Get down, boogie in Miami!
Team dances trace to fun bunch, shuffle, six-shooter
Posted: Monday January 25, 1999 07:48 PM
MIAMI (CNN/SI) -- In the beginning, there was Lombardi, and
not a shuffle, a dance, a salute or a leap
in anyone's wildest imagination.
But as the stakes grew and the reins
loosened, as the Roman numerals
doubled and then tripled, the road to the
Super Bowl became choreographed. If
teams didn't have music videos, they at
least had dance routines.
Hatching, of course, this week's "Dirty Bird"
and the "Mile-High Salute." Everybody's
gotta have a gimmick.
Could we, in our archeological dig, trace
all of this back to Butch
Johnson, whose six-shooters helped the
Cowboys blaze their way to Super Bowls
XII and XIII?
The Redskins quadrupled the effort and,
in Super Bowls XVII and XVIII, gathered for
the "Fun Bunch" dance.
Collegians tried to adopt this but the
NCAA quickly put a ban on such outrageous
celebrations. The NFL had no such qualms.
The Bears took it to a new level in Super
Bowl XX with their legendary "Super Bowl
Shuffle," a song, a music video, refrigerator
Commercials ... and surely, Broadway followed.
Ironically, Mike Ditka, whose growl mimicked
Lombardi's, was one of the lead Bearettes.
The football world was dancing to the Ickey Shuffle in 1988 Rick Stewart/Allsport |
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Three Super Bowls later, another
individual step or two ... remember the
"Ickey Shuffle?"
On their way to Super Bowls XXXI and XXXII,
the Packers found themselves diving into
the adoring arms of their fans. The fabled
"Lambeau Leap."
About that same time came the Broncos,
who snapped to attention in their end
zones and issued each other the "Mile
High Salute."
And so, considering their history, you had
to figure the Falcons would make the
Super Bowl this time around when
tight end O.J. Santiago, in the season's
middle, first celebrated a touchdown
catch with this awkward, flapping dance
one critic described as looking like a man
trying to put out armpit fires.
"The Dirty Bird."
What's next? A chorus line? There
seems great sadness in some NFL
circles that the wonderful, record-breaking
running back Barry Sanders has never made
it to this game and of course, there is good
reason.
Can he shuffle? Can he leap? Can he
salute? Where's his six-shooter?
The Super Bowl is one of the world's
great stages and it's not only hard but
perhaps impossible to be humble in it's
wake.
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