against Jim Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers.
But it became notable for another, more bizarre reason when a power outage knocked out the lights inside the Superdome early in the third quarter.
In between the first and last Super Bowls in New Orleans, the Crescent City was the site of:
–the first Super Bowl titles won by the Cowboys and the Steelers;
–another Cowboys title in the first Super Bowl played indoors once the Superdome opened;
–the Eagles’ only previous appearance in a New Orleans Super Bowl in a loss to the Raiders;
–the Bears’ only Super Bowl title;
–the 49ers’ last Super Bowl title with Joe Montana;
–the Packers’ first post-Lombardi title;
–and the Patriots’ and Tom Brady’s first title in the first post-/911 Super Bowl.
Then came the Harbaugh Bowl.
Joe Flacco threw touchdown passes to Anquan Boldin, Dennis Pitta and Jacoby Jones to give Baltimore a 21-6 halftime lead. Jones, playing in his hometown, returned the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown.
The Ravens were rolling. Then the power outage knocked the lights out for 34 minutes.
When play resumed, the game changed.
San Francisco scored 17 unanswered points, the last seven of which came on Colin Kaepernick’s touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree that trimmed the lead to 28-23 at the end of the third quarter.
Justin Tucker kicked a field goal for Baltimore before Kaepernick ran 15 yards for a touchdown. The 49ers had a chance to tie, but a two-point conversion failed with 9:57 left.
Another Tucker field goal pushed the lead to 34-29 and San Francisco drove to the Ravens’ 5-yard line in the final two minutes, but turned the ball over on downs.
Baltimore took a safety in the final seconds, completing the scoring in one of the most unusual and entertaining Super Bowls.
And now the big game is back in the Superdome. Both Harbaughs had a chance to return but the Ravens lost a divisional playoff to Buffalo and Jim’s first season as head coach of the Chargers ended with a wild-card loss to the Texans.
This time, Kansas City will chase what would be a history-making three-peat while Philadelphia will try to prevent history and win its second Super Bowl title.
Hopefully the lights stay on.
–Les East, Field Level Media
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