Who Won the Super Bowl in 1989?

The 1989 Super Bowl was played on January 22. The game between the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers began the tradition of keeping track of which commercials aired during the contest.

Features

The 1989 Super Bowl featured the American Football Conference's Cincinnati Bengals with a 12-4 regular-season record against the NFC's10-6 San Francisco 49ers. The game was a hard-fought defensive affair for the first half with a tie score of 3-3 when two quarters were in the books. After the clubs traded field goals, the Bengals' Stanford Jennings took a kickoff back for a 93-yard touchdown for a 13-6 advantage for Cincy. After a Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice touchdown knotted things up, the Bengals kicked a field goal for a 16-13 edge. However, Montana rallied his team to a comeback victory when he found John Taylor for a 10-yard touchdown pass in the final minute. The 49ers won the 1989 Super Bowl 20-16. Jerry Rice of S.F. was named Most Valuable Player after he caught 11 passes for 215 yards and a score.

Time Frame

This Super Bowl was the last one to start before 6 o'clock in the evening and the last to be played on the second to the last Sunday of January. Montana had only 3 minutes and 10 seconds on the clock to bring his team the length of the field, throwing the winning pass with a mere 34 seconds left to play.

Significance

San Fransisco head coach Bill Walsh retired from coaching after the 1989 Super Bowl only to come back to the college ranks for a brief stint with Stanford. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle retired in November of 1989, so this was the last Super Bowl held under his watch. The 49ers became the first team to win a Super Bowl on all three major television networks with this triumph shown by NBC. Super Bowl XXIII was the last one for announcer Merlin Olsen, an NFL Hall of Famer who was replaced by the No. 1 one broadcast tandem the next year ironically by Walsh.

Geography

The 1989 Super Bowl was played in Miami, Florida, at Joe Robbie Stadium. The Super Bowl had not been played in Miami since 1979, and this was the first played in that city that was not held at the Orange Bowl.

Considerations

This Super Bowl was the only close championship game since 1981 when the 49ers had bested the Bengals 26-21 in Detroit. The NFC had enjoyed a recent run of easy routs over the AFC before this affair. San Francisco would repeat as champs the next year with a 55-10 destruction of the Broncos and win again in 1995.

Resources

• The Official Site of the Super Bowl