As the Super Bowl returns to New Orleans on Sunday, so does an old tale from the last time the Caesars Superdome hosted the big game in 2013.

The game 12 years ago, starring the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, was infamous for the power outage that delayed the action for 34 minutes – the first and only time the event was halted by lack of power.

Entergy, the New Orleans-based power company responsible for the blunder, is not hiding embarrᴀssment from the incident. The company is a founding partner of the New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee.

‘The issue that caused the partial power outage at the beginning of the second half of Super Bowl XLVII was addressed in 2013, and the necessary repairs and upgrades were made at that time,’ Entergy told USA Today Sports. ‘We discontinued using the protection relay equipment that led to the partial outage.’

While the power company seemed to brush away the incident, Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis raised questions about the outage.

Lewis helped the Ravens fend off the 49ers, who closed the gap after the lights came back on. That was before Baltimore prevailed, 34-31.

An old conspiracy theory from the 2013 Super Bowl resurfaced hours before the big game 

The last time the game was in New Orleans, a power outage delayed the action momentarily 

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‘I’m not gonna accuse nobody of nothing — because I don’t know facts,’ Lewis said after that game, his second Super Bowl win. ‘But you’re a zillion-dollar company, and your lights go out? No. (Laughs). No way.’

Not long after, Lewis elaborated on his theory about why the outage happened with 13:22 left in the third quarter while the Ravens led, 26-6.

‘Now listen, if you grew up like I grew up — and you grew up in a household like I grew up — then sometimes your lights might go out because times get hard. I understand that,’ he said.

‘But you cannot tell me somebody wasn’t sitting there and when they say, ‘The Ravens (are) about to blow them out. Man, we better do something.’ That’s a huge shift in any game, in all seriousness. And as you see how huge it was because it let them right back in the game.’

On the other hand, Torrey Smith, who caught 35 yards for the Ravens during the game, claimed beliefs among NFL players are not always rooted in facts.

‘You think about guys on the team, some of the guys believe the earth is flat,’ Smith told USA TODAY Sports. ‘So I mean, you’re going to hear some crazy things at all times, especially when it happens in that type of moment.’

The outage came less than two minutes after Jacoby Jones opened the second half with a 108-yard kickoff return – making the timing more suspicious.

Said Smith, ‘I mean, no one had been in a stadium where the power went out and then you have this crazy momentum, and literally Beyoncé just performed (during the halftime show). And the thing that I always remember was Jacoby saying, man, this place didn’t even lose power when (Hurricane) Katrina hit. And that stuff was, I was like, oh, you do have a point.’

The outage naturally sparked fear among fans and media members. Speaking to USA TODAY Sport, Kevin Harlan admitted his colleague Boomer Esiason ‘had this look on his face when the lights went out.’

According to Harlan, the commentator’s fear stemmed from the September 11 terrorist attacks. An office for the Boomer Esiason Foundation on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was empty when the hijacked planes crashed into the buildings.

The blackout happened two minutes after Jacoby Johnson made a 108-yard kickoff return

While the 49ers managed to close the gap, the Ravens secured the victory, 34-31, in NOLA

The prospect of a terrorist attack causing the outage was also a concern in the NFL control room, according to former NFL senior vice president of events, Frank Supovitz. 

‘The law enforcement team that was up there, the security team that was up there, we’re looking after that question,’ Supovitz said. ‘Did we have a terror attack? Was it a cyber terror attack? Was there a fire? Was there any danger to public safety?

‘And happily, the answer to that was very quickly determined to be no.’

A set of generators went off before the lights shut down completely, providing some light into the field as the problem was being fixed behind the scenes.

Sideline reporter Solomon Wilcots also said he interacted with Ravens coach John Harbaugh as the players tried to stay loose. He said he pointed across the field at Harbaugh’s brother, Jim, then the head coach for the 49ers.

‘I said, ‘Look at him. He’s got his guys over there, man. You better get your guys together and talk to ’em about what to anticipate when this game resumes,” Wilcots said.

The conspiracy theory comes as the Chiefs and Eagles gear up to face off at the Superdome for the Lombardi trophy on Sunday. To add suspicion, the Chiefs have been at the center of theories involving them getting a push from the referees toward their third straight Super Bowl тιтle.