Following last week’s horrific events in Paris and Beirut, the SF Examiner’s Jay Mariotti considers the security challenges faced by Super Bowl 50 organizers and while he assures his readers, “I’m not alarmist”, Mariotti admits to a fixation with ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME.
One of our lingering fears, if you’re old enough to remember, is a real-life version of the 1977 movie “Black Sunday.” It was about a terrorist group plotting to blow up a Goodyear blimp, forcing its crash into the stands at a Super Bowl. The no-fly zone, of course, wouldn’t allow a wayward kite to penetrate the city limits of Santa Clara, much less a blimp or a kamikaze plane. Yes, “Black Sunday” was fiction. But it left indelible images that have followed me into every stadium and arena for thousands of games.
Yikes. Before you check to make certain you’ve not urinated in total fear, Jay suggests, “maybe they can play the Super Bowl without fans?” Why not? He’s been writing without readers for years!
Hey, there’s an idea. Play this one in an empty stadium, Roger Goodell. The Baltimore Orioles staged a home game in an empty ballpark in April following unrest in that city, and while the scene was bizarre, the mood was safer that day and eventually calmer. Does the NFL, as a $12-billion-a-year behemoth, really need the gate receipts? That way, no fans risk harm, and CBS still reaps its $5 million for every 30-second ad.