By Eli Kazin
The 10 most recent Super Bowls have produced some of the best championship
games in National Football League history. These games included John Elway finally
winning a championship after losing three Super Bowls, the Saint Louis Rams
stopping the Tennessee Titans on the one yard line as time expired, and the
New England Patriots winning two Super Bowls on field goals with less than 10
seconds remaining. With the release of Warner Home Video’s Super
Bowl XXXI-XL Collector’s Set, the fourth 10-disc Super Bowl installment,
football fans can now own recaps of every regular season and Super Bowl from
1966 through 2005.
THE SET
Super Bowl XXXI-XL Collector’s Set contains five discs,
with each disc containing two Super Bowls worth of content. Each season follows
the same format, with a 45-minute presentation on the regular season and playoffs
leading up to the respective Super Bowl, a 30-minute presentation on the respective
Super Bowl, and two bonus features that are connected to the respective Super
Bowl champion. The 10 seasons contained in the set are the 10 most recent seasons,
dating back to the 1996 season.
The regular season presentation for each season takes a look at the key moments
from the season, and does not focus solely on the eventual Super Bowl champion.
However, the focus of the regular season recap is the teams that qualified for
the playoffs, and the playoff performance of a team is tied into the part of
the recap that focuses on their regular season performance. Highlights from
each conference championship game are in the concluding chapter of the season
recap, which leads into a seamless transition to the Super Bowl recap. Key off
field moments, such as the passing of Walter Payton and the impact of September
11, are also highlighted in addition to the season’s key on field moments.
The Super Bowl recap showcases the key plays from each game, providing a condensed
version of the biggest game of the season. In addition to showing certain plays,
the Super Bowl recap also looks at the coaches and players on the sidelines,
and radio play-by-play is used to illustrate certain plays. The video for the
Super Bowl recaps, as well as the regular season recaps, is pulled from NFL
Films’ vast library, which allows for numerous scenes that take place
either on the practice field or in the locker room, in addition to the plentiful
amount of game footage that is filmed from the sidelines.
Unlike most of the Super Bowls from the 1980s and early 1990s, the ten Super
Bowls included in this set were largely competitive. Five of the Super Bowls
(XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX) were decided by a touchdown or less,
with the winning score in four of them being scored with less than two minutes
to go. Only three of the Super Bowls can be considered blowouts (XXXIII, XXXV,
and XXXVII), and even in those games there were fleeting moments where the losing
team had an outside chance to make it a competitive game. Of the 15 Super Bowls
from 1981 to 1995, only three were decided by a touchdown or less, and nine
of the 15 can be considered blowouts.
SOUND AND VISUALS
Super Bowl XXXI-XL Collector’s Set is presented in a
1.33:1 aspect ratio that preserves the aspect ratio of how sports programming
is viewed on television. The only audio track available is Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo in English, and there are also English subtitles available. During the
season recap, graphics show the final scores of the featured games, and during
the Super Bowl recap, graphics periodically show the score of the game. The
audio is crisp and audible, and radio and television play-by-play are sometimes
used to describe certain plays in place of the narration for both the season
recap and the Super Bowl recap.
PACKAGING AND LAYOUT
The five discs for Super Bowl XXXI-XL Collector’s Set are
stored in a sturdy five-sided slipcase. The front of the slipcase features a
graphic of the Vince Lombardi trophy, while the back of the slipcase includes
four pictures of Super Bowl action, a summary of the disc contents, and a list
of the bonus features. The five discs are stored on three plastic backers that
are hinged on a spine, with two of the backers holding a disc on each side,
and one of the backers holding just one disc. The front of the case that holds
the backers mirrors the front of the slipcase, while the back of the case features
a list of the matchups for each of the 10 Super Bowls in the set. The inside
of the case has a pocket that contains a replica of a Super Bowl XL ticket,
an insert for other Warner Home Video football releases, and a booklet
that contains the following for each Super Bowl: the date and location, a line
score, a graphic of a ticket and the championship ring, and the rosters for
each team. The menu screens are simple to navigate, and allow for viewing the
season recap and Super Bowl recap from the start or by clicking on the Chapter
Selects option, which allows for selecting a specific chapter to view from the
season recap or the Super Bowl recap. The only error with the layout is that
the Super Bowl ring shown for Super Bowl XL is actually the championship ring
for the New York Giants from Super Bowl XXI, although in fairness, the Pittsburgh
Steelers were not presented with their championship ring until after this set
had gone to production.
SPECIAL FEATURES
There are 20 special features for Super Bowl XXXI-XL Collector’s
Set, divided evenly among each of the 10 Super Bowls in this set. Each
feature is approximately 5 to 10 minutes long, and the features for each season
are contained on the same disc as the corresponding season recap and Super Bowl
recap. Some of the features are:
• Brett Favre - Bayou Boy - Green Bay Packers quarterback
Brett Favre’s brings NFL Films’ Steve Sabol to his hometown
of Kiln, Mississippi and shows Sabol all of his favorite hangouts. Favre’s
rural upbringing shows through, and helps to illustrate why he has always been
comfortable in Green Bay, the NFL’s smallest television market.
• Adam Vinatieri - The Winner - This feature begins with
an overview of some of the greatest kickers and kicks in NFL history, but focuses
on Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri’s three clutch kicks that helped the
Patriots win their first Super Bowl title. Many players consider his forty-five-yard
field goal in a blinding snowstorm that sent the 2001 AFC Divisional Playoff
game into overtime to be the greatest kick in NFL history.
• Bucs’ Losing Streak - Upon joining the NFL in
the 1976 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers proceeded to lose their first 26 games,
a streak that included all of the 1976 season and the first 12 games of the
1977 season. The Buccaneers’ first win came at the expense of the New
Orleans Saints in the penultimate game of the 1977 season.
• 2004 Ring Ceremony - In the summer of 2004, Patriots
owner Robert Kraft invited the members of the 2003 championship team to his
residence for the presentation of the Super Bowl XXXVIII championship ring.
This feature shows Kraft addressing the team and commentary from various players
on what the ring signifies.
• Bill Cowher - Family Values - In 1996, Sabol interviewed
Steelers coach Bill Cowher and Meaghan Cowher, the oldest of his three daughters.
In this feature, Sabol revisits Bill and Meaghan to see how much has changed
in the nine years since, and also showcases the juxtaposition of Bill’s
on field persona and role as a father.
YOU’RE WITH ME, LEATHER
With more than 13 hours of footage, Super Bowl XXXI-XL Collector’s
Set provides football fans with the final piece in the Super Bowl set.
For fans who have already purchased one or more of the first three collector’s
sets, this set is definitely worth the purchase. However, those fans who have
not purchased any of the other three sets should wait a few more weeks and purchase
NFL Super Bowl Collection: I-XL, a boxed set that includes
all four of the sets in the Super Bowl collection.
DVD Set Main Features Score: A-
DVD Set Sounds and Visuals Score: A
DVD Set Packaging and Layout Score: B
DVD Set Extras Score: B+
DVD Set Overall Score: A-
