The biggest controversies in Super Bowl history

The Super Bowl will be here before we know it, with the NFL season rapidly approaching its halfway point. With just over three months to go before the biggest game of them all, we thought it would be a good idea to take a look at some of the biggest scandals and controversies surrounding the Super Bowl!

For many, this was the turning point of Super Bowl XLVII. With the Ravens dominating the 49ers in the Superdome in New Orleans, the result seemed all but inevitable... until a sudden blackout caused the game to pause. The 49ers rallied after a long break and were a Michael Crabtree drop away from a remarkable comeback, aided and abetted by the blackout.

Some members of the Ravens organization firmly believed the blackout had been done deliberately to slow them down and allow the 49ers to get back into the game. Ray Lewis told USA Today, “But you cannot tell me somebody wasn't sitting there and when they say, 'The Ravens (are) about to blow them out. Man, we better do something.' ... That's a huge shift in any game, in all seriousness.”

Super Bowl XXXVIII’s halftime show featured Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, all was going well until JT pulled at Jackson’s corset accidentally revealing far more than was acceptable for a family broadcast. Timberlake told CNN what happened was, “not intentional and...regrettable” after the event.

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Barret Robbins was a Pro Bowl center for the Raiders and looked set to play a huge part in Super Bowl XXXVII, unfortunately, Robbins was nowhere to be found. Sajid Farooq of NBC reported after the fact Robbins had left his hotel, “without his wallet and his cell phone, to party in Tijuana, Mexico”, as well as being diagnosed with various mental health disorders.

Super Bowl XLIX saw the New England Patriots dramatically beat the Seattle Seahawks with a late-game goal-line stand. The game was great, but perhaps the most memorable moment was during Katy Perry’s halftime show when a backup dancer, clad in a shark suit, seemingly forgot the choreography dancing off-beat and completely differently from everyone else on stage.

Bryan Gaw was the man in the shark outfit that fateful night and explained to NPR that, “There's also what's called free-style choreography, or, like, you get to move around or play your character as a dancer. ... I'm in a 7-foot blue shark costume. There's no cool in that.” Which is about as good an explanation as you’re going to get.

Eugene Robinson was getting ready for Super Bowl XXXIII where his Atlanta Falcons were taking on the Denver Broncos when he decided to have a little fun off the field. Unfortunately, his chosen entertainment for the evening was to solicit sex from a sex worker who turned out to be an undercover cop, per ESPN. Robinson’s action proved a huge distraction as the Falcons lost heavily.

Robinson’s action proved a huge distraction as the news broke overnight before Super Bowl Sunday and his Falcons side lost heavily. Worse still was Robinson’s wife and kids had made the trip down to watch him play…

The Steelers overcame the Cardinals in one of the most dramatic Super Bowls of all time, but some viewers were left shocked when Comcast aired 37 seconds of an explicit video in the middle of the game, per ESPN. Eventually, it was uncovered an ex-Comcast employee had deliberately tampered with the broadcast to air the blue material.

Cincinnati Bengals running back Stanley Wilson battled with drug addiction throughout his career but seemed to be in the clear heading into Super Bowl XXIII against the Niners. Unfortunately, he relapsed the night before the game, eventually being found, “in the bathroom of his room at the Holiday Inn in Plantation, Florida,” where he was, “sweating and shivering,” per The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Stanley was banned for life following this incident at the Super Bowl as it was his third drug-related offense. He was later sentenced to 22 years in prison in California as part of the state’s controversial ‘three strikes’ policy, according to reporting by the The Cincinnati Enquirer.

M.I.A was performing alongside Madonna, LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, and Cee Lo Green at Super Bowl XLVI when she decided to flip the bird to an audience of over 100 million people. Not exactly the craziest thing we’ve ever seen on our screens but when the NFL decided to sue her for $16.6 million in damages, as covered by Sports Illustrated, the controversy bubbled over.

Just last week (February 4, 2024)Patrick Mahomes’ dad was arrested for DUI, with police noting, “I believed Patrick (Snr) was impaired to a perceptible degree while operating a motor vehicle in a public place,” according to Yahoo Sports. Mahomes Jr. is gearing up to play the 49ers this Sunday, will his Dad’s poor judgment affect him at all?

Ray Lewis wasn’t even playing in Super Bowl XXXIV when the Rams beat the Titans, yet still made headlines on Super Bowl night. He and his entourage got into a fight that left two dead, leading to the Ravens linebacker being charged with two counts of murder, all charges were eventually dropped in exchange for Lewis’ testimony, per the Miami Herald, but speculation about what happened that night remains a constant talking point.

A second, slightly less well-known controversy surrounding Ray Lewis and the Super Bowl was his alleged use of Deer Antler Spray, a supplement containing IGF-1 which is banned in the NFL. This all came from a report by Sports Illustrated released just before Super Bowl XLVII and was vehemently denied by Lewis.

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