Super Bowl History: The 1970s

After the NFL-AFL merger, football entered a golden age in the 1970s loaded with legendary teams & Super Bowls!

Super Bowl: Post-Merger
The stunning victory by the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III set the AFL up as a true rival for the NFL and showed fans that both factions could field great teams. This fusion of organizations also rallied the best players and coaches in the nation under the banner of football. The spectacle of the Super Bowl has also brought in more fans than ever before and football quickly closed the gap on baseball as America’s pastime. It was in the 1970s that the NFL would truly evolve into a sport of kings and legends as more fans tuned in every week for NFL games.

Super Bowl: The Final AFL-NFL War
There was still one season in which the NFL and AFL would exist as two separate entities and that meant that the AFL would have one last chance to score a victory over their longtime rivals. It was only fitting that 1970’s Super Bowl IV would feature the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, owned by the man most responsible for modern football, Lamar Hunt. The Kansas City Chiefs met the Minnesota Vikings, and fans with Super Bowl tickets expected the NFL to dominate again. The Minnesota Vikings seemed doomed from the beginning, and the Kansas City Chiefs easily took the Super Bowl IV victory 23-7.

Super Bowl: America’s Team
The united NFL now had two conferences, the NFC and the AFC. Fresh blood was quickly bubbling to the surface in the form of coaching greats and players. The NFC’s Dallas Cowboys had been on the verge of greatness for years, but the Super Bowl had eluded them. Finally, the master plan of head coach Tom Landry came to fruition in 1971, and the Dallas Cowboys reached Super Bowl V. The aging Baltimore Colts led by QB Johnny Unitas were not ready to give up the ghost just yet. Though it was a comedy of errors in a way, Super Bowl V was the first competitive Super Bowl, ending in a 16-13 Colts victory.

The Dallas Cowboys added the missing piece with mobile quarterback Rodger Staubach. With the “Doomsday Defense” crushing opponents the entire season, the Dallas Cowboys easily cruised into Super Bowl VI, where they faced another 1970s dynasty, the Miami Dolphins. The Dallas Cowboys established the NFL formula of great defense and superb quarterbacking being the key to victory. Rodger Staubach was on fire, and the defense led by Bob Lilly smothered the Miami Dolphins in a 24-3 rout. The Dallas Cowboys had captured the hearts of Americans everywhere and became dubbed “America’s Team”.

Super Bowl: The Perfect Dolphins
The loss in Super Bowl VI put a massive chip on the shoulders on the Miami Dolphins. Head coach John Shula followed the pattern Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys had made and built his entire game plan around QB Bob Griese and the “No Name Defense”. With great play, sound strategies, and a truckload of luck, the 1972 Miami Dolphins went 14-0 through the regular season and also tore through the playoffs. Super Bowl VII pitted the perfect Miami Dolphins against the “Over The Hill” gang of the Washington Redskins. Fans with Super Bowl tickets crowded the Los Angeles Coliseum in hopes of seeing history.

The veteran Washington Redskins would not move out of the way quietly, however, and the Miami Dolphins almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the last two minutes. Even after one of the most embarrassing plays in NFL history, the Miami Dolphins sealed the Super Bowl victory with a great defensive stand. A score of 14-7 put the Miami Dolphins atop the history books and made them the only “Perfect” team in NFL history. The 1973 Miami Dolphins would repeat as champions in Super Bowl VIII, but they would not go undefeated, nor would any other team in NFL history.

Super Bowl: The Steel Curtain
No team would take the phrase “Defense wins championships” more to heart than the Pittsburgh Steelers of Chuck Noll. The 1960s had not been kind to the Pittsburgh Steelers but the poor luck had allowed them to pick high in the NFL Draft, securing talent like Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Joe Greene, and Franco Harris. Though the passing attack of Terry Bradshaw to Lynn Swann was a thing of beauty, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s were built to crush opponents with the running game and strangled offenses with previously unheard of defensive talent.

America was first introduced to the “Steel Curtain” defense in Super Bowl IX, where “Mean” Joe Greene led the assault on the Minnesota Vikings in a 16-6 beating. The Pittsburgh Steelers added some offensive weaponry in the offseason, and QB Terry Bradshaw began to find the rhythm that would make him a Hall of Fame player. Super Bowl X was possibly the most star-studded game in NFL history as the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys met. In a duel between two great defenses and quarterbacks, fans with Super Bowl tickets were treated to a back-and-forth battle that ended with a 21-17 Pittsburgh Steelers victory.

Super Bowl: Madden
Though they had not reached the Super Bowl, the Oakland Raiders of John Madden were terrors in the regular season with QB Ken Stabler running an impressive vertical offense under center. After finding their strength in the 3-4 defense, the Oakland Raiders would forever become one of the most popular teams in the nation with resounding defeat of the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. The Oakland Raiders would continue to be a major dynasty into the 1980s as well.

Super Bowl: Dynasties Continue
The 1970s would close with a victory by the Dallas Cowboys and two more by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. Super Bowl XIII was a highlight as the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers met in an epic game that seemed to cap off the 1970s dynasties very well with the Pittsburgh Steelers eking out a victory. The Pittsburgh Steelers ended the 1970s with one final championship in Super Bowl XIV. Fans with Super Bowl tickets had come to expect dominance by a small selection of teams and the 1980s looked to be no different.

Super Bowl: New Era
Dynasties would continue to be a fact of life in the NFL, but the 1980s saw a changing of the guard. Coaches like Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, and Mike Ditka would change the face of football forever and move a decade of Super Bowl championships to the East and West Coasts. The days of power football were over, and the decade of the West Coast offense was set to begin. The next generation of players would feature the likes of Howie Long, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, and John Elway.