Sports Illustrated - USA (2022-02)

26 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM

Today, the NFL’s marquee event reaches 150 million

viewers around the world. Meanwhile, Hollywood is

responsible for one of the U.S.’s leading exports: pop

culture. And the synergy between football and the

film industry has never been stronger. The Super Bowl

gooses its ratings each year with its starry, shock-and-

awe halftime shows, while the movie industry shells out

$5.5 million for each 30-second ad during the Big Game

to give sneak peeks at its latest shoot-the-works franchise

wares. Sometimes it seems as if one uniquely American

form of escapist entertainment is eating its own tail—at

a corner booth at the Ivy, naturally.

This symbiosis only seems to be getting stronger:

Just recall Brad Pitt’s stentorian introduction before last

year’s Super Bowl, hailing the generational matchup

between Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. So as the

Big Game returns to La La Land, we look back at some of

the most memorable moments in this long—and sometimes

awkward—relationship.

O

N JAN. 15, 1967, Vince Lombardi’s dynastic Packers

routed the AFL’s scrappy Chiefs 35–10 in Super Bowl I.

But the showdown that would usher in a new era for the

sport was seemingly slapped together with Scotch tape

and chewing gum. The site for the game wasn’t even

When Super Bowl LVI kicks off

at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood,

Calif., it will symbolize a

homecoming of sorts. After

all, 55 years ago the very first

Super Bowl played out in the

balmy shadow of the Hollywood

sign as well. A lot has changed

since then—both in terms of

football’s ascent as the national

pastime and the size and scale

of big-studio blockbusters—but

the NFL and movie industry

have, in many ways, matured

into hand-over-fist success

stories, side by side. In fact,

you could say that the first

Big Game between the AFL

and NFL champions at the

Los Angeles Coliseum was its

splashy Tinseltown premiere.

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