When it rains, it pours.
The New York Jets can’t catch a break. Lampooned in the media for their owner supposedly using Madden ratings to determine personnel decisions, New York’s “Same Old Jets” moniker is alive and thriving.
Even the popular game show ‘Jeopardy’ had to get in on the action. On Final Jeopardy, the category was Super Bowl History. This was the prompt:
It’s the only team to play in the Super Bowl before Neil Armstrong’s moon walk that has not been back to the big game since.
It might seem like a clever shot, but the truth is, this is not a strong prompt.
Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon occurred on July 21, 1969. The Jets won the Super Bowl on January 12, 1969.
But when did the first Super Bowl occur? January 15, 1967. So that means how many teams participated in a Super Bowl before Neil Armstrong’s moon walk? A maximum of six. That’s a pretty small pool of answers for Final Jeopardy to choose from!
Incidentally, since the Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls, a fact that is pretty well-known, a contestant would actually have only five teams to choose from. The other teams besides the Jets were the Chiefs (Super Bowl I), Raiders (Super Bowl II), and Colts (Super Bowl III).
Clearly, though, none of these contestants were football fans. The contestants guessed the Cleveland Browns, Giants, and Houston.
Ragging on the Jets might be de rigueur right now, but this particular application was pretty foolish.
