16 Most Notable Super Bowl Scandals
The Super Bowl is many things—the biggest game of America's most popular sport, a global television event, a pop culture spectacle, a billion dollar enterprise and the list can go on and on. One thing it is rarely ever is boring.
Even if the game itself is a blowout, the hype surrounding the Super Bowl makes the week leading up to kickoff nearly as entertaining as the action on the field or the commercials that interrupt it.
Such a supercharged atmosphere of anticipation and intrigue seems to always offer a few surprises, including a defining moment which becomes synonymous with that particular Super Bowl. Moments like Joe Namath's guarantee, John Elway's leap and Sean Payton's surprise onside kick.
But, the "moment" doesn't always come from the action on the field; every so often, the moment is as infamous as it is defining. The Super Bowl scandal isn't a common phenomenon, but when the NFL holds a global media event featuring athletes, pop stars and nearly every reporter on the planet, the opportunity is ripe for someone to make a bad decision when everyone is paying attention.
These are the most notable Super Bowl scandals.
Prince's Sexually Explicit Shadow
1 of 16
In the two years after the (oddly) infamous Nipplegate in 2004, the NFL played it safe with halftime performances, following it up with performances by an aged Paul McCartney and an equally aged Rolling Stones, both acts just shells of the provocative haymakers they once were.
In 2007 they stepped ever so slightly outside the box with Prince, who, despite being aged himself, has always been adept at pushing the envelope.
Though Prince's halftime show, which was nominated for two Emmys, was recently ranked No. 3 all time by Rolling Stone, it didn't come without controversy. At some point during the performance Prince's silhouette was projected onto a massive flowing cloth that obscured the view of the diminutive singer.
Of course, a performance by The Artist Formerly Known as the man we have previously known and now know again as Prince wouldn't be complete without at least a little scandal.
This time the scandal came in the form of a perceived "phallus" created in the shadow where Prince's body met his guitar, shocking many people who are very easily shocked by...things...resulting in a "few" viewer complaints to CBS, according to spokesman Dana McClintock, via USA Today.
Tim Tebow's Pro-Life Ad
2 of 16
Ahead of Super Bowl XLIV in 2010, the sports world and the world at large were abuzz over a pro-life ad starring Tim Tebow and his mother set to air during the game. "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life" was the work of conservative group Focus on the Family, whose donors paid upward of $3 million to run the spot.
At the time Tebow told reporters, "I know some people won't agree with it." And he was right—various groups protested the "advocacy ad," according to the New York Daily News' Joe Tacopino, asserting the Super Bowl wasn't the appropriate venue to address such a controversial issue. People looking for divisive and incendiary commentary were likely left wanting, as the 30-second spot was devoted entirely to Momma Tebow gushing about her "miracle baby."
If there was a political message behind the piece, it was extremely muted by the lack of detail provided. The story behind the spot can be read here, as detailed by The Washington Post's Frances Kissling and Kate Michelman.
Lights Out at the Superdome
3 of 16
The intense preparation put into an event on a massive scale, such as the Super Bowl, is almost impossible to verbally quantify—we're talking years in the making here. Which is exactly why it's so difficult to pinpoint one single reason behind the Superdome's memorably stunning blackout during Super Bowl XLVII.
According to Entergy New Orleans (via a National Geographic report), the problem stemmed from a device installed two months prior that was supposed to prevent the exact type of electrical failure that occurred. The 34-minute blackout was nothing short of surreal, with harried analysts forced to fill long stretches of airtime while untold people worked behind the scenes to accommodate the broadcast and address the electrical issue.
Although a reasonably likely cause was eventually identified, that didn't stop those playing in the game from developing and publicly voicing their own conspiracy theories. At the time there was some chatter coming from the Baltimore Ravens, many of whom apparently suspected the blackout was orchestrated specifically to kill their momentum against the 49ers in a game they looked to be running away with prior.
It wasn't until the following September that (recently retired) future Hall of Fame Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis spoke more definitively on the subject, outright accusing the NFL of conspiring against his team. Per USA Today's Nate Davis: "You're a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No. (Laughs) No way."
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Barret Robbins Goes Missing Ahead of Super Bowl XXXVII
4 of 16
Believe it or not, just over a decade ago the Oakland Raiders, who have been largely irrelevant ever since, were set to face off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in what would be a blowout loss in Super Bowl XXXVII. Though nothing went Oakland's way in that game in February 2003, having to play without Pro Bowl center Barrett Robbins certainly didn't help its cause.
Diagnosed previously with depression as early as 1997, Robbins was a no-show "for the biggest game of his life," as written by Sajid Farooq of NBC Bay Area, leaving his coaches and teammates in a lurch having to explain his surprise absence.
Though it wouldn't be fully explained for six years in an HBO interview, Robbins missed the game after leaving "his San Diego hotel, without his wallet and his cell phone, to party in Tijuana, Mexico," Farooq wrote in 2009. Soon after he was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, explaining two similar hospitalizations.
Robbins tested positive for steroids in 2004 and was released by the Raiders ahead of the regular season. Soon it would become apparent that the end of his NFL career was the least of his problems. Using drugs and alcohol to self-medicate, Robbins eventually ran afoul of the law in a big way, having been sentenced to five years for his involvement in a Miami shooting in 2005. He was released in September 2012.
According to a recent report by Jerry McDonald of the San Jose Mercury News, Robbins is now back on the West Coast and trying to pick up the pieces of his life.
Deflategate Looms Large over the Patriots
5 of 16
Ahead of Super Bowl XLIX, the New England Patriots cemented their reputation as the NFL's most polarizing team with an alleged involvement in an alleged scheme to intentionally deflate game balls in order to gain a competitive advantage in the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Quickly dubbed "Deflategate," the scandal kept the NFL at the forefront of the national sports conversation in what is generally a football lull between the conference championship games and Super Bowl week.
How seriously fans and members of the media alike classify the alleged offenses tends to depend on their geographic or professional ties to New England, the Patriots and/or tolerance for mind-numbingly repetitious reporting.
Unfortunately, at publication time the details of Deflategate are still emerging, permeating and polluting the national sports conversation. No matter what additional information ultimately comes to light, expect pretty much everyone to be unhappy with pretty much everything.
Brett Favre's Lifted Alcohol Ban
6 of 16
In January 1997 future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre led the Green Bay Packers to the one and only championship of his career against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. Well, prior to the game, the NFL was very much aware of his battle with substance abuse, which would be addressed head-on in his biography, Favre: For the Record, months later.
According to Favre's then-agent James Cook, a previous alcohol ban placed on the legendary quarterback—who had admitted to a dependency on both alcohol and the prescription narcotic Vicodin—had been lifted two months prior to the game—something the NFL was supposedly embarrassed about.
According to Favre, he maintained he had not engaged in any drinking whatsoever during Super Bowl week in New Orleans in order to spare the league grief about their decision to lift the ban. But ultimately he revealed in his book that "he had a few drinks on the Friday night before the Super Bowl," via the AP's Arnie Stapleton.
Beyonce's Attempts to Photoshop Reality
7 of 16
Chosen as the halftime performer for Super Bowl XLVII, Beyonce put on quite the show at the Superdome, delighting the viewing audience with her electric stage presence and a long-overdue Destiny's Child reunion. Unlike most of the tired, uninspired acts the NFL had been trotting out since 2001 (see: Nipplegate), Ms. Knowles delivered (arguably) one of the greatest performances in halftime history.
Most artists would be thrilled with rave reviews and a large-scale, intricate production planned and executed down to the second going down without a hitch, but the powerful PR machine powering the Beyonce empire wasn't content to leave well enough alone.
Following the Super Bowl, Beyonce's people attempted to scrub unflattering photographs from digital archives such as Getty Images and were reportedly largely successful, according to Gawker's Rich Juzwiak. Individual media outlets such as BuzzFeed were less receptive to the seemingly strange request, opting instead to publicize the email sent by Team Beyonce. The original post and photos can be seen here.
Jim McMahon's Full Moon over New Orleans
8 of 16
On that famous 1985 Chicago Bears team, which had personality for days, nobody was more famous or had more personality than quarterback Jim McMahon.
Michael Weinreb's description in GQ comes close to doing McMahon justice: "He enjoyed drinking beer, he did not particularly care for authority figures, and he played with such reckless abandon that he once managed to shred his kidney like a mylar balloon during a playoff game."
The Bears took New Orleans by storm in Super Bowl XX, but their quarterback took things to inventive new heights. Reportedly peeved by the team's unwillingness to let an acupuncturist make the trip, McMahon pitched a monster fit. Per Weinreb, on media day he "chewed gum and spat tobacco simultaneously while denouncing his newfound fame and denouncing the media and denouncing the very notion of work itself."
McMahon piled it on all week, drinking heavily, urinating publicly and even referring to the women of New Orleans as "sluts," for which he claims to have received death threats.
The piece de resistance of McMahon's rebel-without-a-cause bit was his decision to drop trough and moon members of the media, whom he said in an interview with ESPN were being obsessive in their pursuit of information about a contusion on his buttocks.
M.I.A.'s Million-Dollar Middle Finger
9 of 16
In 2012, the headlining halftime performer at Super Bowl XLVI was Madonna, featuring LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, Cee Lo Green and, of course, M.I.A. If that lineup isn't a recipe for a big ol' hot mess, well then, what is?
Two or three decades back, it might have been Madonna cooking up schemes to troll the 100-plus million viewing audience—heck even one decade ago she did it by kissing Britney Spears and, to a lesser extent, Christina Aguilera at the VMAs.
But these days Madonna leaves the stupid publicity stunts up to the younger generation, leaving M.I.A. all too willing to follow in her footsteps by flipping the bird directly into the camera on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium.
For her part, Madonna expressed to MTV News (h/t Rachel Tarley of the Metro) her shock, likely appalled with the blatant disregard shown for family values and basic human decency! Following the big game there was a minor national fervor about M.I.A.'s middle finger, but it quickly died down.
The whole stupid incident became a...thing...again in March 2014, when it was reported that the NFL was suing the Sri Lankan singer for $16.6 million in restitution, a substantial increase from the $1.5 million it was asking for in March 2012. In August 2014, the NFL finally settled the suit with M.I.A., though the terms of the agreement were not released.
Eugene Robinson's Super Bowl Solicitation
10 of 16
In January 1999, the Atlanta Falcons were in Miami preparing to take on the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII. The night before the big game players likely retired to their rooms early to get a good night's sleep. The idea behind that whole scenario was that the fellas from Atlanta would be well-rested to play in the biggest game of their lives.
There was one Falcon, however, who couldn't resist one last late-night visit to a "seedy section" of the city, a place much of the team had been frequenting throughout the week, as reported by The New York Times' Mike Freeman. According to a report in the Palm Beach Post, coach Dan Reeves was preparing for bed, having just brushed his teeth, when he got a most unfortunate phone call.
The voice on the other end of the line dropped a bombshell: safety Eugene Robinson, who had just recently earned the Bart Starr Award, which recognizes athletes of high moral character, had been arrested. An undercover police officer, whom he attempted to solicit for a sex act for $40, busted Robinson.
Though he was allowed to play in the game, Robinson's arrest set off a media firestorm the next morning—the ultimate game-day distraction. And not just for the team. Robinson's wife and two children were all in Miami for the Super Bowl too. The Broncos went on to win the game 34-19.
Bills '90s Heartbreak the Result of Hard Partying?
11 of 16
In the '90s, no team in professional sports was more adept at brutally ripping the still beating hearts out of its collective fanbase than the Buffalo Bills. That team took losing to a new level, being bested in four consecutive Super Bowls. It's a feat so stunningly unlikely that there is next to no chance it will ever be repeated by any NFL team or any other team in a major American sports league.
Each game had its individual scapegoat for fans and media alike, such as Scott Norwood, who infamously missed a wide-right 47-yard field goal as time elapsed in Super Bowl XXV. There have also been more broad explanations made with the benefit of hindsight, like that the Bills were just overrated because of a weak AFC.
But it wasn't until January 2010 we got a more substantive—and scandalous!—explanation. The (long overdue) inside information came courtesy of former Dallas Cowboys safety Darren Woodson, a member of the Dallas team that beat Buffalo in two of its four Super Bowl losses.
Speaking as a guest on the ESPN morning show Mike & Mike (via USA Today), Woodson said the Bills suffered on game day because they didn't have their priorities in order:
"As much as everyone talked about how much experience the Bills had back then, they partied harder than any other team. That's all we heard about the entire week in L.A., the (1992 season's) Super Bowl.
They (Bills players) were out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Couple guys got into an altercation in the clubs, older, veteran guys with the Bills.
Experience doesn't mean that much, it's all about leadership. There's a reason they lost four Super Bowls. They partied harder than any other team.
"
Super Bowl XLIII Gets Too Hardcore for Tucson Audience
12 of 16
During Super Bowl XLIII between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, Comcast viewers in the Tucson area were treated to a 30-second clip that didn't meet the game's traditional standards for broadcasting.
Without getting too specific, a then-unknown party hacked into the Comcast system, allowing the aforementioned unknown party to air an unedited pornographic clip for as long as 37 seconds. Outraged viewers were offered a $10 credit from the cable giant, which claimed to be "mortified" and "appalled" in subsequent statements, according to the AP (via ESPN.com).
The scandalous clip, which was widely reported following the Super Bowl, quickly attracted the attention of local Arizona law enforcement as well as the FBI. Almost two years to the day later, the FBI announced it had identified Frank Tanori Gonzalez, a former Comcast employee, as the likely perpetrator.
In October 2011, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering in regard to the incident.
Stanley Wilson Relapses Ahead of Super Bowl XXIII
13 of 16
It started off (seemingly) innocent enough for Cincinnati Bengals fullback Stanley Wilson, who in 1989 was preparing with his team in Miami ahead of Super Bowl XXIII. At 8 p.m. the night before the Bengals were to face the San Francisco 49ers, Wilson told a handful of his teammates that he had forgotten his playbook, promising to catch up to them at their meeting destination after retrieving it from his hotel room.
Having served a season-long suspension for violating the NFL's drug policy in 1987, Wilson's cocaine habit would once again get the better of him that night. His teammates waited over 20 minutes before sending someone to retrieve him. Unfortunately, Wilson did not return as promised; he had relapsed.
Per Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Running backs coach Jim Anderson found Wilson in the bathroom of his room at the Holiday Inn in Plantation, Florida, a few miles north of Pro Player Stadium. Wilson was sweating and shivering. White powder was evident on his nose and upper lip."
It was his third offense, and he was subsequently banned for life from the NFL.
Ten years later Wilson was making headlines for all the wrong reasons again. In March 1999 he was sentenced to 22 years in prison under California's controversial "three strikes" law for charges stemming from burglarizing two Long Beach homes.
Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson Collaborate on a Wardrobe Malfunction
14 of 16
Given how common the term is in today's lexicon, it's hard to believe that a "wardrobe malfunction" didn't exist prior to Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004. The etymology of the phrase stems from the fallout of the halftime show in which Justin Timberlake ripped Janet Jackson's bustier as the performance concluded, the former revealing the latter's bare breast.
It was the second consecutive halftime performance produced by MTV and quite possibly its last. Following the Super Bowl, it was reported that upward of 540,000 viewers contacted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the incident—the ultimate result being a $550,000 fine split between "each of Viacom's 20 CBS stations," according to the Chicago Tribune.
Whether the so-called malfunction was done by design or, as Timberlake claimed via CNN.com, "not intentional and...regrettable," Timberlake and Jackson experienced two entirely different types of fallout in the wake of the scandal. Jackson was the target of angry rhetoric, having been blacklisted by Viacom entities and beyond. While Timberlake's post-NSYNC career skyrocketed, largely avoiding any prolonged backlash.
In February 2014, Yahoo Music's Billy Johnson Jr. published an article documenting "11 shocking outcomes" from the infamous event that enraged a nation.
Ray Lewis Charged with Murder
15 of 16
In January 2000, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was in Atlanta as a spectator for Super Bowl XXXIV in which the St. Louis Rams topped the Tennessee Titans. He may not have played in the game, but that didn't stop him from stealing headlines the day after. If you thought 2014 was a rough year for the NFL, 1999-2000 wasn't a great one either.
Just six weeks after former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth was arrested and charged with attempted murder, Lewis was arrested on suspicion of double murder following an early morning altercation outside a nightclub in which two men were stabbed to death. Per Larry Stewart of the Los Angeles Times, following the incident "the men fled in a limousine, firing at least five gunshots as they drove away."
What actually happened that one fateful night in Atlanta remains the subject of speculation and discussion to this day, but the only thing we know for sure is that Lewis was not ultimately charged in connection with the murders. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for which he was sentenced to 12 months probation.
Lewis was also fined $250,000 by the NFL later that year.
Mighty Misbehaving '85 Patriots
16 of 16
The Patriots are no strangers to scandal. In fact, at this point franchise and scandal are so familiar that scandal is like the bar on Cheers, and the Pats are Norm, a long-established regular who is greeted with a collectively boisterous and welcoming "NORM!" every time he enters, which is daily.
These days it's the Patriots' annoying level of success, which dates back to 2001, that often invites scandal. But back in 1985 they were just a Lombardi-less bunch of underdogs trying to shock the world.
What they lacked in championships, however, they made up for in drama that season. Their road to Super Bowl XX was bumpy, if you can classify the unruly behavior of then-general manager Patrick Sullivan during (and after) an upset victory over the Raiders in the divisional round as a "bump."
Having spent most of the game on New England's sideline verbally abusing Oakland players, at the end of regulation Sullivan hurried onto the field to confront future Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long. Future Hall of Fame linebacker Matt Millen intervened, and, per Jeff Goldberg of the Hartford Courant, Sullivan "staggered away with a split forehead."
Drama followed the Pats into the AFC Championship Game against the Miami Dolphins, when All-Pro wide receiver Irving Fryar—who said he suffered a sliced pinkie finger "putting away a kitchen knife"—missed the team flight to Miami.
The story unraveled quickly. Fryar then revealed he suffered the injury when his five-month pregnant wife stabbed him in retaliation after he struck her. He was sent home and missed the game.
After another unlikely victory, the Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl, where they were mercilessly beat down by the Bears, losing 46-10.
Sadly for fans in New England, the drama didn't end there. Just two days after the defeat, the AP (h/t The Boston Globe) published a bombshell report that alleged as many as a dozen Pats players were battling drug problems, five of which were said to be "serious." Kinda puts Deflategate in perspective, huh?
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
