
When Arizona’s Super Bowl Was Hijacked by a Very Unlikely Surprise
If you were watching this game in Arizona, you will remember this very weird incident that occurred during the iconic Arizona Cardinals/Pittsburgh Steelers match up at Super Bowl XLIII.
Here's a little background for the lead up to Super Bowl XLIII
The year is 2009; the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers are the AFC Champions & they're set to take on the NFC Champions, the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals for Super Bowl XLIII at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Faith Hill would sing the National Anthem,
and who could forget The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, giving one of his best performances during the Halftime show?
The game would end with the Steelers winning with a score of 27-23; marking the 6th time the Steelers would win a Super Bowl. With over 94 million people watching, it was the most watched Super Bowl at the time.
If you were in the stadium or watching outside of Arizona, you were completely unaware of what viewers saw in Tuscon, Arizona. They got...WAY more than what they bargained for.
Arizona tv viewers saw a glimpse of an adult film during Super Bowl XLIII
In the 4th quarter, with less than 3 minutes left, the Cardinals would score a touchdown and then... they would see a 30 clip of a pornography before the feed would cut back to the game.
The footage would be sent to TMZ, and would the video would be later uploaded onto YouTube (censored of course). The footage was of course a BIG story on sports stations everywhere...
Did they ever catch the guy who threw in porn during Super Bowl XLIII?
Yes they did. Two years after the television hijacking, the FBI was able to arrest & charge Frank Tanori Gonzales in 2011 in Tucson. Frank plead guilty to counts of computer tampering. He paid a $1,000 fine & got 3 years probation; no jail time.
There HAVE been other television hijackings since then, but none have occurred at the Super Bowl since...hopefully never again.

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EDIT: This story was originally published on March 21, 2023