“It’s Steve Tasker, a touch journalist for the Super Bowl 47. If you expect to hear our friend Jim Nantz, it may be a moment before he reaches.”
When the audio of Super bowl XLVII between the 49ers of San Francisco and the Ravens of Baltimore suddenly cut at the beginning of the third quarter on February 3, 2013, the millions of people looking at the dissemination of CBS could have suspected that something was not time.
When Tasker, assigned to work on the 49ers touch line, was the first voice we heard, she was confirmed. There was no power in the broadcast cabin, the elevators and the mechanical stairs stopped, just like the game – for 34 minutes.
“Half of the power of the New Orleans stadium, the superdome here, is out,” Tasker announced in the world.
For some Ravens players, the stop was suspect. Jacoby Jones had returned to kick off in the second half 108 yards for a touch, Baltimore led 28-6 and the Ravens had just dismissed the quarter-Arrière of the 49ers Colin Kaepernick in second position. THE Super bowl was about to be a rout, then the lights died? The secondary Ray Lewis felt a rat.
“You can’t tell me that someone was not sitting there, and when they say:” The Ravens are about to impress them. ” Guy, we would better do something, ‘” He said In an interview for the “America’s Game” of NFL Films later that year. “It’s a huge change in any match, seriously.”
The real explanation was more banal. A newly installed device called relay automatically cuts the power to the stadium when the amperage has reached a certain level because the factory parameters were too low.
Entergy, the local electric company, promises that this will not happen Sunday when the Super Bowl returns to New Orleans for the first time in 12 years. The company no longer uses the equipment responsible for the power failure, there are better layoffs for the electric flow and the stadium welcomed more than a decade of games and concerts from New Orleans Saintes since without incident .
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These concerts, significantly, included Beyonce, whose show at half-time in 2013 preceded the Blackout, and Taylor Swift, which brought 200,000 fans to the Superdome Caesars for three nights in October.
“Some have called the ultimate table exercise this weekend,” Entergy said in a statement.
While the 49ers laugh at Lewis’s conspiracy theory – “We have had the same delay as they have made,” said the offensive tackle Joe Staley – there is no doubt that they have benefited from reset.
They entered their locker room at halftime, with the intention of repairing everything that had gone wrong in the first half, quickly reviewing the tactical changes they would bring. Then they had nowhere to go.
A half-time from the Super Bowl is twice as long as a regular season version and because there were so much staging equipment, the players could not get on the field. Instead, they were locked in the locker room.
The 49ers note that the Ravens fled with a maintenance penalty against the back Bruce Miller on the return touch of Jones to start the third trimester. But there was also a feeling that long half had an effect.
“I remember the coach (Jim) Harbaugh to come and asked:” Have we warmed up? ” “, Recalls the coach of the 49ers in force, Mark Uyeyama. “And I’m going,” Uhhh – clearly (Jones) was. »»
The 49ers then ran two games – a 29 yards pass to Michael Crabtree and a race of 3 yards by Frank Gore – before Kaepernick was dismissed by Arthur Jones. After this room, the color commentator Phil Simms was in the middle of a sentence when the diffusion was silent at 7:37 p.m. local time.
The 49ers had the ball at 28-6 when the government suddenly released in the superdome. (Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
An attack? A shooter? These thoughts crossed everyone’s mind. Sandy Hook’s shooting occurred a month and a half earlier and the 49ers were on site during a match in New England where the victims were.
“The first thing that crossed my head is an act of terrorism,” said the offensive coordinator of the time, Greg Roman. “And what’s going to follow?” First of all, they cut power. And now what? My whole family is there.
“Honestly, I thought it was a terrorist attack at the start,” said Wink Martindale, then the coach of the Ravens seconds. “You just didn’t know. Immediately, you are looking for your eyes where you know that your family is sitting and everything else to make sure everyone was fine. “”
After a few moments, these thoughts dissipated. There was an initial groan of the crowd, but there was no panic or agitation. The superdome was calm.
“On their credit, everyone stayed calm,” said Tasker during a telephone interview.
“Why is the clock stopped?”
Back to lights extinct during ravens against 49ers in the Super Bowl XLVII
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– NFL Films (@nflfilms) December 25, 2023
He said that everyone’s first task was to discover what had happened and how long the game would be delayed. Targe journalists had stopped using six -year -old microphones earlier during the Rainy Super Bowl XLI because these microphones were turned off. Tasker had a cable attached to his microphone in New Orleans which only extended as regards the figures on the ground. The league officials he wanted to interview were huddled safely in the midfield and did not want to be interviewed on the camera. He therefore walked in the midfield, obtained as much information as possible, then was approached by Jim Harbaugh on the way back to the key.
“He wanted to know what they told me,” said Tasker.
The 49ers had an advantage in what they had experienced something similar the previous year when a transformer exploded outside Candlestick Park, causing two delays in a “Monday evening football” match against Pittsburgh steelers. Uyeyama said he reminded the players how well they had managed this wait on the sidelines.
“We were better prepared than we were against Pittsburgh,” said Uyeyama. “And we had (Ben) Roethlisberger on his back at all matches. We therefore promised and communicate with the guys: “Remember, Pittsburgh”. »»
The teams were first informed that the game would resume in about 15 minutes and that everyone should stay on the field. They heard the same chorus – 15 minutes – when they registered later.
“The longer he went for a long time, you had to get back into coaching mode,” said Martindale. “It was like” Saint-S—, we have to start stretching “. We knew we were in difficulty. I know that the analyzes say that there is no such as Momentum, but these are the bulls. The lighting lights have changed the momentum of the game. We killed them when the lights have turned off. We had an older team than them and it really took us a while to meet and leave. »»
The security of the 49ers said Donte Whitner: “Football is a moment -based game. And whenever you have a lull like that, it’s a good opportunity for the team that does not play well to regroup and recover. “”
He said the seconds Patrick Willis and Navorro Bowman had discussed the strategy. Justin Smith, the older man in the defense, made sure that everyone was concentrated and calm.
“I remember heard Dashon Goldson strongly continue to say:” Not today. Not today. We are too good. We are too big defense, ”recalls Whitner. “And what he was referring to was:” Let’s not make the simple mistakes that will fight us. “”
The electricity failure officially lasts 34 minutes and seemed to lead to a huge momentum swing for the 49ers. (Images Jamie Squire / Getty)
In attack, Roman only made a quick visit to the locker room at halftime. The 49ers had only scored two goals on the field at that time and he needed to rework the whole match plan. Roman spoke briefly to the players, then approached Harbaugh.
“I just said:” Hey, Jim, I have to go upstairs and make things understand “, said Roman.
He was back in the coach’s stand before Beyonce started his show and felt good in the changes he had made.
“Then they went back to kick off and it was as if the Prix du Poker had changed again,” said Roman. “It was like, ‘Oh my God. Now we are in a hole. “”
He made even more adjustments after the stadium lost power. The radio helmets connecting it and the defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to the key did not work and in fact were one of the last things to put online before the game resumed.
Roman has therefore rebounded games and ideas on recipient coach John Morton. The 49ers ran the ball from time to time to keep Lewis and the defense of honest Ravens. Otherwise, they would attack in the air.
“We were going to be ultra-aggressive,” said Roman. “We had so much talent in the team, it was just a matter of time.”
He was right. The 49ers kicked up immediately after the game resumed but scored on a pass of Kapernick-to-Crabtree of 31 yards when they recovered the ball. Then they scored over their next three goods, reducing Baltimore’s advance to 31-29 with just under 10 minutes to play. It was as if the power failure had created two separate games.
“It was like a track meeting from that moment,” said Roman.
But while the Ravens have marked once again – on a basket of 38 yards by Justin Tucker – the 49ers offensive buried deeply in the red zone in the last minutes.
San Francisco seemed to have an excellent shot for a touch of green light after the gore race of 33 yards on the line of 7 yards with 2:39 to do. This transport, however, left Gore – one of the best short -yard runners of the NFL – Winded and its replacement, Lamichael James, was arrested for a gain of 2 yards first.
A quarter-back goalkeeper who would probably have marked a touchdown was wiped out when Jim Harbaugh called for a while to avoid a violation of the playing piece. When the last of the three throws in Crabtree in the corner of the goal area Navigated above the receiver’s head, the Ravens knew that they had finally interrupted the momentum of San Francisco and hung on to victory.
“If we had lost this match, I would have moved away by saying:” It was because the power died and the long delay, “said Martindale. “We were just killing them differently.”
Said Roman: “Unfortunately, it was simply not enough. It was a weird day in our lives, that’s for sure. »»
Despite being the lonely face and the voice of the Super Bowl broadcast for a few uncertain minutes, Tasker said that he had not received a lot of attention after the game. Instead, his phone started exploding Six days later when “Saturday Night Live” – with Taran Killam playing Tasker – Usurpé the power outage with a cold open.
“It was then that I knew that I had finally succeeded,” said Tasker laughing.
(Top Photo: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
The message of the way in which a power failure of the Super Bowl in New Orleans almost modified the crows and the history of the 49ers appeared first on World Online.