Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Cool box sets, good documentaries
Likes: Football, NY Jets
Dislikes: Treating sports as being more important than they are
Hates: New England Patriots

The Show
Even if you don't like football, it's likely you've watched a Super Bowl. It's one of a select few sports events, along with the Olympics and a few European tournaments, that's bigger than the game on the field. In fact, when it comes to the Super Bowl, it's very likely that a good percentage of the people in attendance and tuning in couldn't care less who takes home the Vince Lombardi trophy, focusing more on what commercials are good and what's around to eat.

It wasn't always that way. Back in 1966, when the NFL and AFL first got together to see which was the best football league in all the land, the game was pretty much the only thing. As you begin to work through the 40 years of big-game history covered in this set, a change slowly becomes obvious, even when the series tries to keep the spotlight on the field and the people on it. The creeping corporate influence can't be hidden, even in NFL-financed propaganda, but even so, there's a large portion of America's Game that retains an innocence and purity that would be welcome in today's sports.

The series, which aired on the NFL Network and CBS, started with a list of the top 20 Super Bowl champions as selected by a "blue ribbon" panel, with a 45-minute "documentary" for each honored squad, featuring interviews with three, and on rare occasion four, important parts of the team, a load of archival footage and narration by a Hollywood star. These were followed by episodes for every NFL champion, including the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, who were left out of this set, perhaps to achieve a nice round number of DVDs. The episodes are presented in chronological order of the seasons, so they mix the top 20 and the rest of the games, which makes it all a bit of a jumble in terms of the presentation, but there's not really a better option to organize the set.

The group behind "America's Game" thought it out pretty well, immediately handling the issue of there being just 18 different Super Bowl champions in the first 40 years. With such little variety in the teams involved, the series risked repetition, but the same interview subjects are never used twice, thus spreading the spotlight around a bit. On the downside though, the big names aren't heard from much, despite their frequent involvement in the Super Bowl. Worse yet, there are some names you never hear from, including Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, for reasons which are not clear. On the other hand, there are some huge non-football names involved, as the narration is handled by some strong, famous voices, including Martin Sheen, Gene Hackman, Donald Sutherland and Tom Selleck. That Long Island's own Alec Baldwin handles the duties on the Jets' episode is a bit of cosmic wonder, as it's just what any self-respecting football fan would only hope for (or at least any Jets fan.)

The great thing about the series is the wide focus of each episode, despite their relatively short lengths, as they discuss not only the big game, but how the team was built, the season leading into the Super Bowl, and even includes some wrap-up as well. Die-hard fans will likely know the stories told about their teams (as my father-in-law noted during the episodes about his beloved Giants,) but there are enough great tales told and footage shown to entertain and enlighten NFL followers, especially when it comes to the older teams. It likely has a great deal to do with the time that has passed, giving the participants perspective on their careers, but the fashions on the players in the '70s is reason enough to tune in. Some of the older players, like Don Maynard of the Jets, and most of the Pittsburgh Steelers (old and new), could talk for hours and not get boring. That they talk directly to the camera, like they're sharing a beer with you, makes the show all the more powerful.

While it has a lot to do with why the series works so well, some might have a problem with the lack of game footage from the various Super Bowls. To be honest, until my father-in-law pointed it out, I hardly noticed. Listening to the great stories, including info on in-team skirmishes, friendly jabs and behind-the-scenes shenanigans, and watching footage that hasn't been seen in some time, like Tom Landry's politically incorrect American Express commercial, paints a more interesting picture of the players and teams than any one game could. I actually had more of a problem with the commercial bumpers that have left in, as they wreck the rhythm of the shows, fading to black and returning with the series' trademark music and graphics.

That music is actually part of my biggest issue with the set, but it's one fight I'll never win. Despite a taste for whimsy and the presence of some goofy segments, the music and narration sometimes works to present these games as pivotal in the history of man. The sense of importance is a bit obnoxious, and a more light-hearted approach would have had zero negative impact on the show. This one is bigger than NFL Films though, so I can't rag on them too much for this problem.

The discs feature animated full-frame main menus that offer options to watch the show, select scenes (from a text list), view extras and adjust languages. There are no audio options, though subtitles are available in English and Spanish, along with closed captioning.

The Quality
The quality of the footage in these full-frame transfers varies with time and type, with on-field footage in older episodes looking better than the behind-the-scenes material, and newer footage obviously being much crisper and colorful (and without the frequent dirt and damage seen in the old archival footage.) The main interviews were all shot recently, so they are consistently clean and sharp, and free of any dirt, damage or digital artifacts. Disappointingly, the DVDs are not in anamorphic widescreen, considering the show aired in high-definition on cable and broadcast television. Perhaps the marketing folks didn't feel football fans would care about video quality?

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks that sound quite solid, with the participants' voices, music and in-game sound all coming across clean. Everything is delivered right down the middle, so there's nothing dynamic about the mix, but the game audio is pretty full.

The Extras
Each disc features a selection of extra content, normally amusing asides from the interviews for that particular episode, interesting profiles about players from those championship teams and appropriate material from other NFL Films productions. There's anywhere between three and 17 segments on each DVD, with longer pieces making up the smaller groups, and shorter clips in the larger bunches, with the lengths ranging from 29 seconds to 21 minutes. Some discs seem a bit slim, with just a handful of clips, while others, like the 1971 Cowboys, features eight segments totaling over 34 minutes. In all, there are 268 pieces, providing over 12 1/2 hours of bonus material. Among the gems in here are the origins of Pittsburgh's Terrible Towel, the sack dance and the Gatorade bath, the profiles on John Riggins and Rocky Blier and the piece on the Raiders' fashion sense, along with the unusual NFL Films' bit "Joe and the Magic Bean," about Joe Namath, which has to be seen and heard to believe.

Also in the box is a well-designed paperback wide-format book, featuring a two-page spread on each championship team, with gorgeous photos, an episode description, a summary of the team, their schedule and results, and a quote, along with photos of all the Super Bowl rings on the inside covers. It's a beautiful addition to the set.

The Bottom Line
You have to like football to get through this entire set, but then, why else would you even approach it? The great thing about the series though is you don't need to be a fan of the teams profiled, which is a good thing, since you're going to see several teams again and again. Thanks to solid storytelling, enjoyable interviews and the wealth of footage from NFL Films, each relatively short episode is easily digested, and the participation of the great celebrity narrators just makes it all the more enjoyable. On the downside, the set is not complete, missing the most recent episode (notice the title doesn't include Super Bowl XLI), and the participation of a couple of important names. The discs look and sound very good, but should be better, considering the show airs in high definition, while the extras, as a whole, are substantial and a nice inclusion to a beautifully-packaged set. For the fan who likes to go beyond the game, and doesn't mind the presentation, this is a great look back at the history of the biggest annual event in American sports, but those more interested in the games may end up being disappointed by the focus on off-the-field stories and interviews. For them, there's the other 23:16 of NFL coverage in the day.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.