title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1980, Steiger received two Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor nominations for his roles in "Klondike Fever" and "The Lucky Star", both Canadian productions. "Klondike Fever" is based on Jack London's journey from San Francisco to the Klondike gold fields in 1898. Steiger revisited his role as Mussolini in "Lion of the Desert", a production that was financed by Muammar Gaddafi, and which co-starred Anthony Quinn as Bedouin tribal leader Omar Mukhtar, fighting the Italian army in the years leading up to World War II. The Italian authorities reportedly banned the film in 1982, as it was considered damaging to the army, and it was not shown on Italian television until a state visit by Gaddafi in 2009. It received critical acclaim in Britain, where it was praised in particular for the quality of its battle scenes. Later in 1981, Steiger won the Montréal World Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of white-bearded Orthodox rabbi Reb Saunders in Jeremy Kagan's "The Chosen". Janet Maslin commented that Steiger's "slow, rolling delivery" was more "numbing than prepossessing", though a critic from "Variety" thought it an "exceptional performance as the somewhat tyrannical but loving patriarch".


title: Rod Steiger

text: After his open-heart surgery in 1979, clinical depression and health problems during the 1980s directly affected Steiger's career, and he often turned to B-movies, low-budget, independent productions and TV miniseries. He admitted that during this period he accepted "everything I was offered", and knew that many of the films he appeared in were not great, but wanted to demonstrate his strong work ethic despite his issues. He later regretted the poorer films in which he appeared during the 1980s, and wished he had done more stage work. He sank into an even deeper depression when he was not involved in acting, but it bothered him more that his acting career had taken a turn for the worse and was no longer challenging. The major studio producers were wary of his problems and considered him a liability. Steiger spoke about the experience to a younger colleague while advising: "Never tell anyone if you've got heart problems, kid. Never." His reputation as a fine character actor remained intact, and Joel Hirschhorn at the time considered his talent to be "as strong as ever".


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1984, Steiger starred as a detective assigned to investigate the murder of a Chicago psychoanalyst (Roger Moore), a man whom he detests from a previous case, in Bryan Forbes's "The Naked Face". Richard Christiansen of the "Chicago Tribune" referred to it as a "wimpy suspense movie shot in Chicago in the fall of 1983, [that] doesn't do much good for the city or for anyone connected with it", and considered Steiger to be "acting in his high hysteria gear", who "snarls and whines and overacts". Steiger took a break from cinema in the mid-1980s, during which he appeared in the Yorkshire Television mini-series "The Glory Boys" (1984) with Anthony Perkins, and "Hollywood Wives" (1985) with Angie Dickinson. Steiger and Perkins were at loggerheads during the production of "The Glory Boys". Perkins resented the fact that Steiger insisted on a bigger trailer and felt that Steiger was trying to steal scenes from him, while Steiger had thought Perkins "so jittery and jinxed by the chemicals he was taking" that he felt sorry for him and believed that he was jeopardizing the success of the film. Steiger also performed on Joni Mitchell's 1985 album "Dog Eat Dog", where he provided the voice of an evangelist in the song "Tax Free".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger appeared in the Argentine-American film "Catch the Heat" (1987), an action/martial arts picture about a Brazilian drug baroness who smuggles drugs into the United States inside her breast implants. According to director Fred Olen Ray, it was pulled from distribution within a week of release. In 1988, Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo played a spooky elderly couple with developmentally delayed children in John Hough's horror film "American Gothic". Universally panned by the critics, Caryn James of "The New York Times" wrote: "Mr. Steiger addresses the camera as if he were reciting Shakespeare, he is truly, straightforwardly, hilariously bad." During the last year of the decade he played authority figures, including a mayor in "The January Man", and as Judge Prescott in "Tennessee Waltz". Although Steiger admitted that his performance in "The January Man" was "way over the top", he enjoyed the experience, thereby marking a positive turning point after a period of clinical depression.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1990, Steiger starred in "Men of Respect", a crime drama film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth". He played a character based on King Duncan, opposite John Turturro as Mike Battaglia (Macbeth), who plays a Mafia hitman who climbs his way to the top by killing Steiger's character. The film was critically panned, with Roger Ebert awarding it one star out of four, describing the concept as a "very, very bad idea". Steiger played another mobster, Sam Giancana, two years later in the miniseries "Sinatra" (1992).


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger portrayed a reverend living in a small town in the American South in the macabre Merchant Ivory film production "The Ballad of the Sad Café" (1991), co-starring Vanessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine. The film met with generally lukewarm reviews, though it was entered into the 41st Berlin International Film Festival. Steiger auditioned for the part of an elderly Irishman in Ron Howard's "Far and Away", starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Steiger, who had long been bald, was ordered by Howard to wear a wig to the audition. He resented the fact that Howard insisted on taping the audition, which he believed to be a form of humiliation for actors, serving as after-dinner entertainment for the Hollywood executives. Steiger never forgave Howard, whom he referred to as a "cocksucker", for rejecting him for the part and giving it to Cyril Cusack.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1993, Steiger portrayed an aging gynaecologist who terrorizes his urban neighbors in a rural community in Burlington, Vermont in "The Neighbor". Dennis Schwartz considered it to have been one of Steiger's creepiest roles, though he thought that the poor script had rendered the role awkward and "mildly entertaining in the sense that Steiger is asked to carry the film and hams it up". The following year, Steiger agreed to play the role of a Cuban mob boss opposite Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone in Luis Llosa's thriller "The Specialist", citing its purpose as a "$40 million commercial" to show a new generation that he existed. Critics panned the film, which has a four percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews as of July 2015. The role earned Steiger a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor nomination, and the film was listed in "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" as one of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Following "The Specialist" (1994), Steiger appeared in "Tom Clancy's Op Center" (1995), a film that was edited down into a TV miniseries, and featured in a "Columbo" television film, "Strange Bedfellows". The following year, he took a minor role as Doc Wallace in the Dale Rosenbloom family drama "Shiloh". He reprised the role three years later in . Also in 1996, Steiger played a "jingoistic top general" who "petitions the president to go nuclear in the middle of a global crisis" in the ensemble production of "Mars Attacks!".


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1997, Steiger played Tony Vago, the mob boss of Vincent Gallo's character in Kiefer Sutherland's "Truth or Consequences, N.M.", a gritty "noir" about a drug heist gone wrong. Steiger played judges in Antonio Banderas's comedy-drama "Crazy in Alabama" and in the prison drama, "The Hurricane", both in 1999, the latter of which tells the story of former middleweight boxer Rubin Carter, who was wrongly convicted of a triple homicide in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. "The Hurricane" reunited Steiger with Norman Jewison, who had directed him in "In the Heat of the Night". Steiger portrayed H. Lee Sarokin, the judge responsible for freeing Carter. Sarokin thought it was a "marvellous film" that was Oscar-worthy, but found Steiger's portrayal as overacted and a "little arrogant and pompous".


title: Rod Steiger

text: After a minor role as a "bombastic priest" in "End of Days" (1999), Steiger was one of the lead actors in Burt Reynolds's "The Last Producer" (2000), a film about a washed-up, veteran producer (Reynolds) who tries to re-enter the movie business by producing a new film. Steiger's last film role was as the billiard hall manager, Nick, in "Poolhall Junkies" (2002); it was poorly received by critics.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was married five times: he married actress Sally Gracie (1952–1958), actress Claire Bloom (1959–1969), secretary Sherry Nelson (1973–1979), singer Paula Ellis (1986–1997) and actress Joan Benedict Steiger (married 2000 until his death). He had a daughter, opera singer Anna Steiger (born in 1960) by Bloom, and a son, Michael Steiger (born in 1993), from his marriage to Ellis. In an interview with journalist Kenneth Passingham, Steiger stated that Bloom was "all I ever wanted in a woman", and that "maybe our marriage was better than most because we were both established when we met". The couple bought a home in Malibu, California, a community that appealed to Steiger but which Bloom found boring. They also purchased an apartment in Manhattan and a cottage in County Galway, in close proximity to John Huston's home. Financial considerations led Steiger to sell their New York apartment in the mid-1970s. It upset him greatly when his marriage with Bloom ended in 1969 and that she quickly remarried Broadway producer Hillard Elkins the same year, a man whom Steiger had entrusted to care for her while he was away shooting "Waterloo". Steiger was also close friends with actress Elizabeth Taylor.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was outspoken on McCarthyism. He was particularly critical of Charlton Heston's stance on weapons, and publicly referred to him as "America's favorite fascist". In one clash in a column in the "Los Angeles Times", Steiger responded to a letter sent by Heston saying that he was shocked that the American Film Institute had not honored Elia Kazan because of his testimony to the Un-American Activities Committee. Steiger wrote that he was "appalled, appalled, appalled" at actors and writers who had been forced to drive cabs because they were blacklisted and had even committed suicide as a result. Heston did not reply.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger suffered from depression throughout much of his life. He described himself as "incapacitated for about eight years with clinical depression" before his Oscar win for "In The Heat of the Night". His career problems from the 1970s onwards were often exacerbated by health issues. He underwent open-heart surgery in 1976 and again in 1979 and struggled with obesity, though certain roles, such as Napoleon, required him to intentionally gain weight. After the decline of his third marriage in 1979, a deep depression, partly a side effect of his surgery, negatively affected his career during the 1980s. He became increasingly reclusive during this period, often confining himself to his apartment, watching American football for several hours. He said of the experience: "You begin to lose self-esteem. You don't walk, you don't shave and if no one was watching you'd go to the bathroom right where you were sitting". He would lie in bed at night thinking, "You'll never act again. Why bother? You're no good". Despite these challenges, Steiger continued to act into the 1990s and early 2000s. In one of his final interviews, he stated that there was a stigma wrongfully attached to sufferers of depression and that it was caused by a chemical imbalance, not a mental disease. He commented: "Pain must never be a source of shame. It's a part of life, it's part of humanity."


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger died of pneumonia and kidney failure at the age of 77, as a result of complications from surgery for a gall bladder tumor on July 9, 2002, in a Westside hospital in Los Angeles. He was buried in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery. The film "Saving Shiloh", released in 2006, was dedicated to his memory.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was one of Hollywood's most respected character actors. Hutchinson described him as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars". Yet for Hutchinson, Steiger remained "out of sympathy with Hollywood" during his career, believing that accomplished actors often struggle to find challenging films as they got older. Steiger was an "effusive talent" according to Lucia Bozzola of "The New York Times", and was particularly noted for his intense portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. After "On the Waterfront" (1954), Steiger became somewhat typecast for playing tough characters and villains, and grew increasingly frustrated playing the "Mafia heavy or a near-psychopath" during the 1970s, roles that he could play menacingly, but provided little opportunity for him to showcase his talent. Gossip columnist Louella Parsons hailed him as "the Screen's No.1 Bad Man", while the newspaper "London Evening News" referred to him as "the man you would love to hate if you had the coverage". A 1960 publication by Dean Jennings of "The Saturday Evening Post" referred to Steiger as an "angry, hot-tempered newcomer of prodigious acting talents, [who] works best only at emotional white heat", and remarked that he found it "stimulating to carry theatrical fantasy into his private life". Pauline Kael found his performances so powerful that she believed he "often seems to take over a picture even when he isn't in the lead". The journal "Films and Filming", surveying his career in 1971, noted that his talent "developed steadily through films good and bad", and that the secret of his success was that he stayed grounded, citing a 1956 interview where he said "I pity the player who can't keep his feet on the ground. It's too easy to trade on success and forget that no performer can stand still."


title: Rod Steiger

text: A product of the Actors Studio, Steiger is closely associated with method acting, embodying the characters he played. Writer James F. Scott notes that during his career, he "many times put aside his own personality to think his way into an alien psyche". Steiger once said:


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was so devoted to his craft that during the 1970s he turned to many foreign productions, especially in Italy, to obtain the sort of roles he desired, but often clashed with directors over his method acting techniques. In one of his last interviews, Steiger said: "What is the greatest thing an artist in any profession can give to a person?—that would be a constructive, warm memory. Because that gets into your brain and therefore into your life, so to speak. And that's it, when somebody says to me 'I'll never forget', that's worth more to me than five Academy Awards, I'm in that person's life".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Film writer Paul Simpson notes how closely Steiger prepared for his roles, and how he "effortlessly" recreated the mannerisms of figures such as Mussolini, in a "compelling take on an enigmatic figure". Judith Crist of "New York Magazine", reviewing "Duck, You Sucker!", commented that Steiger was "totally without mannerisms, always with manner", and noted that his "silences are stunningly effective". Roger Ebert later echoed this statement, concurring that Steiger lacked mannerisms, writing, "When he gets a character worth playing with, he creates it new from the bottom up, out of whole cloth. I don't know how he does it. It's almost as if he gets inside the skin of the guy he's playing and starts being that person for a while". Steiger said: "I always tried to do things different. If I got a role which was similar to another I'd try to do it a little different." His explosive screen performances were an influence on many later actors, including Robert De Niro, who used Steiger's portrayal of Al Capone as a reference for his own performance in "The Untouchables" (1987). Elvis Presley was highly impressed with Steiger's "powerful and wrenching performance" in "The Pawnbroker".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Despite Steiger's acclaim as an actor, he was frequently accused of overacting and won his share of critics, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. His acting was so dynamic at times that critics found him excessive and overbearing, and even uncomfortable or laughable to watch. Steiger once clashed with Armenian director Rouben Mamoulian, during a theatrical production of "Oklahoma!", as he was intolerant of Steiger's "unusual acting technique". Steiger ignored the director's concerns that he was mumbling his lines, and when he began chomping loudly on an apple during a scene with Gordon MacRae, Mamoulian exclaimed: "Get out of my theater. Get out of my life!", and fired him. Even Kazan found several of the Actors Studio's techniques disagreeable, preferring "more humor and verve and less self-indulgence, self-pity and self-awareness". Kazan felt that Steiger often displayed a competitive edge as an actor and tried to steal scenes from his co-stars. Steiger rejected these claims, insisting that he was merely "trying to take the medium of acting to as far as I can go, and that why I sometimes go over the edge".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Several co-stars found working with Steiger difficult; Warren Oates, according to director Norman Jewison, viewed Steiger as "somebody who had a tendency to go over the top" during the making of "In The Heat of the Night". Writer Richard Dyer highlights the contrast in the film between the acting styles of Steiger and Poitier, with "Poitier's stillness and implied intensity" and "Steiger's busy, exteriorised method acting". Humphrey Bogart, Steiger's co-star in "The Harder They Fall", referred to Steiger's method acting as the "scratch-your-ass-and-mumble school of acting". Director Robert Aldrich notes that Steiger had a habit of changing his lines, which often confused his co-stars. Aldrich stated: "Usually I lie awake at nights trying to think of ways to improve an actor's performance. With Steiger, the problem is to try and contain him". Steiger was particularly aggressive towards director Kenneth Annakin during the making of "Across the Bridge", insisting on rewriting most of the script and changing many of the lines to better fit Steiger's idea of the character. Annakin stated that he had "never known an actor to put so much thought and preparation into a performance" as Steiger. Hutchinson revealed that Steiger often suffered from panic during filming and that fear of failure haunted him throughout his life, but fear also provided him with a source of strength in his acting.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2009 season. The underdog Saints defeated the Colts by a score of 31–17, earning the franchise its first Super Bowl win. The game was played at Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida, for the fifth time (and in South Florida for the tenth time), on February 7, 2010, which was the latest calendar date for a Super Bowl until Super Bowl LVI in 2022.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: This was the Saints' first Super Bowl appearance and the fourth for the Colts franchise, their second appearance in four seasons. The Saints entered the game with a 13–3 record for the 2009 regular season, compared to the Colts' 14–2 record. In the playoff games, both teams placed first in their respective conferences, marking the first time since Super Bowl XXVIII (16 years previously) that both number-one seeds have reached the Super Bowl. The Colts entered the Super Bowl off victories over the Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets, while the Saints advanced after defeating the previous year's runners up, the Arizona Cardinals, and then overcoming the Minnesota Vikings in the Conference Championship. It was also the first time both teams started with a 13-game winning streak.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: New Orleans was behind 10–6 at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV. During a play many consider the turning point of the game, New Orleans recovered the ball on a surprise onside kick which was also the second half kickoff. They got their first lead of the game with Pierre Thomas's 16-yard touchdown reception. The Colts responded with Joseph Addai's 4-yard touchdown run to regain the lead at 17–13. The Saints then scored 18 unanswered points, including Tracy Porter's 74-yard interception return for a touchdown, to clinch the victory. New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns, was named the Super Bowl MVP. His 32 completions tied a Super Bowl record set by Tom Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The live broadcast of the game on CBS was watched by an average U.S. audience of 106.5 million viewers, making it then the most-watched Super Bowl. The National Anthem was sung by Carrie Underwood, and the halftime show featured the British rock band The Who. Super Bowl XLIV was the last Super Bowl to have a uniquely designed logo as its predecessors had: starting with Super Bowl XLV, the logo was permanently settled to bear the Vince Lombardi Trophy and the Roman numerals denoting the edition of the game. This is also the earliest Super Bowl in which neither team has since re-appeared.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The league initially voted on March 23, 2005, that New York City host the game, contingent on the completion of the proposed West Side Stadium being built for the New York Jets by 2008. After New York state government officials declined to approve $400 million for the stadium, the NFL decided to reopen the bidding for the game's site. The league reconsidered the other, unsuccessful candidates for Super Bowl XLIII: Atlanta, Houston, and Miami. On October 6, 2006, the league selected Miami as the host city, with the formerly-named-Joe Robbie Stadium as the venue.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: This was the tenth time the Super Bowl has been held in the Miami Metro area at the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins: the formerly-named Joe Robbie Stadium had hosted four previous Super Bowls (XXIII, XXIX, XXXIII, and XLI) and five were played in the Dolphins' now demolished former home, the Miami Orange Bowl (II, III, V, X, XIII). The Colts franchise was playing its fourth Super Bowl, all of which were played in Miami (two at the Orange Bowl and two at then-named Sun Life Stadium). They are the only franchise to play all of its Super Bowls in the same city and the second to play two or more Super Bowls in two different stadiums (joining the Broncos who played two at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and two at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, and the Patriots who played Super Bowls in three stadiums twice – Reliant/NRG Stadium in Houston, University of Phoenix/State Farm Stadium in Glendale, and the Louisiana Superdome).


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: With Tampa as the host of Super Bowl XLIII, Super Bowl XLIV also marked the third time that consecutive Super Bowls have been played in the same state. Super Bowls II and III were both played at the Orange Bowl. Super Bowls XXI and XXII were both played in California: XXI at Pasadena's Rose Bowl Stadium and XXII at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Miami became the first city to host two Super Bowls designated as a National Special Security Event (NSSE). In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, every Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXVI has been designated as an NSSE. Super Bowl XLI was Miami's first Super Bowl designated as an NSSE.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The 2010 Pro Bowl was played on January 31, during the off-week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, breaking with the precedent of scheduling the game for the Sunday after the Super Bowl. The game also changed venues from Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii, where it had been held since 1979, to Sun Life Stadium in Miami (the same city and stadium hosting the Super Bowl itself). Fourteen players from the Super Bowl participants, seven from each team, had been selected but were unable to participate due to the change. The new schedule took advantage of the bye week given to the conference champions to rest and prepare for the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl returned to Honolulu the following season and remained there until 2015, when it was played in Glendale, Arizona, a week before Super Bowl XLIX, also in Glendale. The game returned to Honolulu in 2016, and beginning in 2017 was played in Orlando permanently. This, however, changed again in 2020, when the league announced that the 2021 Pro Bowl would be played at the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The move also meant that the Pro Bowl, which was won by the AFC by a score of 41–34, would avoid competing against the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, the second full day of competition in the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 52nd running of the Daytona 500, as would have been the case had the game been played on February 14 per its traditional post-Super Bowl scheduling.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The New Orleans Saints finished the season with an NFC best 13–3 record and went on to advance to the first Super Bowl in their 43 years as an NFL team. After joining the NFL in 1967, it took them 21 years to record their first winning season and another 13 years after that to win their first playoff game. Five years later, the New Orleans area suffered another setback when the Louisiana Superdome was devastated with the rest of the city by Hurricane Katrina, forcing them to play all of their home games in elsewhere as they finished with a 3–13 record (see "Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Saints"). But in the off-season, the team's fortunes began to turn. First, they signed free agent quarterback Drew Brees, who would go on to throw for more passing yards than any other quarterback over the next four seasons. They also drafted multi-talented Heisman Trophy winning (since vacated) running back Reggie Bush, receiver Marques Colston, and guard Jahri Evans, three players who would become major contributors on the Saints' offense. The following season, New Orleans improved to 10–6 and advanced to the NFC title game for the first time, which they lost to the Chicago Bears. Although they failed to make the playoffs over the next two seasons, they continued to sign new talent, and by 2009 they were ready to make another run at the Super Bowl.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Saints' offense led the NFL in scoring, averaging just under 32 points per game. Brees finished the season as the NFL's top rated quarterback (109.6), completing an NFL-record 70.6% of his passes for 4,338 yards and 34 touchdowns, with just 11 interceptions. His top target was Colston, who caught 70 passes for 1,074 yards and 9 touchdowns, but he had plenty of other weapons, such as receivers Devery Henderson (51 receptions) and Robert Meachem (45), along with tight ends Jeremy Shockey (48) and Dave Thomas (35). With fullback Heath Evans out of action due to injury for most of the season, Dave Thomas often lined up as a fullback, with tackle Zach Strief serving as an extra blocker on short yardage plays. The ground attack was led by running backs Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell. Thomas rushed for 793 yards and caught 39 passes for 302, while Bell added 654 yards on the ground. Bush was also a major contributor, rushing for 390 yards (with a 5.6 yards per carry average), catching 47 passes for 335 yards, and adding another 130 yards returning punts. New Orleans also had a strong offensive line with three Pro Bowl selections: guard Jahri Evans, center Jonathan Goodwin, and tackle Jon Stinchcomb.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Defensive lineman Will Smith led the team in sacks with 13. Another big weapon on defense was linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who led the team with 87 tackles and intercepted three passes. The Saints' secondary was led by 12-year veteran safety Darren Sharper, who recorded 9 interceptions and set an NFL record by returning them for 376 yards and three touchdowns. Cornerback Tracy Porter was also effective, recording 49 tackles and 4 picks with one touchdown.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Saints started out the season strong, winning their first 13 games. But then they became the first 13–0 team ever to lose their last three games of the year. After losing their 14th game to the Dallas Cowboys 24–17, they suffered a narrow loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (20–17 in overtime) after Garrett Hartley missed a potential game-winning field goal. With the team's playoff seed clinched, head coach Sean Payton chose to rest Brees and other starters in the final game of the season, resulting in a 23–10 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The string of defeats cast a cloud over the team's postseason chances. Still, they clinched the No. 1 NFC playoff seed and scored 76 points in their two playoff wins en route to their first ever Super Bowl.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Indianapolis had the NFL-best 14–2 record, winning seven games by less than a touchdown, on their way to earning their second Super Bowl appearance in the last four years. Once again, the Colts boasted a powerful offense led by 10-time Pro Bowl quarterback Peyton Manning, who threw for over 4,500 yards and 33 touchdowns during the season, with only 16 interceptions, earning him a 99.9 passer rating and a league record fourth National Football League Most Valuable Player Award. Under the protection of Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday and the rest of the line, Manning had been sacked just 13 times during the regular season, the fewest in the NFL. His top targets were veteran receiver Reggie Wayne and tight end Dallas Clark, who both recorded 100 receptions and 10 touchdowns. Wayne led the team with 1,260 yards, while Clark was second with 1,106. Manning also had other reliable targets, such as recently drafted receivers Austin Collie (60 receptions for 676 yards and 7 touchdowns) and Pierre Garçon (47 receptions for 765 yards and 4 touchdowns). Running back Joseph Addai led the Colts' ground game with 821 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, while also catching 51 passes for another 336 yards and 3 scores.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Indianapolis' defensive line was led by Pro Bowl defensive ends Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney. Freeney led the team with 13.5 sacks, while Mathis added 9.5 sacks and forced 5 fumbles. Behind them, the Colts had a solid corps of linebackers featuring Clint Session and Gary Brackett, who each recorded 80 tackles. Pro Bowl safety Antoine Bethea led the secondary with 70 tackles and four interceptions.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Under their new coach Jim Caldwell, the Colts started off the season with 14 consecutive wins before suffering their first loss to the New York Jets, 29–15, a game in which Caldwell made the controversial decision to rest his starters after the team took a slim lead rather than keep them in to play for a chance at a 16–0 season. Indianapolis finished the season at 14–2 following a loss to the Buffalo Bills, in which they rested their starters and went on to advance to the Super Bowl, making them perfect in all their games in which their starters played all four-quarters.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Caldwell led the Colts to the Super Bowl the season after Tony Dungy retired, just like in Tampa Bay when Jon Gruden led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Super Bowl XXXVII after Dungy was fired. Senior offensive line coach Howard Mudd retired following the game.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: New Orleans started off their playoff run with a dominating 45–14 win over the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. Arizona was coming off a 51–45 overtime win over the Green Bay Packers in which they racked up 531 yards against a defense ranked second in the league in total yards allowed. However, although Arizona scored on their first play of the game, New Orleans dominated the Cardinals with 35 points in the first half. First, Lynell Hamilton scored on a 1-yard run. Then, Sharper recovered a fumble from Arizona, setting up Brees' touchdown pass to Shockey. Following a punt, Bush scored on a franchise playoff record 46-yard run. In the second quarter, Brees added two more touchdown passes, one to Henderson on a flea flicker and the other to Colston that was set up by a Will Smith interception, giving them a 35–14 first half lead before adding 10 more points in the second half on a Hartley field goal and Bush's 83-yard punt return. Bush racked up 217 all-purpose yards, while Brees threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Their opponent in the NFC Championship Game was the Minnesota Vikings, led by 11-time Pro Bowl quarterback Brett Favre, who had thrown four touchdown passes in their divisional round win over the Dallas Cowboys. Even though the Saints' offense could only muster 257 total yards, their defense made up for it by forcing five turnovers. Additionally, the Saints outgained the Vikings in punt and kickoff return yards 166 to 50. The key play of the game occurred late in the fourth quarter with the score tied 28–28 and the Vikings driving for a potential game-winning field goal. With less than a minute left, they reached the Saints 33-yard line. But after two runs for no gain and a penalty that pushed them back to the 38, Porter picked off a pass from Favre to send the game into overtime. After New Orleans won the coin toss, Pierre Thomas's 40-yard kickoff return set up a 10-play, 39-yard drive that ended with a game winning 40-yard field goal by Hartley, sending the Saints to their first ever Super Bowl.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Indianapolis' first opponent was the Baltimore Ravens, a 9–7 squad that had advanced to the divisional round by defeating the New England Patriots 33–14, forcing four turnovers from their All-Pro quarterback Tom Brady. Against the Colts, however, all they could manage was a field goal on their opening drive. Indianapolis built up a 17–3 first half lead with a Matt Stover field goal and Manning's touchdown passes to Wayne and Collie. In the second half, the Colts survived two interceptions from Baltimore safety Ed Reed on one drive, one of which Reed fumbled, and the other which was called back by a penalty. Stover, who spent 18 years with the Modell franchise, finished the drive with his second field goal to make final score 20–3, as their defense put the game away by forcing two consecutive turnovers.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Their next opponent was in the AFC Championship Game against the New York Jets, who had made the playoffs in part due to Caldwell's decision to bench his starters in their Week 16 meeting. This time, the Colts would have to mount a comeback, as New York built up a 17–6 first half lead. Yet Indianapolis would step up to the challenge, scoring 24 unanswered points. First, Manning completed three passes to Collie for 80 yards, the last one a 16-yard touchdown completion to cut the score to 17–13 at the end of the half. Manning added two more touchdown passes in the second half, one to Garçon and one to Clark, and Stover added a 21-yard field goal to close out the scoring. Manning finished the game with 377 passing yards and three touchdowns, while Garçon and Collie had over 100 receiving yards each.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: This is the first Super Bowl matchup in which both teams had a first-round bye since Super Bowl XXXIX. All four of the Super Bowls in-between had one team that played all three rounds (two of which were wild card teams), with three of those teams (including the Colts in Super Bowl XLI) winning it all.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The game was televised live in the United States on CBS, capping the network's 50th season of NFL coverage (1956–93; 1998–present). This was the 17th Super Bowl telecast for CBS, the largest total among the "big four" US television networks. CBS had also broadcast the previous Super Bowl held in South Florida (XLI). Play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and color commentator Phil Simms were in the broadcast booth, with Steve Tasker and Solomon Wilcots serving as sideline reporters. The game was preceded by "The Super Bowl Today", a four-hour pregame show hosted by James Brown and featuring analysts Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe and Bill Cowher along with several other commentators, which started at 2pm EST. A kickoff show for the game aired from 6pm EST to 6:28pm EST. A Spanish language broadcast was aired on the second audio program, with play-by-play announcer Armando Quintero and color analyst Benny Ricardo.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: With an average U.S. audience of 106.5 million viewers, this was the third most-watched Super Bowl, trailing only the 111 million viewers for Super Bowl XLV the following year and 111.3 million viewers for Super Bowl XLVI. At the time, it was the most-watched program of any kind in American television history, beating the 27-year-long record previously held by the final episode of "M*A*S*H", "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", which coincidentally, also aired on CBS, and was watched by 105.97 million viewers. An estimated 153.4 million total viewers watched all or part of the game. The game drew a national Nielsen rating of 45.0 with a 68 share, the highest for a Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXX in 1996 (46.0/68). The telecast drew a 56.3 rating in New Orleans and a 54.2 rating in Indianapolis, first and fourth respectively among local markets.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Perennial Super Bowl advertisers Anheuser–Busch InBev and CareerBuilder stated their commitment to advertise in Super Bowl XLIV, showing eight and two different spots during the game, respectively. A 30-second spot cost US $2.8 million with several advertisers getting discounts, down from the previous year's $3 million. All advertising slots were sold out on February 1, 2010, six days before the game. Pepsi-Cola had previously stated their commitment to advertise, but then said they would not be buying any commercial time, marking the first time in 23 years that Pepsi did not run an ad during the Super Bowl itself. FedEx also stated that they would not buy ad time. Both Pepsi and FedEx are official NFL sponsors. Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper Snapple Group capitalized on Pepsi's absence by buying ads in the game; Dr Pepper's ad featured KISS performing "Calling Dr. Love", while one of Coca-Cola's three ads featured Montgomery Burns (of Fox's "The Simpsons") losing everything he owns. Also for the second straight year, one of the Big Three American automobile makers – General Motors – did not have a commercial in the game. Ford had one commercial for the Ford Edge featuring Mike Rowe. Chrysler's Dodge brand did advertise this year for its Dodge Charger, narrated by Michael C. Hall.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Frito-Lay's Doritos brand, in turn owned by PepsiCo, had four consumer-created advertisements scheduled. The first three ads – running in the first quarter – featured a sly dog using an anti-bark collar to his advantage to steal a man's Doritos, a fast-handed boy defending his Doritos and his mother from a potential suitor, and a man faking his death for free Doritos. The fourth ad, featuring an angry gym rat who was overprotective for his Doritos being stolen, aired in the fourth quarter. Had three of the ads topped the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter rankings, the commercial's creators would have won a total of US$5 million ($1 million for first, $600,000 for second and $400,000 for third, plus a $1 million bonus for each of the three finalists). The previous year, Joe and David Herbert's "Free Doritos" ad topped the survey and won $1 million. The United States Census Bureau spent $2.5million on a 30-second spot, directed by noted independent filmmaker Christopher Guest, for the 2010 United States Census, which urged Americans to answer its questionnaires that will be sent out in the next few weeks. McDonald's aired a commercial, updating a famous ad from the early 1990s, in which NBA superstars LeBron James and Dwight Howard (replacing Michael Jordan and Larry Bird) play an otherworldly game of H-O-R-S-E, with a McDonald's lunch going to the winner – however, they soon look over and see that Bird has helped himself to it. Mars Chocolate returned three years after its controversial Snickers ad that was protested by gay groups with two men kissing one another that was pulled one day following the game (see "Super Bowl XLI: Commercials"). The commercial – winner of the annual Ad Meter survey – featured veteran actors Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing full-contact backyard football.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Internet domain registrar GoDaddy, which created a racy ad the year after the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, bought two ads in the Super Bowl for the sixth consecutive year. Advertising Age reported that Paramount Pictures bought a Super Bowl spot for the upcoming films "Iron Man 2" and "The Last Airbender". A trailer for the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" was also aired.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Other advertisers for 2010 included Homeaway Inc., paying tribute to "National Lampoon's Vacation" with their stars Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo, and Diamond Foods, who returned to promote both its Emerald Nuts brand and Pop Secret popcorn, which they bought from General Mills two years before. Boost Mobile aired a special ad, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Super Bowl Shuffle, featuring many of the 1985 Chicago Bears to advertise their US$50 per month service. Also, in a CBS-produced promo for the "Late Show with David Letterman", the eponymous host and his longtime talk show rival, Jay Leno, appeared together with Oprah Winfrey.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Three advertisers in particular raised eyebrows with their choice to advertise during the Super Bowl. One new advertiser, Focus on the Family, aired a commercial featuring 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother that elicited criticism from some women's groups who demanded CBS cancel the ad because they claimed it would be divisive, under the impression that it would mention Tebow's mother was advised, for health issues, to abort her son Tim, but she chose to give birth to him. In the first quarter, CBS aired the advertisement, which had not been pre-released to the public. Per a statement released earlier, the ad did not mention the topic of abortion explicitly.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: One proposed sponsor, ManCrunch, a gay dating site that bills itself as a place "where many many many men come out to play", had expressed interest in purchasing a 30-second advertisement. The ManCrunch advertisement would have depicted a male Green Bay Packers fan and a male Minnesota Vikings fan reaching into the same bowl of potato chips at the same time and, after a brief pause, begin to passionately kiss. ManCrunch's ad, which has since been released to the public, was initially put on a waiting list before the network outright rejected it due to it violating CBS's broadcast standards. ManCrunch immediately accused CBS of discrimination. Some observers suspect that their advertisement was an attempt at ambush marketing and free publicity. Another ad that was rejected by CBS for failure to meet standards was for the texting service kgb, which focuses on two men with CGI-enhanced images bent over with their heads in their posteriors, while an actor, Sean Gunn, portraying an agent stated that "They had their head up their [backsides]". kgb instead aired an ad with two people who had to find the Japanese word for "I surrender" before being run over by a sumo wrestler. Another ad for Bud Light which was rejected showed workers stripping down for a charity clothes drive in exchange for free beer. All of the rejected ads were shown on YouTube.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Among other rejected or modified ads were one for Electronic Arts' "Dante's Inferno", which had to be edited for content (the closing phrase, originally intended to read "go to Hell", was replaced with "Hell awaits"), and GoDaddy's originally planned advertisement. Career Builder's ad, showing people dressed too casually for "Casual Friday" and a Dockers ad to promote a free pair of their pants with men in shirts but sans trousers aired back-to-back early in the second quarter.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: An E*TRADE advertisement, continuing their theme of talking babies on a Web cam, featured a boyfriend-stealing, "milkaholic" baby girl named "Lindsay." Actress Lindsay Lohan, who has a history of alcoholism and was noted for having tried in the early 2000s to date popular young men who were already dating other women, attempted to sue E*TRADE over the advertisement, seeking US$100 million in damages, under the impression that the advertisement defamed her via subliminal messaging and violated her personality rights. E*TRADE denied the allegations and stated the name "Lindsay" came from a member of the accounting staff. Lohan and E*TRADE settled the lawsuit in September 2010; the terms were confidential.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: On radio, Westwood One had the national English-language broadcast rights to the game in the United States and Canada. Marv Albert (play-by-play) and Boomer Esiason (color commentator) called the game for the network; it was the last broadcast Albert would do for Westwood One, due to his desire to focus on his basketball coverage duties. The teams' flagship stations also carried the game with their respective local announcers: WLHK-FM and WFNI-AM in Indianapolis (with Bob Lamey and Will Wolford announcing) and WWL-FM/AM in New Orleans (with Jim Henderson and Hokie Gajan announcing). The Saints' radio broadcast on WWL-AM was available throughout much of the United States, since WWL is a Class A clear channel station. Univision Radio aired a Spanish-language feed for Hispanophone American listeners (with Clemson Smith-Muñiz and David Crommett announcing).


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Sirius XM Satellite Radio carried 14 game feeds in ten languages to Sirius subscribers, as well as to XM subscribers with the "Best of Sirius" package. In addition to the four US feeds mentioned above, Sirius carried the following international feeds:


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: FieldPass, the subscription Internet radio service provided by the league at NFL.com, also carried most of these feeds. Due to contractual restrictions, only Sirius XM and FieldPass were permitted to carry the local team broadcasts along with WLHK, WFNI and WWL, with the teams' other network radio affiliates instead airing the Westwood One feed.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Barenaked Ladies played the Super Bowl Saturday Night event with O.A.R. and Robert Randolph and the Family Band. Chris Daughtry, Steve Winwood and Queen Latifah performed during the Super Bowl pre-game tailgate party, which started at 2:00 p.m.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Queen Latifah sang "America the Beautiful and Carrie Underwood sang "The Star-Spangled Banner". Underwood's performance marked the third straight year that an alumnus of "American Idol" has been invited to perform the national anthem, joining Jordin Sparks at Super Bowl XLII and Jennifer Hudson a year later. Translation of both songs into American Sign Language was provided by Kinesha Battles, a student at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the San Francisco 49ers' fifth Super Bowl victory, which took place at this stadium, Jerry Rice, who had also been MVP of Super Bowl XXIII, another Super Bowl played at this stadium, joined the coin toss ceremonies. Rice had just been named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010. The rest of the class – Rickey Jackson, Dick LeBeau, Floyd Little, Russ Grimm, John Randle, and Emmitt Smith – were named the day before. The Saints won the coin toss, marking the 13th straight Super Bowl the NFC won the toss (the Cardinals won the toss in Super Bowl XLIII but elected to defer to the second half, giving the Steelers the ball to open the game).


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Who performed at the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show. The band played a medley of their hits, consisting of "Pinball Wizard", "Baba O'Riley", "Who Are You", "See Me, Feel Me", and "Won't Get Fooled Again". For the first time since the Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show, there was no crowd of fans surrounding the halftime stage. This performance was also released as downloadable content for the Rock Band series, named "The Who Super Bowl S-mashup".


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Retailers had ordered much more New Orleans Saints merchandise prior to the game than they had ordered Colts merchandise. The NFL estimated that US$100million worth of Super Bowl merchandise would be sold.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: As the designated home team in the annual rotation between AFC and NFC teams, the Colts elected to wear their home blue uniforms with white pants, while the Saints wore their road white uniforms with old gold pants.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Saints won the coin toss and chose to receive, but their first possession resulted in a punt after going three-and-out.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Colts offense took the field for the first time, with the ball spotted at their own 27-yard line. The Colts put together a drive that went 53 yards and resulted in a 38-yard field goal by kicker Matt Stover. At 42 years old, Stover became the oldest person in NFL history to play in a Super Bowl.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Following the game's first score, Courtney Roby returned the ensuing kickoff to the New Orleans 26-yard line. Approaching the 25-yard line, Roby swooped into a dive and appeared to fumble the ball, but he was ruled down by contact. This time, the Saints managed to get a first down with a 16-yard completion from Drew Brees to Reggie Bush, but they were eventually forced to punt again. Punter Thomas Morstead pinned the Colts back at their own 4-yard line with a 46-yard kick.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Indianapolis responded with a 96-yard scoring drive, tying the record for the longest drive in Super Bowl history. Joseph Addai rushed three times for 53 yards on the drive, while Manning completed three passes for 35 yards, the last one a 19-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Pierre Garçon, increasing the Colts lead to 10–0.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Saints' next drive carried over from the previous quarter. Brees completed three passes for 36 yards as the Saints advanced to the Colts' 22-yard line. But on third down, Brees was sacked for a 7-yard loss by Dwight Freeney, forcing New Orleans to settle for a 46-yard field goal from Garrett Hartley. After scoring points on their first 2 drives, the Colts looked to add more, but Garcon dropped a pass on 3rd down. The Colts were forced to punt and the Saints took over driving down into Colt territory. They drove down the field to a 1st-and-goal at the Colts' 3-yard line. A false start penalty set them back to the 8, and after getting a yard away from the end zone, they attempted 3rd and 4th down runs. They failed to convert both times. The Colts ran three straight running plays in an effort to wind down the clock and go to halftime with a seven-point lead, but the Saints kept the Colts from getting another first down. Following Bush's 4-yard punt return to the New Orleans 48, with only one timeout left to use in the half, the Saints got back into field goal territory, and Hartley hit a 44-yard field goal as time expired, with the Colts still leading 10–6. This was the first 10–6 halftime score in Super Bowl history.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Colts were set to receive the ball to start the second half, but were caught by surprise when the Saints executed an onside kick. This was the first onside kick attempted before the fourth quarter in Super Bowl history, a play the Saints referred to as "Ambush." Thomas Morstead kicked the ball to his left, and after traveling almost 15 yards, the ball bounced off the face-mask of the Colts' Hank Baskett, who failed to make a clean recovery. Several players dove for the loose ball, creating a pile that took over a minute for the officiating crew to separate. When the dust finally cleared, linebacker Jonathan Casillas of New Orleans was officially credited with the recovery on the 42-yard line, but Casillas and other Saints players insisted that it was actually safety Chris Reis who came up with the football. The Saints' offense took over and stormed down the field on an effective 58-yard drive in which they never faced a third down. Brees completed five consecutive passes for 58 yards on the drive and capped it off with a 'check-down' pass on the right side to Pierre Thomas, who took it 16 yards to the end zone behind blocks from Jonathan Goodwin, Jahri Evans, Devery Henderson, Kyle Eckel, Carl Nicks, and Jeremy Shockey, to give the Saints their first lead of the game at 13–10.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Manning and the Colts answered with their own touchdown drive, moving the ball 76 yards in ten plays. Clark caught 3 passes for 45 yards, while Joseph Addai finished the drive off with a 4-yard touchdown run to put the Colts back on top 17–13 with 6:15 remaining in the quarter. For just the second time in Super Bowl history both teams scored touchdowns on their initial possessions of the second half; the only other time occurred in Super Bowl XIV.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Hartley would bring the Saints to within one point of tying the game at 17–16, with his third field goal, launched from 47 yards away. In doing so he became the first kicker in Super Bowl history to score three field goals of 40 or more yards in one game.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: This was the first one-point lead after the third quarter in Super Bowl history and second closest game after three-quarters, behind Super Bowl XXXIX which was tied between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Indianapolis responded with a drive to the New Orleans 33-yard line, only to have Stover miss a 51-yard field goal attempt, giving the ball back to the Saints with good field position on their 41-yard line. After that, Brees led the Saints on another touchdown drive featuring seven different players getting the ball. Bush started off the drive with a 12-yard run, and then Devery Henderson caught a pass on the Colts' 36-yard line. Following an 8-yard catch and run by Bush, Brees completed passes to Colston, Robert Meachem and tight end David Thomas, moving the ball to the 5-yard line. After a 3-yard run by Pierre Thomas, Brees threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jeremy Shockey. Rather than settle for a six-point lead, and risk a potential Colts game-winning touchdown, the Saints chanced a two-point conversion. Lance Moore received a pass and attempted to stretch the ball out over the goal line as he fell to the ground and rolled over on his head. The ball was kicked away from his hands by defender Jacob Lacey, and the play was ruled an incomplete pass, prompting a coach's challenge from Sean Payton. After the review, the ruling on the field was overturned when it was determined that Moore maintained possession of the ball long enough and the ball had crossed the plane of the goal line for a successful conversion, giving the Saints a 24–17 advantage.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: On the ensuing drive, Manning led the Colts into Saints territory; however, Tracy Porter intercepted a pass by Manning at the Saints 26 for the first takeaway of the game and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown; following the successful extra point, the Saints' lead grew to 31–17 with 3:12 remaining. Porter's interception return for a touchdown improved teams to 10–0 in Super Bowls when returning an interception for a touchdown, although that record is now 12–1 following Super Bowl LI (when the New England Patriots overcame a 28–3 deficit versus the Atlanta Falcons).


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Now down by two possessions, the Colts needed a touchdown on their next drive to stay alive, though they still had all three of their timeouts to use. They were able to drive to the New Orleans 3-yard line. When an offensive pass interference penalty on 1st and goal pushed them back 10 yards, the Colts got those 10 yards back on the next play. However, the next three plays saw a tipped pass that went off the goal post and incomplete, a loss of two yards on a rushing play, and a pass that went through the hands of wide receiver Reggie Wayne and incomplete, effectively sealing the win for the Saints. Brees knelt the ball with 0:44 left on the clock, ending Super Bowl XLIV and winning the Saints' first league championship in franchise history, the first major league world championship for the state of Louisiana.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Drew Brees was named Super Bowl MVP for tying a Super Bowl record by completing 32 of 39 passes, with 288 passing yards and two touchdowns. After the game, Brees said, "Four years ago, who ever thought this would be happening when 85 percent of the city was under water? Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the organization would ever come back. We just all looked at one another and said, 'We are going to rebuild together. We are going to lean on each other.' This is the culmination in all that belief."


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: Sources: NFL.com Super Bowl XLIV, Super Bowl XLIV Play Finder NO, Super Bowl XLIV Play Finder Ind, Hoffco Super Bowl XLIV Play by Play


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: "Slate" writer Justin Peters viewed every Super Bowl over a two-month period before Super Bowl 50. About Super Bowl XLIV, which he ranked the fifth best, he had this to say: "...coming as it did five years after New Orleans was flooded in Hurricane Katrina, the Saints' victory actually "mattered"."


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Saints finished the next season with an 11–5 record, but failed to defend their league title after they were eliminated by the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card playoff round. Super Bowl XLIV later became the subject of the wider New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, also known as "Bountygate", in which the NFL alleged in 2012 that several Saints defenders operated a slush fund that was in operation from the 2009 season and Super Bowl XLIV, through 2011. This alleged slush fund paid out bonuses, or "bounties", for in-game performance in violation of NFL rules, including deliberately injuring or knocking opposing players out of games. The league responded with some of the most severe sanctions in the league's 92-year history, and among the most severe punishments for an on-field incident in North American professional sports history. On appeal, former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, appointed by Goodell to investigate, agreed that the bounty program had taken place, but he disagreed that it was the NFL's place to enact disciplinary measures and contended it was the duty of the coaches and management. All player suspensions were overturned in 2012. In 2012, New Orleans failed to make the playoffs for the first time since their Super Bowl win, with the sanctions for Bountygate cited as one of the primary causes. The Saints rebounded in 2013, but were eliminated in the Divisional playoff round by the eventual Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks. They returned to the playoffs in 2017 by defeating the Carolina Panthers in the Wild Card Round, but lost to the Minnesota Vikings in the Divisional Round. The next season they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Round to advance to their first NFC Championship Game since 2009 but lost to the Los Angeles Rams in controversial fashion. After playoff losses in 2019 and 2020, Saints quarterback and Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees retired after 20 seasons. Super Bowl XLIV remains the franchise's only Super Bowl appearance.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Colts would finish the next season with a 10–6 record, but lost in the Wild Card round to the New York Jets. After that, the Colts plummeted to 2–14 after they lost Peyton Manning for the 2011 season to neck surgery. Manning was released following the season and signed with the Denver Broncos, with whom he won Super Bowl 50. The Colts would then proceed to draft quarterback Andrew Luck first overall in the 2012 NFL Draft, with whom they went 11–5 for three consecutive years, won the AFC South twice, and made the , losing to the New England Patriots 45–7. In the 2015 and 2016 Colts' seasons, they finished 8–8 and missed the playoffs, which was mostly because Luck missed 10 combined games due to various injuries. In the 2017 season, the team finished 4–12 after they lost Luck to a shoulder injury for the year. Since Super Bowl XLIV, Indianapolis has been 65–63, with a 3–4 postseason record.


title: Super Bowl XLIV

text: The Saints were the last team to win a championship game of a major professional sports league in North America on their first attempt until the Toronto Raptors in 2019 (with the Washington Nationals repeating this feat mere months later).


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: Steins;Gate is a Japanese anime television series created by the animation studio White Fox based on 5pb. and Nitroplus's 2009 visual novel of the same name. The series aired for 24 episodes, from April to September 2011. It is set in 2010 and follows Rintaro Okabe, who together with his friends accidentally discovers a method of time travel through which they can send text messages to the past, thereby changing the present.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: It is part of the "Science Adventure" franchise along with "Chaos;Head" and "Robotics;Notes". The series was directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki and Takuya Satō, and written by Jukki Hanada, with animation direction and character design by Kyuuta Sakai, and music by Takeshi Abo. It was simulcast in North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe by Crunchyroll and the United Kingdom by Anime on Demand. A 25th episode was later included with the DVD and Blu-ray releases; these releases were handled by Funimation in North America and by Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: Critics praised its character development and its themes of time travel, human nature, gender identity and its perspective on PTSD. It is considered one of the best anime series of the 2010s. The series has spawned four original net animation episodes and . An anime adaptation of "Steins;Gate 0", the sequel to the original "Steins;Gate" game, premiered in 2018.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: "Steins;Gate" is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. It is set in 2010 in Akihabara, Tokyo, and follows Rintaro Okabe, a self-proclaimed "mad scientist", who runs the "Future Gadget Laboratory" in an apartment together with his friends Mayuri Shiina and Itaru "Daru" Hashida. While attending a conference about time travel, Okabe finds the dead body of Kurisu Makise, a neuroscience researcher; he sends a text message about it to Daru and later discovers that Kurisu is alive and that the message arrived before he sent it. The laboratory members learn that the cell phone-operated microwave oven they are developing can send text messages back in time; they are joined by Kurisu, and investigate it, sending text messages – referred to as "D-mails" – to the past to change the present. Kurisu eventually creates a device that can send memories through the microwave oven, effectively allowing the user to time travel.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: SERN, a fictional organization based on CERN, learns of the time machine and sends people to the laboratory to retrieve it, killing Mayuri in the process. Okabe goes back in time multiple times to prevent Mayuri's death but fails each time. He learns that he needs to undo all the changes their D-mails have caused and does so until he realizes that undoing the first D-mail would return him to the timeline where Kurisu was found dead.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: Okabe and Kurisu tell each other about their romantic feelings for one another, after which Kurisu tells Okabe to save Mayuri. Daru hacks into SERN's database, and they delete the record of the D-mail, returning them to the original timeline. Later, Suzuha Amane, Daru's future daughter, arrives in a time machine to tell Okabe that the only way to prevent a time-travel arms race leading to World War III is to prevent Kurisu's father Nakabachi from killing her and stealing her time travel theories. Suzuha and Okabe travel back in time, but Okabe accidentally kills Kurisu himself. Returning to the present, Okabe receives a message from his future self telling him that to escape the current timeline, he needs to save Kurisu while recreating the vision of the dead Kurisu that his past self saw. Traveling back in time again, he provokes Nakabachi into stabbing him, knocks Kurisu unconscious, and puts her in his pool of blood for his past self to see, causing the timeline to diverge into one where Kurisu lives and World War III does not occur.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: The anime adaptation was announced in July 2010 by Chiyomaru Shikura, the head of 5pb. "Steins;Gate" was created at the animation studio White Fox, and was produced by Mika Nomura and Yoshinao Doi, directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki and Takuya Satō, and written by Jukki Hanada, with Kyuuta Sakai serving as character designer and chief animation director.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: While Takeshi Abo, the composer for the "Science Adventure" games, only had a small role in the previous anime adaptation of the series, he was appointed to compose for the "Steins;Gate" anime together with his coworker Jun Murakami. Abo composed new music, and made use of the same atmosphere and musical worldview as when he composed for the "Steins;Gate" game, but also had to consider that the music had to be synchronized with the motions of the anime; this was a very different way of working than the one he uses when composing for games.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: The anime series has also received an animated film sequel, "", which premiered on April 20, 2013, and an anime adaptation of "Steins;Gate 0" premiered in 2018. Footage from the "Steins;Gate" anime is used in the 2018 game "Steins;Gate Elite" – a fully animated, updated version of the original "Steins;Gate" game – along with new animation by White Fox.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: The series aired for 24 episodes from April 6 to September 14, 2011; and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in nine volumes from June 22, 2011 to February 22, 2012 in Japan; the ninth and final volume included a 25th "special episode" not included in the broadcast. For the series' rebroadcast in 2015, an alternate version of episode 23 where Okabe does not save Kurisu was aired to promote the "Steins;Gate" game's sequel "Steins;Gate 0". "Steins;Gate: Sōmei Eichi no Cognitive Computing", a series of four original net animation shorts based on the series focusing on how computers could improve people's lives in the future, was made in a collaboration with IBM following a talk between Shikura and representatives from IBM Japan. The episodes were released from October to November 2014 on IBM's Mugendai website in Japanese, and on IBM Japan's YouTube channel in Japanese with English subtitles.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: Outside Japan, the series was distributed by different companies. Crunchyroll simulcast the series in North and South America, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the Middle East, and Africa; Anime on Demand did the same in the United Kingdom. Funimation later acquired the license for the North American rights, produced an English dub, and released the series on DVD and Blu-ray in two volumes in 2012. Madman Entertainment acquired the license for the Australian rights, and streamed the series on their website. Manga Entertainment waited to acquire the license for the United Kingdom rights until Funimation had completed the English dub, and released it in two volumes on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: In 2011, "Steins;Gate" was part of the Jury Selections of the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival in the Animation category. It won a Newtype Anime Awards for the Best Male anime character of the year, for Rintaro Okabe. "Steins;Gate" was nominated for the 43rd Seiun Award in the Best Media category in 2012, but lost to "Puella Magi Madoka Magica".


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: "Steins;Gate" is considered as one of the best anime series of the 2010s. IGN listed the series among the best anime series of the 2010s. Crunchyroll also listed it in their "Top 100 best anime of the 2010s".


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: The series has been well received by critics, with Carlo Santos at "Anime News Network" calling it "one of the most addictive sci-fi thrillers in recent anime history", Richard Eisenbeis at "Kotaku" calling it one of the best anime he had seen, and Chris Beveridge at "The Fandom Post" calling it his favorite simulcast title of 2011. Critics have enjoyed the series' story and writing. Santos enjoyed how "Steins;Gate" misleads the viewer by spending the first half of the series on comedy before turning into a thriller for the second half, and how the finale revisits the events of the first episode, making for a "rock-solid climax". Rebecca Silverman at "Anime News Network" described the series as an Interesting concept, nice visual flair when needed and the final episode really is a great hook for the rest of the series. She found the second half of the show to be a step up, compare to the first half; she enjoyed the added urgency, and how the characters were given development and how the viewer was given insight into their motivations from the first half of the series. Aiden Foote from "THEM Anime Reviews" gave the series a 5 out of 5 stars and described it as "The gentle build up of characterisation is effective but slow. The first half of the series, while still very entertaining, seems to lack a little bit of direction while it builds up steam. But it really does take the show time to start building the characters to a meaningful level and the wait can be a little tiring. The complexity is handled with insight and maturity".


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: Eisenbeis noted the rules for how time travel works as well defined, which he called among the hardest things to do when writing time travel fiction. Pierce Drew at "The Fandom Post" enjoyed the story and characters, but noted that Luka adds very little to the story. Patrick of "Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Libraries" called it a "brilliant mash-up of hard science fiction, comedy, romance and drama". Santos called the character designs memorable and found it refreshing that the anime featured an overweight person as one of its main characters. He noted that the backgrounds, while making use of muted and grayish tones, still had enough color to be visually appealing.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: Silverman thought that the series' visuals were uneven for the first half, having some "nice visual flair" at some points, such as a black-and-white scene in episode 11, and some fan-service shots that she found ill-fitting. For the second half, she found the visuals and audio design to have improved, with a focus on visual themes such as clasped hands, and the use of highly detailed and more realistic art during stressful moments in the story. Foote enjoyed the visual presentation of Akihabara, which he described as "lifeless but ever moving, like sand in the desert wind"; he called it evocative of morning street scenes in the directors' earlier work "Serial Experiments Lain" (1998), and proof that they had not lost their touch since then. Drew thought the visuals were of high quality throughout the series, and that they were a good, albeit less detailed, representation of the art style used in the "Steins;Gate" game.


title: Steins;Gate (TV series)

text: The first Japanese Blu-ray volume of the series opened as the week's fourth best selling animation Blu-ray and the seventh best selling Blu-ray overall, with 11,802 copies sold according to Oricon; and remained on the sales charts for an additional three weeks, selling 14,921 copies in total. At the end of 2012, volume 9, 8, and 7 were the 44th, 46th, and 49th best selling animation Blu-rays of the year in Japan. The Japanese DVD and Blu-ray boxes that collect the whole series also charted: the DVD box, which was released in March 2013, was the 26th best selling animation DVD of the week; and the Blu-ray box, which was released in February 2016, premiered on fourth place and charted for two weeks.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama "Being Human", Rudge in both the stage and film versions of "The History Boys", Steve in the BBC Three sitcom "Him & Her", Kevin Matheson in the HBO original series "Looking" and its subsequent series finale television film "". And Joe Pitt in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey was born on 14 November 1981 in Billericay, Essex. He is the younger of two sons of Carole ("née" Webb) and George Tovey, who ran a Romford-based coach service taking passengers from Essex to Gatwick Airport. Tovey has an older brother, Daniel. He attended Harold Court School in Harold Wood and Shenfield High School.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey noted that as a boy he "was an avid collector of various things and prone to participating in fads." His parents supported his efforts, taking him to archaeological digs and museums, buying him a metal detector and going to conventions for mineralogists. For a time he wanted to be a history teacher, but after seeing "Dead Poets Society", "The Goonies", and "Stand By Me" he decided to be an actor. For a time during his teens he worked as a kitchen assistant in Billericay's King's Head pub.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey began his career as a child actor. He joined a local drama club and garnered the attention of a talent agent. He worked from the age of 11 and missed so much school that his father suggested he should cut back, but his mother persuaded his father to let their son continue. His TV career started in 1994, when he was cast in "Mud", a children's series broadcast on CBBC.


title: Russell Tovey

text: He left secondary school at the age of 16 and started a BTEC in performing arts at Barking College. He was expelled after a year for refusing a role in the school play in favour of a paying acting job. He acted in plays in Chichester under the direction of Debra Gillett, wife of Patrick Marber. He met Marber through Gillett, and Marber cast him in the play "Howard Katz" at the National Theatre. He also performed in "His Girl Friday" and "His Dark Materials" there.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2004, he took the role of Rudge in Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys" at the Royal National Theatre as well as touring to Broadway, Sydney, Wellington and Hong Kong and playing the role in the radio and film adaptations. He originally auditioned for the role of Crowther but agreed to act the part of Rudge after Bennett promised to beef up the role. Insecure because he had not attended drama school as many of his peers had, he enrolled in numerous workshops and readings offered by the National Theatre.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In spring 2007, Tovey had a recurring role in BBC Three comedy "Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive", playing Rob's producer, Ben. He played Midshipman Alonso Frame, in 2007 "Doctor Who" Christmas Special "Voyage of the Damned". Russell T. Davies, the show's executive producer and lead writer, had suggested Tovey as a future replacement for David Tennant, before it was announced that the Eleventh Doctor would be played by Matt Smith. Tovey reprised his role as Midshipman Alonso Frame in the 2009-10 "Doctor Who" Christmas special, "The End of Time".


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey played werewolf George Sands, one of three supernatural housemates in the drama "Being Human". The pilot premiered on BBC Three on 18 February 2008. A six-part series was commissioned with the first episode broadcast on 25 January 2009. Tovey left the regular cast of the show at the start of the fourth season on 5 February 2012. In November 2012 AudioGO Ltd released an audiobook version of Mark Michalowski's "Being Human" tie-in novel "Chasers", which is narrated by Tovey.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In a 2008 interview in "Attitude", Tovey expressed his desire to play darker roles: "really dark, fucked-up characters... like drag queens, rent boys, someone who has been abused, a rapist", though noting that he does not consider himself "fucked-up".


title: Russell Tovey

text: In March 2009, the actor played a leading role in "A Miracle" at the Royal Court Theatre as Gary Trudgill, a British soldier returning to Norfolk from abroad. On 8 March 2009 he presented the Award for Best Actress to Margaret Tyzack for her performance in "The Chalk Garden" at the Laurence Olivier Awards in Grosvenor House.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2009, Tovey worked on the film "Huge" and starred in two television pilots: "Young, Unemployed and Lazy" (a BBC Three sitcom), renamed to "Him & Her" in 2010, and "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret" (part of "Comedy Showcase"), a Channel 4 comedy with Spike Jonze and Will Arnett, written by David Cross and Shaun Pye.


title: Russell Tovey

text: He also appeared in three shorts: "Drop" (which premièred at the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival), "Roar", "Roar" premiered at the Palm Springs Film Festival on 24 June 2009.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2011, he became the voice over/narrator for the BBC Three show "Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents" and its spinoffs, which ran for five series up to July 2015. Tovey narrated every episode aired.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey played Budgie, one of Gavin's friends, in the BBC comedy-drama "Gavin & Stacey". In January 2012, he appeared in the British crime drama "Sherlock", playing Henry Knight in the episode "The Hounds of Baskerville". He had a lead role in the ITV sitcom "The Job Lot" which aired in 2013 and is set in a busy unemployment bureau in the West Midlands.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2013, Tovey signed on to appear in the American television series "Looking", about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco. Its 8-episode first season broadcast on HBO in 2014. Tovey was promoted to series regular for the second season.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2015, Tovey starred in "Banished", a historical drama series written by Jimmy McGovern about a group of British convicts in Australia in the 18th century.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Also in 2015, Tovey made his first of many live appearances for arts and entertainment company Pin Drop Studio, reading a short story to an audience followed by an interview by Simon Oldfield.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2016, Tovey was cast in the ABC network thriller drama "Quantico" for the series regular role of Harry Doyle.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In April 2017, Tovey returned to the Royal National Theatre to appear in Marianne Elliot's revival of the Tony Kushner play "Angels in America", opposite Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In September 2017, it was revealed that Tovey would be voicing Ray Terrill / The Ray, a reporter who gains light-based powers after being exposed to a genetic light bomb, in the animated web series "" on CW Seed. Tovey appeared in "Crisis on Earth-X", the Arrowverse crossover event between "Supergirl", "Arrow", "The Flash" and "Legends of Tomorrow".


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2019, Tovey co-starred in an ensemble cast on the show "Years and Years", and appeared with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen in the drama film "The Good Liar".


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2021, it was announced Tovey had been cast in "Allelujah", a film adaptation of Alan Bennett's play of the same name.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey is also an author, playwright and screenwriter. He has written three plays (all unperformed as of August 2010), and one of his short stories was published in women's magazine "Company". He also wrote a short film, "Victor", and as of August 2010 was seeking funding to produce the picture.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey collects contemporary art, which he got into at the age of 21 when his parents bought him a Tracey Emin print that he admired called "Dog Brains." Aside from several works by Emin, his collection now also includes works by Wolfgang Tillmans, Jamian Juliano Villani, Shannon Ebner, Rebecca Warren, Joyce Pensato, Amoako Boafo, Walter Price, Louis Fratino, Doron Langberg, Carmen Herrera, Rose Wylie, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Lisa Brice and Matias Faldbakken among others. Although he has been buying art since he was in his 20s, he considers himself to have been "properly collecting" since about 2010, with his collection now consisting of over 300 works of art. Tovey is passionate about supporting emerging and mid-career artists with his collecting.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Since 2018, Tovey has hosted a podcast called "Talk Art" with his friend, the gallerist Robert Diament of Carl Freedman gallery, in which the pair talk to their favourite artists, curators and art enthusiasts. In the over 120 episodes, guests have included Ryan Gander, Rose Wylie, Zawe Ashton and Hans Ulrich Obrist.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2019, Tovey guest curated Margate Now, an arts festival based in Margate. He has since curated a number of exhibitions for various galleries, as well as a contemporary art auction for Sotheby's.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Russell is openly gay. During his adolescent years, Tovey's family had difficulty accepting his sexual orientation. Although he says he came out to himself when he was 15 or 16, he came out to his parents when he was 18. Tovey and his father subsequently had a serious disagreement, with his father suggesting that, had he known earlier, he would have asked Tovey to take hormones or undergo some other medical treatment to "fix the problem". Tovey says his parents were deeply concerned about the possibility he might contract HIV, which might have contributed to the disagreement. The birth of Tovey's nephew Nathan in October 2004 helped them mend their relationship.


title: Russell Tovey

text: In 2015, Tovey was the subject of public criticism from the LGBT+ press regarding comments he made about effeminate gay men. In his interview with Tom Lamont of "The Observer", the actor stated that his schooling made him feel as though he "had to toughen up", going on to say "If I'd have been able to relax, prance around and sing in the street, I might be a different person now." Much of the criticism centred on what was perceived to be a passive criticism of effeminate gay men, with Tovey saying that "I thank my dad for that, for not allowing me to go down the path." Tovey later apologised for the remarks and suggested they did not reflect his views.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey was reported to be dating former porn star (alias Ryan Stack) and rugby coach Steve Brockman beginning in early 2016. They became engaged in February 2018 but separated in June of the same year. They reconciled in 2019 and, as of 2022, are still together.


title: Russell Tovey

text: Tovey has read several books for audio, notably a 2017 performance of "The Picture of Dorian Gray". He is the narrator for the 20th anniversary edition audiobook of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity", released in 2015. Also, since 2016, he is the reader for audiobooks of Liz Pichon's "Tom Gates" book series, starting from book 10, "Super Good Skills (Almost...)", taking over from Rupert Grint.


title: Saxophone

text: The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. Saxophone players are called "saxophonists".


title: Saxophone

text: The saxophone is used in a wide range of musical styles including classical music (such as concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, and occasionally orchestras), military bands, marching bands, jazz (such as big bands and jazz combos), and contemporary music. The saxophone is also used as a solo and melody instrument or as a member of a horn section in some styles of rock and roll and popular music.


title: Saxophone

text: The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the early 1840s and was patented on 28 June 1846. Sax invented two groups of seven instruments each—one group contained instruments in C and F, and the other group contained instruments in B and E. The B and E instruments soon became dominant, and most saxophones encountered today are from this series. Instruments from the series pitched in C and F never gained a foothold and constituted only a small fraction of instruments made by Sax. "High-pitch" (also marked "H" or "HP") saxophones tuned sharper than the (concert) A = 440 Hz standard were produced into the early twentieth century for sonic qualities suited for outdoor use, but are not playable to modern tuning and are considered obsolete. "Low-pitch" (also marked "L" or "LP") saxophones are equivalent in tuning to modern instruments. C soprano and C melody saxophones were produced for the casual market as parlor instruments during the early twentieth century, and saxophones in F were introduced during the late 1920s but never gained acceptance. The modern saxophone family consists entirely of B and E instruments. The saxophones in widest use are the B soprano, E alto, B tenor, and E baritone. The E sopranino and B bass saxophone are typically used in larger saxophone choir settings, when available.


title: Saxophone

text: The pitch of a saxophone is controlled by opening or closing the tone holes along the body of the instrument to change the length of the vibrating air column. The tone holes are closed by leather pads connected to keys—most are operated by the player's fingers, but some are operated using the palm or the side of a finger. There is an octave key, which raises the pitch of the lower notes by one octave. The lowest possible note, with all of the pads closed, is the (written) B below middle C. Modern baritone saxophones are commonly constructed to play a low A, and a small number of altos keyed to low A have also been manufactured. The highest keyed note has traditionally been the F two and a half octaves above the low B, but higher-quality instruments now have an extra key for a high F, and a high G key can be found on some modern soprano saxophones. Notes above the keyed range are part of the altissimo register of the saxophone and can be produced using advanced embouchure techniques and fingering combinations. Saxophone music is written in treble clef (appropriately transposed for each different type of instrument) and all saxophones use the same key arrangement and fingerings, enabling players to switch between different types of saxophones fairly easily.


title: Saxophone

text: Soprano and sopranino saxophones are usually constructed with a straight tube with a flared bell at the end, although some are made in the curved shape of the other saxophones. Alto and larger saxophones have a detachable curved neck and a U-shaped bend (the "bow") that directs the tubing upward as it approaches the bell. There are rare examples of alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones with mostly straight bodies. The baritone, bass, and contrabass saxophones accommodate the length of the bore with extra bends in the tube. The fingering system for the saxophone is similar to the systems used for the oboe, the Boehm-system clarinet, and the flute.


title: Saxophone

text: From the earliest days of the saxophone the body and key cups have been made from sheet brass stock, which can be worked into complex shapes. The keywork is manufactured from other types of brass stock. King made saxophones with necks and bells of sterling silver from the 1930s into the early 1960s. Yanagisawa revived this idea in the 1980s and later introduced instruments entirely made of sterling silver.


title: Saxophone

text: Keilwerth and P. Mauriat have used nickel silver, a copper-nickel-zinc alloy more commonly used for flutes, for the bodies of some saxophone models.


title: Saxophone

text: For visual and tonal effect, higher copper variants of brass are sometimes substituted for the more common "yellow brass" and "cartridge brass." Yanagisawa made its 902 and 992 series saxophones with the high copper alloy phosphor bronze to achieve a darker, more "vintage" tone than the brass 901 and 991 models.


title: Saxophone

text: Other materials are used for some mechanical parts and keywork. Buttons where the fingers contact the keys are usually made from plastic or mother of pearl. Rods, screw pins, and springs are usually made of blued or stainless steel. Mechanical buffers of felt, cork, leather, and various synthetic materials are used to minimize mechanical noise from key movement and to optimize the action of the keywork. Nickel silver is sometimes used for hinges for its advantages of mechanical durability, although the most common material for such applications has remained brass.


title: Saxophone

text: Manufacturers usually apply a finish to the surface of the instrument's body and keywork. The most common finish is a thin coating of clear or colored acrylic lacquer to protect the brass from oxidation and maintain a shiny appearance. Silver or gold plating are offered as options on some models. Some silver plated saxophones are also lacquered. Plating saxophones with gold is an expensive process because an underplating of silver is required for the gold to adhere to. Nickel plating has been used on the bodies of early budget model saxophones and is commonly used on keywork when a more durable finish is desired, mostly with student model saxophones. Chemical surface treatment of the base metal has come into use as an alternative to the lacquer and plating finishes in recent years.


title: Saxophone

text: The saxophone uses a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. Each size of saxophone (alto, tenor, etc.) uses a different size of reed and mouthpiece.


title: Saxophone

text: Most saxophonists use reeds made from "Arundo donax" cane, but since the middle of the twentieth century some have been made of fiberglass or other composite materials. Saxophone reeds are proportioned slightly differently from clarinet reeds, being wider for the same length. Commercial reeds vary in hardness and design, and single-reed players try different reeds to find those that suit their mouthpiece, embouchure, and playing style.


title: Saxophone

text: Mouthpiece design has a profound impact on tone. Different mouthpiece design characteristics and features tend to be favored for different styles. Early mouthpieces were designed to produce a "warm" and "round" sound for classical playing. Among classical mouthpieces, those with a concave ("excavated") "chamber" are more true to Adolphe Sax's original design; these provide a softer or less piercing tone favored by the Raschèr school of classical playing. Saxophonists who follow the French school of classical playing, influenced by Marcel Mule, generally use mouthpieces with smaller chambers for a somewhat "brighter" sound with relatively more upper harmonics. The use of the saxophone in dance orchestras and jazz ensembles from the 1920s onward placed emphasis on dynamic range and projection, leading to innovation in mouthpiece designs. At the opposite extreme from the classical mouthpieces are those with a small chamber and a low clearance above the reed between the tip and the chamber, called high "baffle". These produce a bright sound with maximum projection, suitable for having a sound stand out among amplified instruments.


title: Saxophone

text: Mouthpieces come in a wide variety of materials including vulcanized rubber (sometimes called hard rubber or ebonite), plastic and metals like bronze or surgical steel. Less common materials that have been used include wood, glass, crystal, porcelain and bone. Recently, Delrin has been added to the stock of mouthpiece materials.


title: Saxophone

text: The effect of mouthpiece materials on tone of the saxophone has been the subject of much debate. According to Larry Teal, the mouthpiece material has little, if any, effect on the sound, and the physical dimensions give a mouthpiece its tone color. There are examples of "dark" sounding metal pieces and "bright" sounding hard rubber pieces. The extra bulk required near the tip with hard rubber affects mouth position and airflow characteristics.


title: Saxophone

text: The saxophone was designed around 1840 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, and clarinetist. Born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Before working on the saxophone, he made several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics and extending its lower range. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with these two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones.


title: Saxophone

text: As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and the agility of a woodwind. He wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers.


title: Saxophone

text: Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece and conical brass body. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, a 15-year patent for the instrument on 28 June 1846. The patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. A limited number of instruments in the series pitched in F and C were produced by Sax, but the series pitched in E and B quickly became the standard. All the instruments were given an initial written range from the B below the treble staff to the E one half-step below the third ledger line above staff, giving each saxophone a range of two and a half octaves. Sax's patent expired in 1866. Thereafter, numerous other instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design and keywork.


title: Saxophone

text: Sax's original keywork, which was based on the "Triebert system 3" oboe for the left hand and the "Boehm" clarinet for the right, was simplistic and made certain legato passages and wide intervals extremely difficult to finger; that system would later evolve with extra keys, linkage mechanisms, and alternate fingerings to make some intervals less difficult.


title: Saxophone

text: Early in the development of the saxophone the upper keyed range was extended to E, then F above the staff; 1880s era sheet music for saxophone was written for the range of low B to F. In 1887 the Buffet-Crampon company obtained a patent for extending the bell and adding an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B. This extension is standard in modern designs, with the notable exception of baritone saxophones keyed to low A. The upper range to F would remain the standard for nearly a century until a high F key became common on modern saxophones.


title: Saxophone

text: In the 1840s and 1850s, Sax's invention gained use in small classical ensembles (both all-saxophone and mixed), as a solo instrument, and in French and British military bands. Saxophone method books were published and saxophone instruction was offered at conservatories in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. By 1856 the French "Garde Republicaine" band included eight saxophones, making it the largest ensemble to prominently feature the instrument. The saxophone was used experimentally in orchestral scores, but never came into widespread use as an orchestral instrument. In 1853-54 the orchestra of Louis Antoine Jullien featured a soprano saxophone on a concert tour of the United States.