“That is Steve Tasker, sideline reporter for the Tremendous Bowl 47. When you’re anticipating to listen to our buddy Jim Nantz, it might be a second earlier than he will get on.”
When the audio of Super Bowl XLVII between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens all of the sudden lower out early within the third quarter on Feb. 3, 2013, the thousands and thousands watching the CBS broadcast might need suspected one thing was amiss.
When Tasker, assigned to work the 49ers sideline, was the primary voice anybody heard, it was confirmed. There was no energy within the broadcast sales space, elevators and escalators floor to a halt and so did the sport — for 34 minutes.
“Half the ability in New Orleans stadium, the Superdome right here, is out,” Tasker introduced to the world.
For some Ravens gamers, the stoppage was suspicious. Jacoby Jones had returned the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a landing, Baltimore was main 28-6 and the Ravens had simply sacked 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick on second down. The Super Bowl was about to be a rout after which the lights went out? Linebacker Ray Lewis smelled a rat.
“You can not inform me somebody wasn’t sitting there, and once they say, ‘The Ravens (are) about to blow them out. Man, we higher do one thing,’” he said in an interview for NFL Movies’ “America’s Sport” later that 12 months. “That’s an enormous shift in any sport, in all seriousness.”
The precise rationalization was extra mundane. A newly put in gadget referred to as a relay mechanically lower energy to the stadium when the amperage hit a sure stage as a result of the manufacturing facility settings have been too low.
Entergy, the native electrical firm, vows that gained’t occur Sunday when the Tremendous Bowl returns to New Orleans for the primary time in 12 years. The corporate not makes use of the gear accountable for the blackout, there are higher redundancies for electrical stream and the stadium has hosted greater than a decade of New Orleans Saints video games and live shows since with out incident.
GO DEEPER
From Super Bowls to ‘last resort,’ Michael Jordan to ‘No mas,’ the Superdome has seen it all
These live shows, considerably, have included Beyonce, whose halftime present in 2013 preceded the blackout, and Taylor Swift, who introduced 200,000 followers to the Caesars Superdome over three nights in October.
“Some referred to as that weekend the last word tabletop train,” Entergy mentioned in a press release.
Whereas the 49ers chortle at Lewis’ conspiracy concept — “We had the identical delay they did,” offensive deal with Joe Staley mentioned — there’s no query they benefited from the reset.
They barrelled into their locker room at halftime intent on fixing the whole lot that had gone mistaken within the first half, shortly going over the tactical modifications they’d make. Then they’d nowhere to go.
A Tremendous Bowl halftime is twice so long as a regular-season model and since there was a lot staging gear, the gamers couldn’t get onto the sphere. As a substitute, they have been cooped up within the locker room.
The 49ers observe that the Ravens acquired away with a holding penalty in opposition to fullback Bruce Miller on Jones’ kick-return landing to begin the third quarter. However there additionally was a way that the lengthy halftime had an impact.
“I bear in mind coach (Jim) Harbaugh arising and asking, ‘Have been we warmed up?’” the 49ers power coach on the time, Mark Uyeyama, recalled. “And I am going, ‘Uhhh — clearly (Jones) was.’”
The 49ers then ran two performs — a 29-yard move to Michael Crabtree and a 3-yard run by Frank Gore — earlier than Kaepernick was sacked by Arthur Jones. Following that play, colour commentator Phil Simms was in mid-sentence when the published went silent at 7:37 p.m. native time.
The 49ers had the ball trailing 28-6 when the ability all of the sudden went out within the Superdome. (Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Pictures)
An assault? A shooter? These ideas flashed via everybody’s thoughts. The Sandy Hook taking pictures had occurred a month and a half earlier and the 49ers had been readily available at a sport in New England the place the victims have been remembered.
“The very first thing that went via my head is an act of terrorism,” then-49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman mentioned. “And what’s coming subsequent? First, they lower the ability. And now what? My entire household’s there.”
“I actually thought it was a terrorist assault initially,” mentioned Wink Martindale, then the Ravens’ inside linebackers coach. “You simply didn’t know. Immediately, you’re wanting up the place you understand your loved ones is sitting and the whole lot else to verify everybody was OK.”
After a couple of moments, these ideas dissipated. There was an preliminary groan from the group, however there was no panic or commotion. The Superdome was quiet.
“To their credit score, everybody remained calm,” Tasker mentioned in a cellphone interview.
“Why is the clock stopped?”
Throwback to the lights going out throughout Ravens vs. 49ers in Tremendous Bowl XLVII
pic.twitter.com/BD5qbuhjmq
— NFL Movies (@NFLFilms) December 25, 2023
He mentioned everybody’s first activity was to seek out out what occurred and the way lengthy the sport could be delayed. The sideline reporters had stopped utilizing wi-fi microphones six years earlier throughout wet Tremendous Bowl XLI as a result of these mics had gone out. Tasker had a cable connected to his mic in New Orleans that stretched solely so far as the numbers on the sphere. The league officers he needed to interview have been safely huddled at midfield and didn’t need to be interviewed on digital camera. So he strolled to midfield, acquired as a lot data as he might, then was approached by Jim Harbaugh on his method again to the sideline.
“He needed to know what they advised me,” Tasker mentioned.
The 49ers had a bonus in that they’d gone via one thing comparable the 12 months earlier than when a transformer blew exterior of Candlestick Park, inflicting two delays throughout a “Monday Evening Soccer” sport in opposition to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Uyeyama mentioned he reminded gamers how properly they’d dealt with that wait on the sideline.
“We have been higher ready than we have been in opposition to Pittsburgh,” Uyeyama mentioned. “And we’d put (Ben) Roethlisberger on his again all sport. So we have been strolling round and speaking with the blokes, ‘Bear in mind, Pittsburgh.’”
The groups initially have been advised the sport would resume in about quarter-hour and that everybody ought to stay on the sphere. They heard the identical chorus — quarter-hour — once they checked in later.
“The longer it went, you needed to get your self again in teaching mode,” Martindale mentioned. “It was like, ‘Holy s—, we’ve got to begin stretching.’ We knew we have been in hassle. I do know analytics say there’s no such factor as momentum, however that’s bulls—. The lights going out modified the momentum of the sport. We have been killing them when the lights went out. We had an older group than them and it actually took us some time to get unfastened once more and get going.”
Mentioned 49ers security Donte Whitner: “Soccer is a sport based mostly on momentum. And each time you’ve got a lull like that, it’s alternative for the group that’s not taking part in properly to regroup and get well.”
He mentioned linebackers Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman mentioned technique. Justin Smith, the elder statesman of the protection, made certain everybody stayed centered and calm.
“I bear in mind vividly listening to Dashon Goldson proceed to say, ‘Not at the moment. Not at the moment. We’re too good. We’re too nice of a protection,’” Whitner recalled. “And what he was referring to was, ‘Let’s not make the straightforward errors that can beat us.’”
The blackout formally final 34 minutes and appeared to result in an enormous momentum swing for the 49ers. (Jamie Squire / Getty Pictures)
On offense, Roman made solely a fast go to to the locker room at halftime. The 49ers had scored solely two area objectives at that time and he wanted to remodel your entire sport plan. Roman spoke briefly to the gamers, then approached Harbaugh.
“I simply mentioned, ‘Hey, Jim, I’ve gotta get upstairs and get issues discovered,’” Roman mentioned.
He was again within the coach’s sales space earlier than Beyonce started her present and felt good in regards to the alterations he’d made.
“Then they returned the kickoff and it was like the worth of poker has modified even higher,” Roman mentioned. “It was like, ‘Oh my God. Now we’re in fairly a gap.’”
He made much more changes after the stadium misplaced energy. The radio headsets connecting him and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio to the sideline didn’t work and actually have been one of many final issues to return on-line earlier than the sport resumed.
So Roman bounced performs and concepts off of receivers coach John Morton. The 49ers would run the ball sometimes to maintain Lewis and the Ravens protection sincere. In any other case, they’d assault via the air.
“We have been gonna be ultra-aggressive,” Roman mentioned. “We had a lot expertise on the group, it was solely a matter of time.”
He was proper. The 49ers punted instantly after play resumed however scored on a 31-yard Kaepernick-to-Crabtree move once they acquired the ball again. Then they scored on their subsequent three possessions, slicing Baltimore’s result in 31-29 with slightly below 10 minutes to play. It was as if the blackout had created two distinct video games.
“It was like a observe meet from that time ahead,” Roman mentioned.
However whereas the Ravens scored as soon as extra — on a Justin Tucker 38-yard area objective — the 49ers offense acquired slowed down deep within the pink zone within the last minutes.
San Francisco appeared to have an excellent shot for a go-ahead landing after Gore’s 33-yard run to the 7-yard line with 2:39 to go. That carry, nonetheless, left Gore — top-of-the-line short-yardage runners within the NFL — winded and his alternative, LaMichael James, was stopped for a 2-yard achieve on first down.
A quarterback keeper that probably would have scored a landing was worn out when Jim Harbaugh referred to as a timeout to keep away from a play-clock violation. When the final of three throws to Crabtree within the nook of the tip zone sailed over the receiver’s head, the Ravens knew they’d lastly halted San Francisco’s momentum and held on for the win.
“If we’d have misplaced that sport, I’d have walked away saying, ‘It was as a result of the ability went out and the lengthy delay,’” Martindale mentioned. “We have been simply killing them in any other case.”
Mentioned Roman: “Sadly, it simply wasn’t sufficient. That was a weird day in our lives, for certain.”
Regardless of being the lone face and the voice for the Tremendous Bowl broadcast for a couple of unsure minutes, Tasker mentioned he didn’t obtain a lot consideration following the sport. As a substitute, his cellphone began blowing up six days later when “Saturday Evening Dwell” — with Taran Killam taking part in Tasker — spoofed the blackout with a chilly open.
“That’s after I knew I’d lastly made it,” Tasker mentioned with amusing.
(High photograph: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Pictures)
