'Napoleon Dynamite' producer starts campaign to release rare Super Bowl I tape
A rare recording of Super Bowl I between the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs could be released to the public thanks to a crowdfunding campaign.
The game, which took place Jan. 15, 1967, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was broadcast on NBC and CBS, but both networks recorded over the tapes. The only known recording of the Packers' 35-10 win, owned by a man named Troy Haupt, has been held in limbo after the NFL offered him $30,000 for the tape - well under his initial asking price of $1 million - and threatened legal action if he sold it.
Jeremy Coon, executive producer and editor of the 2004 movie "Napoleon Dynamite," and fellow filmmaker Tim Skousen are now preparing to take on the NFL over the tape and have launched a Kickstarter campaign with the ultimate goal of streaming it prior to the 2021 Super Bowl.
"The NFL should have paid a reasonable price for it, owned it, and put it out," Coon told Julie Jag of the Salt Lake Tribune. "This should be a celebration rather than anything antagonistic. It's just the NFL has not wanted to play nice, for some reason."
Coon and Skousen's initial goal is $50,000, which is the minimum needed to make a documentary on the tape. A better version of the documentary would be completed if they raise $250,000, and reaching their end goal of $1.5 million would allow them to purchase the tape and pay for lawyers if the NFL takes them to court.
The campaign has raised over $8,000 as of Sunday afternoon and will run until Feb. 15.