Descriptive Essay - Super Bowl Xxv
Logan Wilson
Initial draft
9/14/16
Professor Gaughan
[pic 1]
When several Giants coaches reached their perch high atop Tampa Stadium for Super Bowl XXV, they knew immediately it was no ordinary game – and it had nothing to do with football. In 1991 the U.S. entered the first gulf war. People were beginning to get weary of that a terrorist attack may strike. However one event kept everyone’s minds off this paranoia, Super Bowl XXV. This classic football clash pitched the power house of the NFL, the Buffalo Bills, against one of the most dominating defensive forces in the history of the NFL, The New York Giants. NFL fans from around the country looked forward to watching this clash of the titans. As the Big game approached fear started to flurry in. People were being deterred from attending the game because of terror threats against the stadium and the fans in it. The League had to do something that would make the fans feel safe before panic set in and no one game.
In this picture stands three men. All three have black boots, black pants, and a black jacket with the word police written in big letters across their backs. Two of the men are wearing black hats. Perched in the tower with the three men is a riffle laying in its case. One of the officers is seen looking through a pair of binoculars off into the distance. In the background you can see the stadium. Little dots of colors are all spread out across the stadium. These dots of colors are the fans that have come to watch the game. To the left of the tower where the snipers are perched is a whit awning. The stadium scoreboard is in the left of the picture and is seen with sometime of orange lettering on it. On both sides of the score board are several advertisement billboards for companies. Two of the companies that stand out are Coco-Cola and Marlboro. Outside the stadium the skyline white full of clouds with a small amount of sunlight that is being bounced off of the clouds. There is a small town outside of the stadium but is made to look microscopic compared to the stadium. By looking at this picture two different ways you can get two different emotions. If you ignore the three armed snipers in the picture and focus on the background you get a sense of an unreal excitement. The scenery and all of the colors give of a sense that this is a really exciting moment and will be a great afternoon to watch this sporting event. Now if you focus on the three police officers that you sense a feeling of fear. The sense of fear is confirmed by the presences of armed guards watching over everyone with a close eye.
This picture was taken Michael Eisen. It was taken on January 27, 1991. This was the first super bowl with this kind of high level security measures. They placed armed guards at every entrance, snipers on top of the press boxes and everywhere else they could. Blackhawk helicopters took shifts circling around the stadium. Bomb sniffing dogs patrolled in and outside of the stadium. All of these safety and security reasons where to make fans have nothing to fear. Tom Coughlin who was the wide receiver coach for the giants at the time said “On game day, when we arrived at the coaches’ booth next to the press box, we looked out the window and saw a helicopter gunship hovering right there,…..And everyone in it was armed.” The heavy blanket of security was necessitated by the Persian Gulf War. The combat phase of the war had commenced on Jan. 17 10 days prior to the game. With the United States at war, a security force of over 500 security personal from all different levels of law enforcement to keep everyone safe. When the Giants went to stadium the day before the game for a walk-thru, they had to go through metal detectors, a routine repeated by every single fan on game day. The equipment of both the Giants and Bills was searched. Any vehicle that entered the stadium parking lots was examined. Armed antiterrorist police in camouflage and black uniforms patrolled the stadium roof. That was a time of great patriotism in the United States. American flags were more prevalent than normal, including at the game.