Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [42]
With sirens blaring in the background, Kent continued to narrate the action.
“What will be happening now is that on the air base and here at our location in this hotel, people will be heading for the shelters. They will be on maximum, MOP-alert, which means they will be donning their chemical warfare protective suits and clothing, which we’re keeping close at hand here. But we would remind you that we have decided, as we have in past, that we will continue broadcasting to you through these attacks.”
“Well Arthur, tell us, the people going into the bunker, are they being told to do so by the military and, if so, should you be going now? “ Utley asked.
“In all likelihood, Garrick” responded Kent, “that would be a wise course of action if we were not concerned with making sure that we were broadcasting to you. But we’ve handled this kind of threat before. We’re dealing with conventional warheads as we’ve seen in Israel and those of us here feel we should stay at our post.”
“Arthur, Arthur,” Utley interrupted. “Thank you very much. Go, go into the bunker with the others. We have your videotape report from earlier on. We’ll get back to you and you can come back and report on the latest events there. But go now into the bunker.”
Kent and his crew remained atop their hotel roof throughout the evening as the periodic air attacks continued.
The Raiders’ defensive woes—they yielded a playoff record 387 yards in the first half—were compounded by complete ineptitude on offense: three punts, three turnovers, and a measly 108 yards of offense (more than half of which came during the Raiders’ first two offensive plays).
“We had the kind of day where it seemed we couldn’t do anything right,” said Schroeder. “It was a heck of a time to have a game like that.”
Eventually, the first half came to a merciful end, and both teams headed toward the locker room.
“With an insurmountable lead of 41-3,” NBC’s Bob Costas told his viewing audience, “they are thirty minutes of football from the Super Bowl.”
Any halftime interpretations of the first-half action by NBC’s studio
analysts—Paul Maguire and Will McDonough joined Costas in the New York studio—was completely unnecessary. Instead, the millions watching the game at home listened more intently to additional updates from Kent live in Saudi Arabia, a taped interview with the commander of the Allied Forces, General Norman Schwarzkopf, and a detailed report from the Pentagon by NBC News’ Fred Francis. It was easy for viewers to forget that an entire half of football remained.
The Bills outscored Los Angeles 10-0 once the third period began and sent the Raiders back to warm and sunny California with the most lopsided playoff defeat since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The 51-3 drubbing was a true team effort: the offense scored seven times; the defense scored seven turnovers. And in the most prominent, most crushing triumph in Buffalo Bills history, Carlton Bailey paced the team with seven tackles, most of them on special teams.
“They told me the game was being televised over in Saudi Arabia,” said Bailey, “and hopefully, [my father] had an opportunity to watch the game. Hopefully, I made him proud.”
[1]Jackson injured his hip the week prior to the AFC Championship Game and would never play professional football again. However, the extent of his injury was not immediately known. Raiders head coach Art Shell said two days before the game, “He’s doubtful, but you never know. If I think he can go, he’ll go.” Sunday morning, he was expected to dress. He did not. Regardless, another installment of his “Bo Knows” Nike campaign advertisements ran twice during the television broadcast.
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A Young Man’s Game
When you’ve got a young kid on that sideline who’s hungry and trying to play, you keep him off the field, whatever it takes because if you come out you’ll be on the bench.
—Running back Willard Harrell’s advice to St. Louis Cardinal teammate Ottis Anderson, circa 1981
For more than a decade, Ottis Anderson