SHS, CFHS to get gold footballs from NFL

(AP) — The trophy cases at Sandpoint and Clark Fork High Schools will be getting shiny new gold additions in the future.

The Super Bowl turns 50 this year and the NFL is planning a golden yearlong celebration. The league unveiled plans that include sending a gold-colored football to the high school of every player or head coach who played in the big game.

Sandpoint High School and University of Idaho alumni Jerry Kramer played in the first two Super Bowls, starring at guard for the Green Bay Packers and legendary coach Vince Lombardi. Kramer’s size and mobility were huge components in his ability to pull and lead the famed Packers’ Sweep, one of the most famous plays in the history of the NFL.

Clark Fork High School will also be getting a gold football, in honor of alumni Ron Heller, a tight end for Joe Montana and the great Bill Walsh 49ers teams.

 The footballs will have the player’s name and the name of the high school. In some cases, the player will go to the school to present the ball in person. As part of its ‘On the Fifty’ celebration, the league will make the number 50 on the 50-yard line in gold for all games and teams will host Super Bowl reunions.

Nampa High should be among one of many Idaho high schools to receive a football, as Bulldog alumnus Rob Morris played for Super Bowl XLI winner Indianapolis in 2006. Morris was a fullback and linebacker for Nampa from 1990-93 and Brigham Young from 1996-99. He was listed to the USA Today All-American honorable mention list while at Nampa, and he is in Nampa High’s Hall of Fame.

Nampa athletic director John Gregory said he recalled one of the team’s biggest games from Morris’ playing days, when the linebacker faced off against Capital High quarterback Jake Plummer, who lived briefly in Sandpoint and helped coach the Bulldog football team on occasion.

“We played them here, and it was a really good game,” Gregory said. “They beat us 24-14, maybe. I remember we had to bring in extra bleachers.”

Other Idaho football players to make Super Bowl appearances are former Boise State linebacker Korey Hall of Glenns Ferry, who was with with Green Bay for the Packers’ Super Bowl XLV victory in 2011. Jake Scott of Lewiston High also played in Super Bowl XLI for Indianapolis in 2006.

In addition to the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is still silver, there are big, Tiffany-crafted numbers 5-0 that will go to the Super Bowl winner. The numbers are cast in bronze, plated in 18-karat gold and weigh nearly 33 pounds.

“There’s going to be gold infused to everything this year,” NFL Network analyst and former Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner said. “... Nothing says NFL better than the Super Bowl, so this year is going to really commemorate the last 49 leading up to No. 50.”

The game will be played Feb. 5 at Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, California. There will be 19 games between past Super Bowl opponents, beginning with the Hall of Fame Game when the Minnesota Vikings play the Pittsburgh Steelers in a rematch of Super Bowl IX.

And for one year only, the league has thrown out the Roman numerals. The next one will be Super Bowl 50, plain and simple. The NFL didn’t like the looks of the Roman numeral alternative of Super Bowl L.

Warner’s football will go to his school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“It will really be a keepsake for that high school to really say ‘This is where it all starts,’” Warner said. The Thursday night game telecasts will feature some of these homecomings. “You think about having the dream of playing in the Super Bowl,” Warner said. “How many guys are in those situations where somebody’s telling them ‘There’s no way you’re going to come from here and go to the Super Bowl. You’re never going to have that opportunity. You might as well give up that dream right now.’ And they go to their high schools and they go ‘Hey, somebody just like me, somebody that was in my shoes, that had the same challenges, that had the same dream, they got a chance to play in the Super Bowl.’”