On February 3rd, 2013 the San Francisco 49ers prepared to face off against the underdog Baltimore Ravens in what many are calling the “Blackout Bowl.” After the Ravens historic win, many viewers were left wondering about the power outage that interrupted the game for nearly a half hour. The outage shifted the momentum in the middle of the game. After some 30 minutes, the lights came back on and the game resumed–except it didn’t seem like the same game. The 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, came back ready to play. In the second half Kaepernick threw for 20 completions and only 3 incompletions, ending the game with a rating of 91.7.
With a comeback in sight, the 49ers they came back stronger than ever. But the Ravens held on to their lead into the last seconds of the game and won their second Superbowl. Meanwhile, many viewers questions whether the power outage was just a coincidence? Was it a conspiracy? Was this just one of the NFLs many ways of drawing attention to increase profits?
Some Morgan students believe that the blackout was just a glitch. “It was just a coincidence, stuff like that happens all the time,” says junior Will Ngakoue.
Morgan junior Thomas Dawson has similar feelings. “I think it was just a coincidence,” he said. ” A lot goes into keeping a stadium lit, so I believe it was just a malfunction rather than someone trying to sabotage either team’s chances at winning the Superbowl.”
Not too long after the big game NFL commissioner Roger Goodell apologized for the outage and assured fans an investigation would be done. This doesn’t satisfy everyone.“If you look back, the 49ers had two previous games where they were down and the lights went off and after they came back on the 49ers came back to win, now obviously that didn’t happen but definitely could have,” says Morgan sophomore Shawn Posey. “I think it’s a conspiracy by the NFL.”
Other students, like Morgan sophomore Alpha Johnson think that the politics of the NFL lies on the money. “It was definitely a conspiracy,” Johnson said. “The NFL is a business just like any other. Increased ratings and more excitement equals more money.”
