From Empty Seats to Eight-Figure Ads — and a Mavericks Reset | Just Wondering with Norm Hitzges

Today is Friday, February 6th, and I'm wondering about the winner of Sunday Superbowl, and the Mavericks' make was it a big trade or just a big dump. And now a word from our title sponsor. Eying Retirement?

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This is Superbowl 60. You know, there are some things about the Superbowl from those 60 years ago. I guess I'm one of the not many people alive who actually saw that for a Superbowl.

But it's origin, the name Superbowl. We came from actually the daughter of former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt. In fact, the chiefs are still in the Hunt family.

And they were trying to figure out what to call the game. And Hunt's daughter was playing with what they called back then a Superbowl. Very squishy, very bouncy.

And the light went on. Let's call it Superbowl. Now, now it's a huge spectacle, viewed by hundreds and hundreds and millions of people around the globe, a 30-second spot this year, depending on where you're positioning the game, will cost you any worth where from 8 to 10 million dollars for 30-second spot.

And the cost of a ticket, well in the resale market, tickets upstairs, the, quote, upper bowl, a ticket will cost between $4,000 and $6,000. In the lower bowl, the cost range from about $6,000 to $27,000. As in Star Contrast, the Superbowl won.

It was January 1967. There were 61,946 people in attendance. But that left more than 32,000 empty seats at the Cavernous LA Coliseum.

Yeah, 32,000 empty seats in a Superbowl. An ad cost for 30 seconds, $42,000. Do the math on this year?

It costs $275,000 for one second of that 30-second spot. In all the tickets for that Superbowl, they were $12, $12. And the TV will now have such a huge event, billions get paid for the rights.

Well, that year, because there were two different leagues AFL and NFL, well, that means two different televising networks, CBS and NBC. So they shared the Superbowl. The CBS announcers did the first half and the NBC announces the second half, not that that was clumsy at all.

Neither network kept the videotape of the entire game. That's right, rather than take up space, storing that what now is incredibly historical event, they just didn't keep their videotapes. And what we have now is pieces of incomplete footage from that first Superbowl.

And here of that game, well, that was Max McGee, the wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. But on the night before the game, McGee on the edge of retirement and thinking he wasn't going to play in the game for Vince Lombardi's Packers, reportedly spent the night partying with two flight attendants. He'd met in the team bar, the team hotel's bar.

McGee spent so much night drinking that he returned to the room in the morning and at game time, Max McGee was hungover, maybe still a little bit drunk. Not then, wide receiver Boyd Dauer got hurt for Green Bay almost immediately. And McGee had to play and he caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns.

There have been other incredible moments at the Superbowl, the Janet Jackson wardrobe, malfunction, the year that it had rained at the site and they had, of course, a halftime show and then they had an 18 wheeler who's going to pull the stage off the field and on the sideline, it got stuck in the mud. But let's get this this year, Superbowl. Seattle is 16 and three, they won nine in a row.

They're favored by five points over New England, which is 17 and three and they won 16 of 17. New England though has played perhaps the softest schedule of any team to ever reach the Superbowl against the bottom eight teams in this league, the bottom quarter of the NFL. New England has had nine games against those eight teams.

But hey, they're young, they're emerging, they're getting better. Seattle made all the right moves in the off season, including signing free agent Dallas cowboy tight end, Marcus Lawrence. But the big move was from Sam Darrell, their quarterback, a boss after being a very high first-round pick with the Jets and then he started a resurrectist career, Carolina and Minnesota.

But Darrell has been very, very good for Seattle. In fact, going into the game, he's the favorite to be the MVP. Both teams were at least 60 to one to be in the Superbowl when the season started.

There are so many stats from this game, I'm not going to drown you in numbers. One leaps out to me. And that's, listen up cowboy fans.

The team with the higher ranking regular season defense has won 48 of the 59 Superbowls so far, 40 to 59. And Seattle had the number one scoring defense in the regular season in the NFL. And I like Seattle.

In fact, I like Seattle pretty big. Next, the Mavericks make a big move. What do you want from your favorite restaurant?

Fantastic personal service, a cheery, welcoming, spotless atmosphere, and of course great food. The primest of beef, wagoo and lamb, incredibly fresh seafood, lobster, salmon, shrimp, hall of fame food from a hall of fame restaurant. Two locations of Bob's steak and chop-ups, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue, and the gorgeous new Bob's at Craig Ranch McKinney.

My wife marries the co-creator of Full Moon Healing Bomb. And I guess I'm the reason this terrific cream was developed. A few years ago, I began getting these huge ugly blood blotches just beneath the skin of my arms and hands.

The conditions called senile propora. And no, you don't have to be senile to experience this embarrassment. It happens as you age.

And then to cover it up, we begin wearing long sleeves even when it's hot. It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of Full Moon Healing. Gently massage a very small amount into the skin.

And within a day, the blotches begin to fade. Senile propora usually takes weeks to disappear. But this bomb cuts the timeline to about a week, and ordering so easy.

Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. Well, the Mavericks have slammed the door shut on the Lucodonchets years in Dallas. They sent 32-year-old Anthony Davis, 10-time NBA All-Star, but often hurt in his one year and three days here in Dallas.

They sent him packing to Washington. Davis' history here, when he was well enough to play, Dallas was a solid 16 and 13. When he wasn't in the lineup, Dallas was 16 and 38.

And while available here, Anthony Davis was still a really good player. That'll over 20 points a game, 11 rebounds a game. But the Dallas organization still reeling from the heavy criticism they got over the Donchets trade decided they just wanted away from that trade.

They virtually gave Anthony Davis away for a bag of beans. But they just wanted the criticism to stop from the Donchets trade. In the deal, they sent three other guys, none of whom the Mavericks needed, the Angelo Russell, Jaden, Hardy, Dante X, and they packed those along with Davis and got four guys back.

But three of them are going to be free agents at the end of the season. In fact, maybe one of them is going to be a free agent the next few days. Now, of the free agents, though, Malachi Brabham is only 22 years old, and he might still stand a chance of being a decent rotation player in this league.

But again, he's free after this year. The one player who isn't free is AJ Johnson. He has two fully guaranteed years left in his contract, but he is so cheap, $3 million a year.

He's a deep bench player here in Dallas, at least to begin, but if you're Maverick these days, everybody eventually gets a chance to play. Mavericks did get two number one draft choices in the deal. But the Oklahoma City number one this year will probably be the number 30 pick in the draft, the last pick of the first ground.

And the Warriors number one in 2030 is protected. If the pick is anywhere in picks one through 20, Dallas doesn't get it. So at best, this is a pick somewhere in the 20s, but again, that's okay.

They also get three number twos, which help you facilitate trades at times. Forget the draft picks, forget the guys they got in the trade. The number one plus in moving Anthony Davis to the Wizards for bag of beans, money, money.

It gives Dallas significantly more flexible, cap space in the off season. Dallas drops after this year to having $44 million under the cap next year. Ah, you say we can sign a free agent.

Well, whoa, whoa, maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe Dallas is thinking of using the Oklahoma City plan of building, which has been so successful.

That is next year, there may be teams who want to make a deal, but can't do it because of money because of the salary cap. And one of the teams has to move up a big salary to player. Ah, Dallas can take him.

And of course, be paid some picks to take him. And the rebuild continues. I like the fact that Dallas didn't tear down totally.

I think the center combination win well of Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively next year is good. I like the forwards Cooper flag, PJ Washington, Nazi, commercial Caleb Martin. If Kyrie Irving is well and there's every reason to believe he will be with Max Christie at guards with Brandon Williams and Ryan Nemhard backing up.

And the number one pick, Dallas is going to get this year. Is a good pick. Add that player to the mix.

Plus the rebuild is over. It's over. One last hope for Anthony Davis.

That he gets to Washington and he gets well. He's such a good guy in the locker room. He's such a good player.

But Dallas fans never saw it. Hopefully, he gets to Washington, gets well and displays again the fact that he's a terrific NBA player. In the end, what do the Mavericks get for Luca Doncic?

Well, first and often overlooked, young Max Christie, who's only 22, is developing into a solid player and a really good three point shooter. The Mavericks get three number ones the best of them is the one they got from the Lakers in the trade for Luca. And that's the Lakers unprotected 2029 number one.

They also get these two marginal picks in this deal and three second rounders in this deal and all that money flexibility. That's actually not awful. But you get the feeling that the fans of Luca, the fans who loved him here and there were reasons for that that they're never going to let the Mavericks forget this deal until the next Maverick team hangs a flag from the rafters.

And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial. Retire earlier, live better.

And by Bob's staking shophouse on lemon and Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's a Dallas tradition for more than 30 years. If you've enjoyed just wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your mailbox early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.

Should you know a sports fan who might like our work, please share our contact information with that person. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just One Ring. I'm Norm Hitzges and know that every day, I'll be just wondering about something.

And I'm Mary Hitzges and I'll just be wondering too. This is a stolen water media production.