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| Date | January 31, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Pro Player Stadium, Miami, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | John Elway, quarterback | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Broncos by 7.5[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Bernie Kukar | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 74,803[3] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ceremonies | |||||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Cher[4] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coin toss | Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore, Jim Parker, Art Donovan, Gino Marchetti, Frank Gifford, Roosevelt Brown, Don Maynard, Sam Huff and Tom Landry | ||||||||||||||||||
| Halftime show | Gloria Estefan, Stevie Wonder and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy | ||||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | Fox | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Pat Summerall, John Madden, Ron Pitts and Bill Maas | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 40.2 (est. 83.7 million viewers)[5] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Market share | 61 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cost of 30-second commercial | $1.6 million | ||||||||||||||||||
| Radio in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | Westwood One | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Howard David, Matt Millen and John Dockery | ||||||||||||||||||
Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion and defending Super Bowl XXXII champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Atlanta Falcons to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1998 season. The Broncos defeated the Falcons by the score of 34–19, winning their second consecutive 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 Falcons, under former Denver head coach Dan Reeves, were making their first Super Bowl appearance after also posting a 14–2 regular season record.
Aided by quarterback John Elway's 80-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rod Smith, Denver scored 17 consecutive points to build a 17–3 lead in the second quarter from which Atlanta could not recover. In the final game of his career before his announced retirement on May 2, 1999, Elway completed 18 of 29 passes for 336 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and also scored a 3-yard rushing touchdown. At 38 years old, Elway became the oldest player to be named Super Bowl MVP, a record that stood until Tom Brady surpassed it in 2017 at the age of 39, coincidentally also against Atlanta.
Denver was aided in both championships by a salary-cap scandal, which involved paying additional money to Elway and Terrell Davis outside of the designated financial resources given to each team, which in turn allowed more salary to be given to other team members.[6]
- ^ DiNitto, Marcus (January 25, 2015). "Super Bowl Betting History – Underdogs on Recent Roll". Sporting News. Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
- ^ "Super Bowl History". Vegas Insider. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
- ^ "Super Bowl XXXIII Box Score: Denver 34, Atlanta 19". SuperBowl.com. NFL Enterprises, LLC. February 1, 1999. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
- ^ "History of Super Bowl Entertainment" (PDF). 2019 NFL Postsesason Media Guide. NFL Enterprises, LLC. January 3, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
- ^ "Historical Super Bowl Nielsen TV Ratings, 1967–2009 – Ratings". TVbytheNumbers. Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ^ "Revisiting Denver's cap penalties from the 1990s". NBC Sports. February 14, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2024.