Super Bowl V

About Super Bowl V

Super Bowl V was an American football game played on January 17, 1971 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion following the 1970 regular season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Colts (11-2-1) defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys (10-4), 16–13, in the first Super Bowl game played on artificial turf.

Super Bowl V was the first Super Bowl played after the completion of the AFL-NFL Merger. As per the merger agreement, all 26 AFL and NFL teams were divided into 2 conferences with 13 teams in each of them. The NFL's Colts, the Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to join the other 10 AFL teams to form the AFC. The remaining 13 NFL teams formed the NFC. This explains why the Colts represented the NFL in Super Bowl III, but not the NFC for Super Bowl V.

The game is sometimes called the "Blunder Bowl" or the "Stupor Bowl" because it was filled with poor play, penalties, turnovers, and officiating miscues. The two teams committed a Super Bowl record 11 combined turnovers in the game, and the Colts' 7 turnovers are currently the most ever committed by a winning team in a Super Bowl. Dallas also set a Super Bowl record with 10 penalties, costing them 133 yards. Bubba Smith refuses to wear his Super Bowl V ring because of the "sloppy" play.