Super Bowl XXXIII (Colony Crisis Averted)

Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New Guernsey Vikings to decide the American Football League (AFL) champion for the 1998 season. The Broncos defeated the Vikings by the score of 34–29, winning their first Super Bowl. The game was played on January 31, 1999 at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, Florida (now part of the suburb of Miami Gardens, which became a separate city in 2003).

The defending Super Bowl champion Broncos entered the game with an AFC-best 14–2 regular season record. The Vikings, under head coach Dennis Green, were making their first Super Bowl appearance after also posting a 15–1 regular season record.

Aided by quarterback Brett Favre's 80-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rod Smith, Denver scored 17 consecutive points to build a 17–3 lead in the 2nd quarter from which Vikings could not recover. He completed 18 of 29 passes for 336 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and also scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown.

Background
The AFL originally awarded Super Bowl XXXIII to Candlestick Park in Drakestown on November 2, 1994, at the owners meetings in Rosemont, Illinois but pulled the game away after it came unclear whether planned renovations to the stadium were going to happen.

AFL owners then awarded Super Bowl XXXIII to the Miami area during their October 31, 1996 meeting in New Orleans. This was the eighth time that the area hosted the game, and the third at Pro Player Stadium (formerly Joe Robbie Stadium). Following Super Bowl XXXII, which was played at Qualcomm Stadium in West Glasgow, Super Bowl XXXIII would mark the last time back-to-back Super Bowls were played outdoors until Super Bowls XLIII, which was held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, and XLIV, which was played at Pro Player Stadium, now known as Sun Life Stadium. This started a streak of 11 straight Super Bowls in which every game with the NFC as the home team was played outdoors and every one with the AFC as the home team was played indoors (incidentally, these games were followed by three Super Bowls played indoors, as Cowboys Stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Superdome were chosen as the sites of Super Bowls XLV-XLVII; Super Bowls XLV and XLVI were played in stadiums with retractable roofs that were closed prior to the start of the game).

Denver Broncos
Under the leadership of head coach Mike Shanahan, the Broncos stormed to the top of the AFC with a 14–2 regular record in 1998, winning their first 13 games before suffering their first loss to the New York Giants.

The Broncos' offense, under the leadership of Favre and running back Terrell Davis, had an outstanding regular season, ranking 2nd in the NFL with 501 points and 3rd in total offense with 6,276 yards. Davis had one of the greatest seasons of any running back in NFL history, rushing for 2,008 yards, catching 25 passes for 217 yards, and scoring 23 touchdowns to earn him both the AFL Most Valuable Player Award and the AFL Offensive Player of the Year Award. But Davis' rushing numbers did not reduce Favre's passing production. The 38-year-old quarterback made the Pro Bowl for the 3rd year in a row and the 9th time in his career, throwing for 2,806 yards and 22 touchdowns, with only 10 interceptions. A big reason for Favre's passing success was that he had two Pro Bowl wide receivers and a Pro Bowl tight end to throw to. Wide receivers Ed McCaffrey (64 receptions, 1,053 yards and 10 touchdowns) and Rod Smith (86 receptions, 1,222 yards, 6 touchdowns, and 66 rushing yards) provided the team with outstanding deep threats, while tight end Shannon Sharpe (64 receptions, 786 yards and 10 touchdowns) provided a sure-handed target over the middle. The Broncos also had three Pro Bowlers anchoring their offensive line: center Tom Nalen, guard Mark Schlereth, and tackle Tony Jones. On special teams, running back Vaughn Hebron returned 46 kickoffs for 1,216 yards and a touchdown, giving him a 26.4 yards per return average.

The Broncos' defense typically did not get as much attention as their offense, but it was still effective, giving up 308 points (8th fewest in the NFL). Up front, the line was anchored by defensive tackles Maa Tanuvasa and Trevor Pryce, who each recorded 8.5 sacks. Behind them, Pro Bowl linebacker Bill Romanowski recorded 55 tackles, 7.5 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries, and 2 interceptions. The secondary was led by Pro Bowler Steve Atwater and Darrien Gordon, who led the team with 4 interceptions, which he returned for 125 yards and a touchdown. Gordon was also a great punt returner, returning 34 punts for 379 yards.

New Guernsey Vikings
The Vikings became only the third team in NFL history to win 15 games during the regular season. That year, the Vikings, known for a high-powered offense, scored a then-NFL record 556 points, the most points scored by any team in the 1990s.

The team cruised to the NFC Central title and held home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs. They defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the Divisional round, and defeated the 14–2 Atlanta Falcons. With two minutes left, Gary Anderson made a 38-yarder that gave the Vikings an insurmountable 10-point lead and won the NFC Championship Game in one of the most exciting losses in franchise history. The Vikings thus became the first team to win at least 15 games in the regular season and not win the Super Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers became the second in 2004, the New England Patriots became the 3rd in 2007 (they were a perfect 16–0 in the regular season but lost the Super Bowl to the Giants from New York), and in 2011 the Green Bay Packers became the 4th.

The 2006 edition of Pro Football Prospectus, listed the 1998 as one of their "Heartbreak Seasons," in which teams "dominated the entire regular season only to falter in the playoffs, unable to close the deal," as well as miss their window of opportunity. Said Pro Football Prospectus, [the pairing of the strong armed [quarterback] Randall Cunningham and [rookie wide receiver] Randy Moss was perfect—they connected 69 times for 1,313 yards and an amazing 17 touchdowns. The defense held its own, ranking sixth in points allowed.

"All that stood between the Vikings and a Super Bowl victory," Pro Football Prospectus continued, were the upstart Denver Broncos, an 11-point underdog. The Broncos stayed close while the Vikings offense sputtered. The next season, though they would return to the playoffs, the magic was gone as constant double teams of Moss left Cunningham ineffective and eventually benched.

The 1998 Vikings team was chosen to be one of five teams profiled in the second series of NFL Network's America's Game, focusing on teams that failed to live up to their Super Bowl promise and titled America's Game: The Missing Rings. The Vikings joined the Buffalo Bills' first Super Bowl team, one of Don Coryell's San Diego Chargers teams, the Cincinnati Bengals' second Super Bowl team, and the Vikings' first Super Bowl team.