2003 Super Bowl XXXVII

About San Diego, CA: Football fans of San Diego, California were excited to host Super Bowl 37 at Qualcomm Stadium. After their San Diego Charges missed out on the playoffs this year, they were excited to see playoff football in the city. The city worked hard to prepare and promote the event and it was all worth while as they watched John Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on his former team the Oakland Raiders. With a population of around 1.2 million in the city, they would host a show that millions of fans around the world would tune in to watch, Super Bowl XXXVII.

Ticket Sales / Attendance: There were 67603 people in attendance at this game and it is estimated that 88.6 million more football fanatics from home and various parties around the world. It was the 5th most watched Super Bowl since 1990.

Team Pre-Season Stats: Oakland came into the season with a new outlook and a new coach, Bill Callahan. With the departure of John Gruden to Tampa Bay, the Raiders were looking to get to the Super Bowl after a disappointing and controversial loss in the previous year to the New England Patriots. With a veteran team, 10 players above 30 years old, Oakland felt experience could get them to the championship.

Tampa Bay felt they had made the key step towards success in luring the hard nosed John Gruden to be their coach. Warrick Dunn had departed for Atlanta, but Michael Pittman had come over from Arizona to win a championship. Two more free agent signings would help the offence, Keenan McCardell and Ken Dilger. The defence was rock solid as always and not a question mark heading into the season.

Team Roster / Salaries: Oakland came into the season with the 4th highest payroll in the NFL, $83,931,651, in hopes of heading to Super Bowl 37. Darrell Russell, Shane Lechler, and Rich Gannon were the three highest paid on the team all over $6 million per year. Tampa's payroll was about $20 million lower at $64, 486, 295 and Warren Sapp, Brad Johnson, and Simeon Rice were the highest paid at $5 million or higher.

Game Highlights: The 37th Superbowl game ended up being a defensive domination by Tampa Bay, which was their strength that helped them make it all the way through the year. Oakland opened the scoring with a 40 yard field goal from Janikowski as Rich Gannon was sacked on third down by Simeon Rice.

Tampa Bay would then score 6 times unanswered as Oakland would only get 2 first downs from their next 9 possessions. Keenan McCardell would score two touchdowns and Martin Gramatica would kick score 10 points including 2 touchdowns and 4 extra points to give Tampa a commanding 34-3 lead.

Oakland would respond with 3 touchdowns, but would miss all three times on extra point attempts. Tampa Bay was simply too much and their defence continued to swarm Oakland and lead to 2 more interceptions for touchdowns. Tampa Bay dominated throughout the game for a 48-21 victory.

Game MVP: The MVP of the 37th Super Bowl was Dexter Jackson. As the free safety for Tampa Bay he intercepted 2 passes in the first half leading to the Tampa victory. His interceptions changed the momentum of the game and allowed his team's defence to step up and dominate the game. Jackson had said prior to the game that he planned to target Gannon as he loved to throw the ball.

Half Time Show: The halftime show featured country music superstar Shania Twain, rock group No Doubt and a surprise performance by Sting. Gwen Stefani actually accompanies Sting in the song "Message in a Bottle".

Commercials: One of the most popular and funniest commercials during the game featured heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy is in his kitchen trying to put a bag in the garbage and his kids introduce him to something new called Pepsi Twist. His kids then magically turn into the Osmonds who start singing "I'm a little bit country" and he wakes to realize it was a nightmare.or was it? Instead of his wife. Florence Henderson is next to him in the bed.

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