Heads or tails? It's all in the thumbs
Don't take the Super Bowl coin toss for granted.
It has been carried out on the thumbs of U.S. presidents, Pro Football Hall of Famers, even wives of NFL royalty.
Each gold coin is a commemorative piece of hand-sculpted art.
Historically, it has shined.
Last year's Super Bowl XLIV coin arrived in South Florida with an impressive story of its own. Three months earlier, it caught a ride on the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Crew and coin together made 171 orbits of the earth, docked a week at the International Space Station and logged more than 4 million space miles.
The Saints and Colts logos, engraved into tiny helmets on one side of the coin, weren't added until after the STS-129 mission was completed Nov. 27, 2009.
While in space, the coin was tossed at zero gravity.
"Of course, it just kept going up. The crew videotaped it, mostly for fun," said Frank Supovitz, NFL senior vice president/events and Super Bowl.
The coin toss was handled by a member of the officiating crew through the first 11 Super Bowls. Norm Schachter got the most flips -- Super Bowls I, V and X.
Then beginning in January 1978, the NFL turned to celebrity tossers, starting with the legendary Red Grange at SB XII, won by the Cowboys over the Denver Broncos at New Orleans.
"The Galloping Ghost" was followed by George Halas, Art Rooney and Marie Lombardi through SB XV.
The first president to make the coin toss was Ronald Reagan for Super Bowl XIX (January 1985), coinciding with the start of his second term in office.
The Reagan flip was presented "live" via satellite from the Oval Office to Stanford Stadium. After a suspenseful pause, the president followed the camera to the floor.
"It's tails," he informed everyone.
More times than not, the result of the coin toss is pretty forgettable.
But who tosses it, or how it gets tossed, we remember.
At Super Bowl XL, Tom Brady became the first active player to get the honors. He was MVP of the previous Super Bowl.
Last year, Emmitt Smith was joined on the field by the entire 2010 Hall of Fame induction class. Emmitt's flip was a bit errant, and prompted a call from the CBS booth.
"Almost a wayward toss," Jim Nantz reported.
At the time, there were three dozen people on the field. Supovitz turned to someone in the press box and dryly observed, "We should be catering that thing. There are bar mitzvahs smaller than that."
The space-travelling SB XLIV coin actually "disappeared" in Smith's pocket following the toss and before NFL officials could retrieve it.
"You can see on YouTube," Supovitz said with a laugh. "Emmitt and the game official get into a spirited discussion as to what happened to the coin."
Even before the toss, the former Dallas Cowboys running back queried referee Scott Green about what happens to the coin.
Green told Smith: "I've got about five people who want this thing."
Immediately after the toss, Emmitt picked up the coin and faked a handoff to Green, then walked off -- grinning.
Smith wasn't being presumptuous. Sometimes, the coin is given to the celebrity tosser, just not this time.
The drama plays out on something called NFL Full Contact, which can be found online.
But the coin was retrieved from Emmitt's pocket, and it now resides in Canton, Ohio.
Ray Buck, 817-390-7697
This story was originally published February 4, 2011 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Heads or tails? It's all in the thumbs."