Lockdown: The Birth of Enhanced Security for the Super Bowl Came on Nafe’s Watch

Former NFL executive Jim Steeg and Rick Nafe worked a pair of Super Bowls at old Tampa Stadium when Nafe was its director of operations.

The second of those two games came in 1991 during the Gulf War, which marked the first time NFL officials “really started to go through this concern about security” going into the Super Bowl, said Steeg, who for many years served as point man for the NFL championship game.

Ten days before the Super Bowl, the U.S. launched a massive aerial attack against S...