Headline Surfer video / originally published on March 22, 2012, when Headline Surfer was initially NSB News covering daily news primarily in New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater & Oak Hill, April 7, 2009-June 1, 2012, when it was re-named Headline Surfer® covering all of Volusia County and centered on Daytona Beach. Seminole County (Sanford, Lake Mary) and Orange County (Orlando) added shortly thereafter.
SANFORD, Fla. -- Are you ready for some football? It's the Super Bowl!
This primer on Super Bowl 51 is told through a singing doll that hopefully won't be mistaken for that creepy Chucky doll of the horror movie genre.
This doll with the oversized head (a real brainiac) is the alter-ego of the AWJ (award-winning journalist) Henry Frederick, a long-suffering New York Jets fan (since the early 1990s) who will rooting tonight for his original NFL fave New England Patriots.
And why shouldn't he, considering Frederick was born in Southbridge, Mass., before moving across the border to Connecticut, where he was raised in the small towns of Putnam, Woodstock and North Grosvenordale (a section of the small town of Thompson through high school.
Frederick would remain a Pats fan through his four years at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain before graduating with his BA degree and first big award, the "President's Citation" for high academic, campus & community achievement.
Truth be told, the Patriots weren't very good through Frederick's childhood and those early formative years formative years, though in 1976, they went 11-3 and prevented the Oakland Raiders from having an undefeated regular season with a big win. But in the playoffs, the Raiders knocked off the upstart Patriots en route to Oakland's first Super Bowl championship.
The NFL wasn't Frederick's first sports love, though. He was a big fan of the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500, as well as a big fan of the Hartford Whalers (he went to a lot of their games in college).
Frederick was a fan of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins, too. His favorite sports "entertainment" interest, however, was professional wrestling via the World Wide Wrestling Federation with stars like Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant, Chief Jay Strongbow, Mil Mascaras, Stan "The Man" Stasiak, Spiros Arion, Professor Toru Tanaka and Tony Garea.
Enough already, right?
After all, this segment is about the Super Bowl. So back to the Patriots continuing to suck through the mid-1980s, when they finally made it to the Super Bowl.
So after several more years of just plain dreadfulness, Frederick got his first big break in reporting when he went to work for The Journal-News / Gannett Suburban Newspapers in Rockland County. Where he covered several towns before getting a promotion to his dream beat -- cops and courts.
And he excelled, winning his first journalism award from the AP for breaking news on the murder of a gas station attendant in Orangetown, there on a work visa from and sending money back to his wife and small children back in Pakistan when he was bludgeoned for several cartons of cigarettes and some pocket change when his attackers couldn't get the cash register to open.
Frederick' son, Henry IV, was born at Nyack Hospital on Oct. 16, 1993, and that cemented it for him: He became a fan of the New York teams -- Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Jets. Yes, the NY Jets as opposed to the NY Giants.
Headline Surfer photo / Henry Frederick and his then 2 1/2 year-old son enjoy their first NY Yankees game together. The son is now 23. In the video downloaded from YouTube, the New England Patriots would beat the visiting NY Jets in their first meeting of the 2008 season, 19-10, with Bill Parcells have gone from New England to New York. But Parcells would handily defeat the Patriots \ in week 11, by the narrow score of 37-34. Neither team made the playoffs that year.
The Patriots have become an elite franchise over the ensuing years with nine Super Bowl appearances since losing badly to the Chicago Bears. The New York Jets have not been to a Super Bowl since wining Super Bowl III with Joe Namath as their quarterback way back in 1969.
And so tonight, Henry Frederick and his wife, Serafina, will be watching the Pats. To make things interesting since they love challenging each other, he's rooting for the Patriots and she's rooting for the Atlanta Falcons.
Well, that's the story of favorite teams as told by the NY Jets singing doll. Frederick is pushing for the Pats, but he remains committed to the NY Jets
Here is our primer for Super Bowl LI:
• Ouch: Atlanta Falcons center Alex Mack will reportedly play in tonight's Super Bowl with a fractured left leg...
• The first two Super Bowls were not even referred to as the Super Bowl at the time. It wasn’t until Super Bowl III that the name was coined. what we now know as Super Bowl I and II were just called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game...
• The Patriots' last-second victory over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX was the most watched telecast in television history. The 49th Super Bowl was viewed by 114.4 million viewers...
• Due to the then-common practice of tape wiping, Super Bowl I was not seen again until 2016, when the NFL strung footage together from over two dozen sources and overlaid it with the radio broadcast...
•The first Super Bowl to be called by number is Super Bowl III won by the NY Jets., with QB Joe Namath having promised a victory, as the then-Baltimore Colts were favored to win by as much as a 20 points. Namath played like a true professional, throwing for 206 yards on his way to MVP honors, with the Jets prevailing, 16-7...
• Katy Perry and the infamous Left Shark's halftime show at Super Bowl XLIX drew even more viewers than the game itself. Her performance was watched by 118.5 million people...
• The Dallas Cowboys have scored the most points (221); the Denver Broncos have allowed the most (206)...
• The first Super Bowl in 1967 was simulcast by two TV networks, NBC & CBS, which had to share one microphone in the post-game show. The teams used different balls because the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs played in separate leagues and the balls were slightly different in shape...
• With the Sept. terrorist attacks, that the New England Patriots would be competing in Super Bowl XXXVI, was a great situation. Though labeled as the underdogs, New England jumped to a 17-3 lead over the St. Louis Rams by the end of the second quarter. The game switched gears in the second half, as the Rams made up the points necessary to put the game at a 17-17 tie. On the final play of the game, Adam Vinatieri made a 48-yard field goal to give the Patriots the championship, 20-17. This game marked the first time a Super Bowl was decided on the points from the final play of the game...
• One out of every 12 people watching the Super Bowl do so for the commercials...
• Last year, $119.4 million was wagered on the Super Bowl at casinos in Las Vegas...
• The Broncos have won three Super Bowls in team history. Unfortunately, Denver also has lost an NFL-high five Super Bowls...
• Teams wearing white jerseys are 11-1 in the last 12 Super Bowls. The Patriots will wear white on Sunday...
• New England could become the first team in history to win five Super Bowls with the same owner, head coach and quarterback. The trinity of owner Robert Kraft, head coach Bill Belichick & QB Tom Brady have enjoyed an unparalleled era of dominance since their first Super Bowl win in 2002...
• No Super Bowl in the history of the big game has ever gone into overtime...
• Jerry Rice has scored the most touchdowns (7) in three Super Bowls...
• The National Chicken Council (Yes, it’s a real thing) estimates that Americans consume 1,250,000,000 chicken wings during the Super Bowl...
• Only one player from the losing team was ever named game MVP. Dallas Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley in Super Bowl V took home the honor but the Baltimore Colts won, 16-13...
• Kurt Warner passed for the most yards in one game, 414 yards for the St. Louis Rams against Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV...
• In this year’s game, 216 customized official game balls will be delivered by NFL – 108 for each team...
• Tom Brady, along with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw are the only QBs to ever win four Super Bowls...
• Brady has been to a ridiculous six Super Bowls in his illustrious career, winning four of them. He has the most passing yards in Super Bowl history with 1,605. Kurt Warner is a distant second with 1,156 yards...
• Other than St. Patrick’s Day, more drivers are involved in alcohol-related accidents on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year...
• No football team has ever played a Super Bowl game in its home stadium...
• 1 billion chicken wings will be eaten during tonight's Super Bowl...
• Phil Simms was the first Super Bowl MVP to say he was “going to Disney World.” He did so after completing 22 of 25 passes in Super Bowl XXI, setting the record for highest completion percentage...
• In 1978, the man called Vader, was a third round draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams, and appeared in Super Bowl XIV. However, injuries ended his football career after only two seasons, and he made the transition into pro wrestling. Defensive lineman Steve “Mongo” McMichael, part of the 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears, wrestled in the WCW...
• The New England Patriots have reached the Super Bowl nine times, more than any other franchise in history. Victory tonight would give them five wins, putting them level with the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers in the all-time standings. The Pittsburgh Steelers have the most Super Bowl championships with six...
• During the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, Justin Timberlake removed a piece of Janet Jackson's top, exposing her right breast with a star-shaped ring around the nipple. Timberlake and Jackson have maintained that the incident was accidental, calling it a "wardrobe malfunction"...
• For the past 50 games, the coin toss has come up heads 25 times and it has come up tails 25 times...
• No network footage exists of Super Bowl I. It was taped over, supposedly for a soap opera...
• Instead of using L to represent Super Bowl 50, this was the first Super Bowl to not use roman numerals in its title...
• In a first in Super Bowl history, the power went out and delayed the 49ers-Ravens game in 2013. The Ravens ultimately won the game with all the lights on.
• Jerry Rice is one of the greatest players ever, and that's in large part due to his Super Bowl performances. Rice has the record for most Super Bowl touchdown catches with eight...
• The only team to win back-to-back Super Bowls under different head coaches are the San Francisco 49ers. They won Super Bowl XXIII under legendary coach Bill Walsh and the next year returned to victory under George Seifert...
• The winner of the Falcons-Patriots match up will take home $97,000 per player. The loser has to settle for $49,000 each...
• Newly inducted Hall of Famer Charles Haley has the most Super Bowl rings, five, of any player in NFL history. The pass rusher won five fingers worth of rings with the 49ers and Cowboys...
• A 30 second commercial spot on television will cost $5 million plus production costs to be aired this year...
• The NFL might be an American sport, but Super Bowl Sunday is worldwide. The big game is broadcast around the globe in 34 different languages...
• $119.4 million was wagered on Super Bowl 50 at casinos in Las Vegas...
• Dallas Cowboys linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson before Super Bowl 13 said Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry “Bradshaw couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the C and the A.” The Steelers won 35-31...
• The New Orleans Saints' win over Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV broke MASH's 20-year record for the most watched TV show in US history...