efks/iStock/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) — The tales of the two teams playing in Sunday’s Super Bowl could not be more different.
When the Atlanta Falcons defeated the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship two weeks ago, they secured a bid to their second-ever trip to the Super Bowl in its 51-year history.
On the other side, the New England Patriots have established themselves as an elite, powerhouse program. The trip to Houston marks a record ninth trip to the Super Bowl and a chance for Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and star quarterback Tom Brady to win their fifth championship together.
The Falcons, however, have never taken home a Lombardi Trophy. They lost to the Denver Broncos 34-19 in Super Bowl 33 nearly 20 years ago.
This is what life was like in 1999, the last time the Falcons played in a Super Bowl:
Super Bowl XXXIII: Jan. 31, 1999
The 33rd Super Bowl was played at Miami’s Pro-Player Stadium, now called Hard Rock Stadium. Cher sang the national anthem.
The halftime show included Gloria Estefan, Stevie Wonder and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Denver won the game, which was the last-ever played by MVP quarterback John Elway, who would later announce his retirement before the start of the next season.
Y2K Fears Ran Rampant
Fears that a digital bug nicknamed Y2K would wreak havoc on computing systems topped headlines leading up to the year 2000.
Until the 1990s, many early computer programs were designed to abbreviate four-digit years to two digits to save memory space, allowing computers to recognize “99” as the year “1999.” People cautioned that in the New Year, computers would be unable to recognize “00” as “2000” and would interpret it to mean “1900,” according to Britannica.com.
A story published in the Los Angeles Times Jan. 21, 1999, said that city agencies were “still struggling to upgrade computers to handle the year 2000 problem.”
At the time, several city departments were assigning themselves a “C or D in grading their preparations,” the article read.
“I believe there is the possibility of some disruptions here and there,” the city’s assistant general manager said at the time.
Turns out Y2K didn’t present much of a problem at all.
Cost of Living
Average cost of a gallon of regular gas: $1.22
Average cost of new car: $21,050
U.S. postage stamp: 33 cents
A dozen eggs: 89 cents
Average U.S. home price: $79,384
’Family Guy’ Debuted After the Game
It’s hard to imagine life without the Griffins, but the first time Peter Griffin graced the small screen was Jan. 31, 1999, after Super Bowl 33 ended.
In the pilot, titled “Death Has a Shadow,” Peter loses his job after drinking too much and falling asleep at work. He then signs up for welfare to keep his wife, Lois, from finding out.
When Peter is mistakenly sent a check for more $150,000, he dumps the cash from a blimp at the Super Bowl and gets arrested before his family finds a way to bail him out.
It pays off to follow the most-television event every year. The “Family Guy” pilot garnered 22 million viewers that night.
Pop Culture: A Pop Princess Ruled the Airwaves
After Britney Spears’ first album, “… Baby One More Time,” debuted in the fall of 1998, and the single by the same name climbed its way to the top of the Billboard Top 100 chart in the new year and stayed there for two consecutive weeks. Both the album and single were No. 1 when Super Bowl 33 aired.
The highest-ranking television show for the 1998-99 season was “ER,” followed by “Friends” and “Frasier.”
No. 1 at the box office was quintessential teen romance movie “She’s All That,” starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook.
Instead of watching the game, kids were playing with their Nintendo Game Boy Color and Furbies, both of which were among the most-sought-after toys for Christmas the month before.
What’s old is sometimes new again. By the end of the 1990s, the extreme trends — bright-colored prints, overalls and jelly sandals — began to die down. What was left were the staples, such as lingerie-inspired slip dresses, choker necklaces and denim dresses, which have circulated back in style.
Advancing Technology and Smartphones Had Not Yet Changed Lives
People who attended Super Bowl 33 actually watched the game because smartphones and the plethora of apps they offer were not yet around.
So instead of being distracted by taking selfies and checking how many “likes” they got on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, people were probably devoting a much larger percentage of their focus to the gridiron.
Most Americans didn’t even have cellphones, yet. There were only about 86 million cellphone subscribers in the United States in 1999, compared to more than 300 million today.
After its release in 1998, the Nokia 6210 was among the bestselling cellphones. It was preloaded with everyone’s favorite — and only — game: Snake.
Apple wouldn’t debut the iPod until 2001, so portable CD players were still being used for on-the-go music.
Apple wouldn’t release the iPod until 2001, so music lovers were forced to carry around portable CD players for on-the-go listening. The days of lugging around heavy zip-up books full of CDs are not missed.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
