Forty-nine years to the day after the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs squared off in Super Bowl I, NFL Network will be the first network to ever replay this historic game on television.
Super Bowl I was broadcast by both NBC – the official broadcaster of the AFL- and CBS – the official broadcaster of the NFL and remains the only Super Bowl to have been broadcast live in the United States by two television networks. Considered to be the Holy Grail of sports broadcasts, the CBS and NBC tapes of the game were either lost or recorded over and no full video version of the game has existed…until now.
In an exhaustive process that took months to complete, NFL Films searched its enormous archives of footage and were able to locate all 145 plays from Super Bowl I from more than a couple dozen disparate sources. Once all the plays were located, NFL Films was able to put the plays in order and stich them together while fully restoring, re-mastering, and color correcting the footage. Finally, audio from the NBC Sports radio broadcast featuring announcers Jim Simpson and George Ratterman was layered on top of the footage to complete the broadcast.
The final result represents the only known video footage of the entire action from Super Bowl 1 and NFL Network will show it to the world for the first time on the 49th anniversary of the game between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs, January 15.
Super Bowl I: The Lost Game will air on Friday, January 15 at 8:00 PM ET on NFL Network. The three-hour program is enhanced with pregame, halftime and postgame segments, modern broadcast graphics and coverage, social media interaction, facts and information, with studio contributors and guests live reaction and storytelling throughout.
Host Chris Roseand Steve Mariuccianchor the broadcast and are joined by a plethora of NFL Media talent, such as Terrell Davis, Daniel Jeremiah, Steve Wyche, and Elliot Harrison. Additionally, Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end for the Packers Willie Davis and former Packers wide receiver Antonio Freemanjoin in-studio, while former Packers greats Jerry Kramerand Dave Robinsonjoin the show from remote.
In addition to the broadcast of the game, Super Bowl I: The Lost Game includes the following features:
- Wired sound from Packers head coach Vince Lombardi
- Footage of a postgame interview with Chiefs head coach Hank Stram and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozell being interviewed by Pat Summerall
- In-depth discussion on how the Super Bowl I broadcast was lost and then re-assembled using NFL Films footage
- A feature on the merger between the well-established National Football League and the upstart American Football League, giving birth to the modern-day NFL and the uniquely American spectacle called the Super Bowl.
- An interview with Super Bowl I CBS producer Bill Creasy on why the second half kickoff was kicked twice
All 145 plays of game footage from Super Bowl I: The Lost Game were compiled from NFL Films video shot at the game. The NFL Films crew for Super Bowl I were John Butterworth, Joe Fain, Morris Kellman, Stan Kirby, Stanley Leshner, Dave Marx, Skip & Ken Nelson, Walt & Jim Porep,and Art Spieller. There were only two ground cameras and just one sound camera, the rest of the staff were top cameras or assistants. By comparison, there will be approximately 35 NFL Films cameras at Super Bowl 50 and an additional support crew of well over 50 other NFL Films personnel.
