Please Enjoy Some Fantastic Super Bowl XIII Pregame Coverage
By Kyle Koster
Lamenting the ancillary programming the Super Bowl is used to support is the surest way to get someone to shout "OK, Boomer" in your general direction, but after viewing NBC's pregame coverage of Super Bowl XIII, I can't help but wonder about beauty gone out the door with the loss of simplicity.
NBC was on the call for the Pittsburgh Steelers' 35-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. Broadcasting Dick Enberg served as host, complemented by an array of stars, including Fran Tarkenton, Bryant Gumbel, and an impossibly handsome Mike Adamle.
There is a montage of the 12 previous Super Bowl that, if shown to suits these days, would be laughed out of the room due to current attention spans. The music bangs. The advertisers are a "Who's who" of heavy hitters. The crew's red suits are extra red.
Merlin Olsen, fresh off a Hall of Fame career, is excited for his Super Bowl broadcast. Then, just when you think there can't possibly be more flashbacks, they dive back into the Big Game's bibliography.
For some reason, there's a section on men's gymnastics that I didn't understand before an in-depth breakdown of all the position groups.
Some would suggest this is the least productive way to spend 14 of one's valuable moments. To those I'd say, 'Uh, please don't consider all the other videos I watched to completion after going down a nostalgic rabbit hole.'