The Harbaugh Bowl, (Super Bowl XLVII) started out as not much of a competition; with the Ravens flying out of the gate to a 28-6 lead over the 49ers. As the game continued it began to get closer and closer, but only after one of the strangest events in Super Bowl history occurred.
The Super Bowl is so looked forward to by football fans, sports fans, and partiers alike. With the best commercials of the year coming out, even non-sports fans can enjoy the event. Not only that, but also this year you could bet on almost everything having to do with the game. The bets ranged from the coin toss to the flavor of Gatorade dumped on the winning coaches head; from whether Alicia Keys would sing the national anthem in 2 minutes, 10 seconds or less to whether Ray Lewis will say “God” or “Lord” more that 3 times in the postgame interview.
As it seems to do every year, the Super Bowl became an even bigger deal this year than the last. With the gambling, commercials, and football, this year’s game achieved a 48.1 overnight rating, meaning that 48.1 percent of US households were watching the game. Oddly enough, the game still broke the Super Bowl ratings record even with a thirty-minute pause a few minutes into the third quarter.
A power outage at the Superdome occurred around 7:45 central time last night and it lasted until about 8:15. This left nearly half of America looking at a screen with a dark stadium and no announcing. The players stretched out and stayed loose waiting for the game to resume. Once the game did resume however, San Francisco came out battling back with three straight scores to decrease Baltimore’s lead to five.
As the fourth quarter continued, the lead shrank to only two points with ten minutes left. The game came down to the wire. The 49ers were five yards away from taking the lead for the first time in the game. It was fourth down, so they had one play to get the ball in the end zone. Kaepernick snapped the ball and threw it to the back corner of the end zone just a couple feet out of reach of Michael Crabtree. The pass was incomplete and this gave the Ravens the opportunity to run out the clock, which they did.
The older brother John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens defeated younger brother Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 to win their second Super Bowl in franchise history. The Super Bowl is one of the most, if not the most, looked forward to game each year. For many fans it’s not all about the game, but about the events that come with the game.