Because of Jim Steeg, the Super Bowl is the world’s premiere sporting event. In 34 years with the NFL, including 26 in charge of special events, Steeg grew the Super Bowl from a championship football game to a week-long extravaganza featuring signature events, including The NFL Experience.
Steeg was the driving force behind Super Bowl charitable events that raised more than $50 million for host communities and impacted thousands of children.
Steeg also launched and championed the Super Bowl Minority and Women-Owned Emerging Business Program in the early 1990s, mandating that whenever possible, the league and its various vendors and corporate clients work with local minority and women-owned businesses.
Now as COO of the Chargers, Steeg is working to accomplish many of the same goals in San Diego, particularly on game days. In 2007, the Chargers were named the NFL’s most fan-friendly franchise for stadium parking and ambiance by FansVoice.com. Steeg has worked to uphold that image year-round by overseeing plans for the team’s 50th Anniversary season in 2009; a second complete revamping the team’s website; the re-design of the team’s logo and uniforms in 2007, and the initiation of a move to bring training camp back to San Diego in 2005. These moves have led to increased sponsorships and record sales of tickets, club seats and suites.
Beyond his Super Bowl duties, Steeg organized American Bowl Games in Berlin and Barcelona, and his international experience proved valuable when the Chargers were picked to play the Saints in London in 2008. Steeg also planned and executed the closing of Times Square and the Mall in Washington D.C., for NFL Kickoff Celebrations in 2002 and ’03.
Steeg was the NFL’s chief liaison to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and initiated the renovation and modernization process that resulted in the opening of two new galleries. He chaired the NFL’s league-wide 75th Anniversary celebration in 1994 and Pro Football’s Greatest Reunion in 2000. He also initiated the return of Throwback Uniforms in 1994 and was among the inaugural class inducted into the Special Events Hall of Fame in 2002.
In 2005, Steeg was named Celebrity of the Year by the Mad Anthonys, a charitable organization in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in 2008, he received the Pete Rozelle Award from the New Orleans Touchdown Club.
Steeg served on the San Diego Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Committee and on the boards of the United Way of San Diego, the Downtown YMCA, the San Diego Hall of Champions and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He was co-chairman of the events committee for the 2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship in San Diego and will serve on the executive committee working to bring the Open back to San Diego in 2018. Steeg is a longtime board member for Wake Forest University’s Babcock School of Management, the George B. Young Memorial Scholarship Committee, Hunger Related Events and NFL Youth Education Towns in Houston, New Orleans and Miami.
Steeg’s first job in pro football was as the business manager/controller for the Miami Dolphins from 1975-78.
Born in Boston, Steeg grew up in Ft. Wayne. He received a bachelor’s in political science from Miami (Oh.) University and a MBA from Wake Forest. Wife, Jill, is a former writer for USA Today and Sports Illustrated, who now pens biographies. Steeg’s son, Bryce, is a former Duke University quarterback who graduated in 2002, and later from the London School of Economics in 2003 and Harvard Law School in 2006. He currently works in the law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati in Palo Alto, California. His daughter, Darcy, is a 2003 graduate of Princeton, who earned a master’s of statistics at George Washington University in 2007 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D in statistics at Cornell.
