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Super Bowl on ice: The 15 times NHL and NFL collided

The NHL and NFL share some commonalities. They’re winter sports. They’re perfect for tailgating. They have a multitude of equipment players wear. They both used to have hitting.

But as the Super Bowl arrives on Sunday between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers – we repeat, the CAROLINA Panthers – we decided to look at 15 times the NFL was mixed with the NHL, and vice versa. The Winter Classic has certainly made this more frequent.

Here are 15 times the NHL and the NFL collided:

1. Sidney Crosby attempts 70-foot ‘field goal'

 

To celebrate the 2011 Winter Classic at Heinz Field, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to take some 70-yard field-goal attempts … with his stick and some pucks. Probably because, as usual, the Penguins didn't give him anyone to pass to.

But there was another player who attempted an actual field goal.

2. Andrew Shaw boots at a Bears game

“Bloody Bloody” Andrew Shaw of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrated their Stanley Cup championship at a Chicago Bears game in Oct. 2015. He was invited to try a field goal. With Patrick Kane holding, Shaw booted the ball through the uprights … followed by his shoe, which flew off his foot on the attempt. Laces tied, Andrew!

3. Joe Namath and Derek Sanderson

Great Derek Sanderson stories are many. One of the best was the surreal time when Joe Namath called him out of the blue and asked him to own a bar with him in Boston. That resulted in Sanderson inviting Playboy bunnies to drink for free.

4. Ben Bishop chirps Rams owner

The Tampa Bay Lightning goalie, and St. Louis native, shut out the Colorado Avalanche on the same day the St. Louis Rams announced they were moving to Los Angeles. After the game, Bishop wrote on Twitter: “Feels good to shutout Kroenke's hockey team the day he moves my childhood football team! Sad day for Rams fans!!” (The second exclamation point means he’s serious.)

5. Gronk spikes the puck

Gronk
Gronk

New England Patriots tight end and human keg party Rob Gronkowski has actually spiked a hockey puck twice at games. The first time was as a guest of the AHL’s Worcester Sharks against the Providence Bruins in 2012. Then, in 2015, he spiked the puck before a Boston Bruins game to celebrate the Pats’ Super Bowl win.

6. John Collins joins the NHL

Before John Collins became the NHL’s COO – scaling the League to a $4-billion company, helping to create the outdoor games and negotiating history-making TV deals – he was Senior Vice President of Programming & Sales and the Vice President of Programming & Sales for the NFL. He was kind of a big deal.

7. Bill Cowher, super fan

The former Pittsburgh Steelers coach and current CBS analyst followed hockey as a youngster and then became a Carolina Hurricanes fan later in life while living in North Carolina – something that got him a “traitor” label whe the Canes faced the Penguins in the playoffs.

8. NFL steals our All-Star Game idea

It’s said “greatness borrows, genius steals.” We’re not sure what that makes the NFL after it took the NHL’s All-Star game fantasy draft format for the Pro Bowl in 2013. But we do look forward to the 3-on-3 Pro Bowl in 2019.

9. Austin Pettis’s Mighty Ducks tattoo

NFL
NFL

Wide receiver Austin Pettis has a bunch of sweet ink, but one of his most prominent tattoos is an old school Mighty Ducks of Anaheim logo on his neck. "One, it's a great movie," he said, "I'm from Anaheim, I was born and raised. ... The Ducks were right down the street. I was able to watch the Angels games, the Ducks games my whole life growing up."

10. J.J. Watt, Ducks Fan

Not to be outdone, the great J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans was given his own personalized Mighty Ducks jersey in 2014. From the movie, that is. “I grew up in Wisconsin playing hockey,” he told MMQB.com. “I mean, I started when I was 3 years old on skates. I played all over — in Canada all the time, all over the U.S., over in Germany for a 10-day tournament. Hockey, honestly was my first love. The excitement, the fast pace, the intensity of the game. … I still love it to this day.”

11. NHL Super Bowl matinees

After NBC hitched the NHL to college football’s day on Jan. 1, it started airing hockey games in the early afternoon on Super Bowl Sunday as well. That included the classic “Snowvechkin” game back in 2011, as fans dug out of close to three feet of snow to watch the Capitals and Penguins play a classic.

12. Penguins love Steelers

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images)
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images)

The love affair between the Penguins and Steelers is quite established, but it was never more apparent than in Marc-Andre Fleury’s fashion choices: Not only wearing a Steelers’ helmet during a postgame celebration to support their Super Bowl run, but wearing a Steelers-inspired mask in their Stadium Series game against the Blackhawks.

13. Bill Belichick skates with Claude Julien at Winter Classic

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick took the ice with Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien at Gillette Stadium, the location of the 2016 New Years Day game between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. Said the Pats’ coach: “I played in the old huff-and-puff league when I was in New Jersey with the Giants. … Oh, you know, it’s like 30-, 40-year-old guys playing at midnight — it’s the only time you could get ice time — drive 45 minutes to go out there and fall around and slash each other. I wish I could have played hockey. That’s a great sport. It’s fast, lot of action, contact, skill, speed.”

14. True Patriot love on Winter Classic masks

Both Mike Condon and Tuukka Rask had Patriots-inspired masks for the Winter Classic this season, although we’re still not sure if Belichick was featured on both.

And finally ...

15. Rex Ryan, Devils fan

Rex Ryan
Rex Ryan

Sometimes, football people who cross over into hockey look out of place. This was not one of those times.

Well, there is a 16th time football inspired hockey. But it’s not exactly something the NHL likes to talk about.

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.