Sunday will mark Super Bowl 50 – the golden anniversary of the biggest game in American sports.
Ahead of Sunday’s game reporters are looking back over those 50 years remembering the great – John Elway riding off into the sunset after winning back to back Super Bowls; the dramatic – Joe Montana’s game-winning touchdown pass to John Taylor in the final seconds of San Francisco’s Super Bowl XXIII victory over Cincinnati; the dynasties – like the Steelers, 49ers, Broncos and Cowboys – and those who didn’t quite become one.
Few coaches made it to four Super Bowls, even fewer lost all four of them – legendary Vikings coach Bud Grant was the first to do it. (Marv Levy of the Buffalo Bills is the only other one.)
Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback sat down with the now 88-year-old Grant, who last month still wore shirt sleeves onto the field of the Vikings wildcard playoff game against Seattle in frigid conditions.
After leading Winnipeg to four Grey Cup championships in the Canadian Football League, Grant took over as the Vikings head coach in 1967.
He went on to lead the Vikings to Super Bowls following the 1969, 1973, 1975 and 1976 seasons – but Minnesota lost each of those to the Chiefs, Dolphins, Steelers and Raiders respectively.
That doesn’t mean the former Vikings head coach doesn’t think they weren’t good enough to win them.
"The reason they call it the Super Bowl is because it is one game." – Bud Grant
MORE: https://t.co/LcmXVKzooT pic.twitter.com/EYvH9Wbq2n
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) February 1, 2016
“The reason they call it the Super Bowl is because it is one game,” Grant told MMQB. “If we played three out of five or more, like baseball and hockey and basketball, it’s different. Kansas City beat us in that Super Bowl. Next year they came here and we beat them handily. I don’t think we were that much better, but if you play a series of games, you get a much better feel.”
But Grant, wasn’t just talking about Super Bowls, he talked about not owning a cell phone, or e-mail and he was even dishing a little dirt on his relationship with former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi.
“Okay, well, Lombardi and I didn’t get along. He’s a tyrant, and he coached that way. Great coach, but he coached with fear, and he treated everybody – whether you’re the president or the secretary of the club – with bombastic fear.”
https://twitter.com/ZackQual/status/694245068488572928
