In the 1950s, professional football had established a foothold in the American sports landscape and a group of wealthy businessmen decided they wanted a piece of the action. They established the American Football League to compete with the NFL and they came equipped with loaded wallets. Almost immediately, a bidding war broke out for players and contracts soared. It was clear the the two leagues could not continue to conduct battling bankrolls and in 1966, they agreed to a merger which included a game between the two league champions. Award-winning sports writer Hal Bock traces the growth of the game from an afterthought to the most important event of the sports year and reviews some of the great games that have made the Super Bowl a singular sensation that grew from humble beginnings to an event that one day might be celebrated as a national holiday.
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