OPUS ARRIVES IN MIAMI

How do you truly pay tribute to America’s game? You salute it with world’s grandest portfolio of historic moments, rare photography, autographs by all 35 living most valuable players, and fascinating stories from iconic players and coaches from Super Bowl history. How big is big? At 90+ pounds and more than 950 glossy pages sized 20 x 20 inches, the Super Bowl XL Opus is the world’s heaviest and most luxurious book, documenting 40 years of The Big Game from its inception in 1967 through the Super Bowl XL in Detroit last year. Priced at $40,000, the first 400 copies are a strictly limited edition of 20,000— a leather-bound masterpiece, hand-stitched and packed in a silk clamshell case. Each copy is individually signed by all the living Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Players. Owning an Opus is the equivalent of having the NFL Hall of Fame in your home.

Super Bowl XL Opus is the brainchild of entrepreneur sports enthusiast Karl Fowler, founder of Kraken Sport & Media Limited of Great Britain. “KSM is thrilled to have partnered with the NFL to celebrate America’s most-revered sporting event, the beloved Super Bowl. The Opus is an artistic masterpiece bridging the gap between art books and the collector’s art market.”

Fowler, 36, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs Group, set out to accomplish what NFL officials deemed impossible. “They looked me straight in the eye,” he recalls, “and told me ‘It’s a fascinating idea but impossible! You will never ever attain the signatures of all the living Super Bowl MVP’s!’ They said there was no way I’d get the signatures because the MVP’s don’t have the patience.” But the table had been set, the challenge had been issued, and the race was on. Under the watchful eye of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Fowler and his team of experts, many of whom formerly worked for the British Intelligence Service, spent more than 18 months viewing three million photographs and tracking down every living Super Bowl MVP recipient, from Bart Starr (1967) to Hines Ward (2006), and had them autograph the first 400 copies. It was truly a breathtaking experience. “We lucked out and secured half the MVP’s in one location during Super Bowl XL in Detroit,” Fowler said. “We made it fun for them. Since they are all competitive warriors who have never lost their penchant for competition, that’s exactly what we created, a competition with prizes for the player who could sign 400 pages the fastest, and with the coolest looking signature. Tom Brady came in first place at 17 minutes, with identical penmanship on every page, followed by Joe Montana. While each player was waiting his turn, we set up an exclusive photo session with legendary Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss Jr., who captured their portraits on the world’s largest Polaroid camera. Shhh, in addition, we poured the finest champagne to loosen everyone up. By the time the players stepped on the playing field for the pre-game ceremony, they were all smiles, ready to star in the Super Bowl one more time.

“Broadway Joe Namath was so excited that when we completed the player portraits, he asked us to do personal portraits of him with his two gorgeous daughters. They came out so incredibly well that we’re going to issue a special release of 500 limited edition portraits signed by Joe and photographer Walter Iooss Jr.

“Terry Bradshaw (“Loud & Proud”) signed 200 pages at the game in between his broadcasting duties. A few months later, we caught up with Terry (who was great fun) on a Hollywood set while he was filming the romantic comedy “Failure to Launch.” Then a few days after the Super Bowl, we caught up with our newest MVP inductee, Hines Ward. Ward sat down at the table, looked at the books, stood up, sat down, looked at the books again, then stood up and proclaimed, “This is like signing the Declaration of Independence! It is an absolute honor.” He sat down again and signed away, smiling.

“Jake Scott (1973), our last MVP to sign, lives a reclusive lifestyle on his sailboat in remote waters off the Hawaiian Islands. Reaching Jake was quite a task. Due to the legal requirements of insuring the 400 pages to the tune of 16 million bucks, commercial airlines would not transport and insure our precious cargo. We had to charter a long-range aircraft and purchase our own insurance policies. Upon landing somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands, we trucked the cargo to an awaiting charter boat that then whisked us out to sea to find and board Jake’s rickety old ghost ship.”

The Super Bowl XL Opus is in a league all its own: its text is historic and captivating and the photography is simply out of this world. There’s Lombardi on the sidelines and Namath holding court at poolside. There’s Landry lounging on Miami Beach and detailed charts of the Broncos’ running plays in Super Bowl XXXII. You can see all this and more while you sit in your favorite chair, with your butler turning the pages! Just imagine the thrill of seeing the signatures of your favorite sports heroes: Bart Starr, Joe Namath, Len Dawson, Chuck Howley, Roger Staubach, Jake Scott, Larry Csonka, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Fred Biletnikoff, Randy White, Terry Bradshaw, Jim Plunkett, Joe Montana, John Riggins, Marcus Allen, Richard Dent, Doug Williams, Jerry Rice, Ottis Anderson, Mark Rypien, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Steve Young, Larry Brown, Desmond Howard, Terrell Davis, John Elway, Kurt Warner, Ray Lewis, Tom Brady, Dexter Jackson, Deion Branch, and Hines Ward.

For those of you who can’t get your hands on the special 400 signed limited editions, don’t miss out on the remaining 19,600 copies priced at $4,000 each. You can find them at Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrods in London, www.NFL.com, or www.krakenopus. com.

So what’s next for Karl Fowler and his Opus idea? Rest assured that his brilliant imagination is still at work.

Ferrari enthusiasts will have a limited opportunity to park the 60th anniversary Diamond Ferrari Opus on their cocktail table at about a fraction of the cost of the Ferrari parked in their garage. Special features include the case for each Opus, manufactured from the same carbon fiber used in the Ferrari F1 chassis, and strips of race worn rubber (thanks to Bridgestone) signed by all five living World Champions: Phil Hill, John Surtees, Jody Scheckter, Niki Lauda, and Michael Schumacher. Only the owner’s electronic key can open his or her Ferrari Opus. (Psssssst, don’t fret about it being stolen—there’s a security micro-chip in the spine of the binder so it can be tracked anywhere in the world.)

Then there’s The Vatican Opus, an idea born from Ferrari’s decision to donate the proceeds from the first Opus to the Catholic Church. Fowler was invited to a ceremony where Pope Benedict received the donation, and in a two-minute, once-in-a-lifetime audience with the Pope, Fowler persuaded the Holy Father to do an educational Opus on the Vatican. Soon after, Fowler and his team of experts, working hand in hand with Vatican anthropologists and executives, were guided through underground tunnels to the labyrinths of Vatican City where safes had not been unlocked for centuries. Some of the artifacts that will appear in the Vatican Opus, including original sketches by Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci, had not been viewed in more than a hundred years and had certainly never been published.

The NASA Space Opus is another educational masterpiece that will contain interviews, intricate technical details, and hundreds of breathtaking photographs of the solar system, outer space, and earth itself. They will be signed by the remaining eight living astronauts who walked on the moon. The first 1000 issues of this Opus will be donated to school libraries throughout the United States.

Then there’s the Maradona Opus—a publication designed to bring the iconic Argentinean superstar Diego Maradona as close to his fans as humanly possible. The first 100 copies will be titled the “Blood Edition,” as a groove cut into the half-inch thick paper will entomb three syringes of blood from Maradona’s arm. Hair with a DNA profile and X-rays of his right foot will be included as well.

Over the next three years, Kraken Opus will create several more signature publications in partnerships with Major League Baseball, Manchester United, Formula One Racing, The Ryder Cup, and Wimbledon.

If you’ve never seen an Opus, prepare to be amazed! This is not only a book or historic document—it’s a work of art that opens up one of the many worlds you never dreamed you’d be hosting in your own home. See www.krakenopus.com for more details.