National Football League

Super Bowl hype sure has changed

Published Jan. 25, 2009 12:18 a.m. ET

foxsports

FOX NFL Sunday editorial consultant John Czarnecki checked in with the pregame gang — Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson and Michael Strahan — for their reflections on their own Super Bowl experiences, touching on in-game memories, pregame rituals and just how much Super Bowl hype has changed from their playing and coaching days.

The Super Bowl is America's most-hyped sporting event and for pure football theater, few championships will ever match last year's game when the road-energized New York Giants upset the unbeaten New England Patriots. It's the pinnacle of success. The magnitude of the game has always been top-shelf, but it's been gradually shaped through the decades.

The first Super Bowls in Los Angeles, a city now without any team, were not instant sellouts.

And consider ticket prices. For Terry Bradshaw's fourth and final Super Bowl, at the end of the 1979 season, tickets were $30. Next Sunday, fans will be lucky to get a seat for $1,000.