Sometimes, we just need a good distraction. The world buzzes on, politics a rattly old truck, no shock absorbers, no brakes, as we contend with endless worries and aging aches, half the world in a terrible hurry, the other half clatter trap and AI fakes. Almost “good for the soul” is a Superbowl.
This weekend, the New England Patriots play Seattle’s Seahawks in Super Bowl LVI, the first time the Patriots arrive without Tom Brady. Leaving details aside, which makes some tense, the Patriots have six Super Bowl wins, the Seahawks just one, and oddsmakers like their defense.
Almost as interesting is looking back – to Superbowl One, 1967, Kansas City Chiefs v. Green Bay Packers. The Packers won 35-10, under the iconic leadership of Vince Lombardi. They won again in 1968, and when Lombardi fell to cancer in 1970, the Super Bowl trophy was named for him.
Back in 1967, the halftime show featured the epic trumpeter and bandleader Al Hirt, with marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling College in Louisiana. No Rolling Stones, no Lopez, Timberlake, Gaga, Madonna, The Who, Springsteen, or ribald rappers in English or Spanish.
A 30-second Super Bowl ad, which today commands $8 million, could be purchased – a real deal – for $42,000. The world had no cable stations, no streaming fees, no internet, no players on knees.
The halftime show, looking back, was almost as memorable as the game itself, in terms of setting precedents, doing what none have done since. In addition to the two college marching bands, a high school drill team was featured, 300 pigeons were released, and 10,000 helium balloons.
Today, beyond considering high school drill teams and college bands insufficient, mass releases of birds are discouraged, and – with the Superbowl again in California – balloon releases are illegal.
But for me, the biggest thrill – watching Superbowl One’s halftime rerun – was the “human rocket,” a demonstration done inside the stadium of a human “jet pack,” a guy who toured the stadium in the air using a hydrogen peroxide propelled rocket on his back, undoubtedly taking the whole crowd into what they thought was the imminent future, or at least into the world of The Jetsons.
Interestingly, the “jet pack” could only stay aloft for 21 seconds and had been commissioned as a battlefield option by the US Army, but was later found impractical and abandoned. Commercially, jet packs do exist for selective – but not personal – use, apparently able to stay up ten minutes.
What did not happen, contrary to public hope, was a surge in jet packs – taking them from stunt to common use. Two years later, in that era of big dreams and social unrest – America would put two men on the moon, beginning the long taper toward ending the Cold War.
Super Bowl One was a novelty, in retrospect filled with novelties, but also a precedent, which today continues, as Americans dedicate time to friendly distraction, a few hours without partisanship or political quips, just play calls, folderol, beer, and chips. Sometimes we just need a good distraction.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
