The win, however, had an effect beyond football. Three months after the Jets’ victory, a foal was born to breeder Stoner Creek Stud of Connecticut. The baby, a bay colt whose mother was Pillow Talk, was named Super Bowl.

“All my kids talked about at night in bed was the Super Bowl,” Stoner Creek co-owner, the late Norman Woolworth, once explained.

Super Bowl won 38 of 51 lifetime races for harness racing Hall of Famer Stanley Dancer and was the last horse to win trotting’s Triple Crown – the Hambletonian, Yonkers Futurity and Kentucky Futurity – in 1972. He was voted Trotter of the Year in 1972 and ended his career as the richest trotter in harness racing history, with $601,006.

As a sire, Super Bowl’s offspring won more than $82 million and he was the father of six Hambletonian winners, including Giant Victory (named in honor of the 1986 New York Giants championship team) and Tagliabue. Other horses sired by Super Bowl included Herschel Walker, Giant Destiny, Ata Joe Montana, Warren Moon, Bradshaw Hanover, Miami Dolphin, Interception, Bowl Quarterback, Blitzed, Fourth Down, and Extra Point.

The New England Patriots meet the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII on Sunday. The Patriots are seven-point favorites, but that means little. New England was a 14-point underdog when it beat St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI and the Jets were 18-point underdogs to Baltimore 35 years ago.

Which reminds us of one more son of Super Bowl – Any Given Sunday.