30 AMERICANWAY
JANUARY 15 2009
Monday
Travel day is usually either Sunday orMonday.
Aftermandatory treatment for injuredplayers and
meetings that focus asmuch on administrative/
organizational details as they do onXs andOs, the
players bus enmasse to the airport. Upon arrival in
the host city, there’smore treatment andanother
meeting. TheNewYorkGiants, winners of last
season’s Super Bowl XLII, had neither an imposed
curfew nor abed check during their first night in
Phoenix last January.
Howie Long:
They really keep you on a
schedule. Athletes are kind of like plants:
You take themoutof theirenvironmentand
theywilt. But that first day is still like step-
pingoff thedock, not knowingwhether the
water is48degrees or68or85.
RonWolf:
Everything’s laidout for you. You
knowwhere you’re going topractice, when,
andhowmuch time you’reallotted. It’s rare
that you’re caught off guard.
Mike Ditka:
I had one job: Don’t let all the
hooplaget to theplayers. Sometimeswith a
youngteam, that’salmost impossible,butwe
hadgreat leaderswhopoliced themselves.
HarryCarson:
Itwas all new tome, because
Ihadpromisedmyself that Iwouldn’t go to
aSuperBowl until Iwaspart of a team that
earned the right to go. Sowhen I got there,
I lookedat it as abusiness trip.
Warren Sapp:
We didn’t get the week off
between the
[
conference
]
championship
game and the Super Bowl, so we had to
get right down to business. I ran the show.
I told
[
TampaBaycoach Jon
]
Gruden, “I’m
in charge. Everybody will be accounted
for; I promise you that.”
Tuesday
It’s the semidreadedmediaday, onwhich hordes of
reporters besiege the two teams to determine, defi-
nitely andwithmetronomic precision, whowears
boxers andwhowears briefs. The action all goes
down at the game site, where the teamphoto is
snappedafter themasses depart. TheGiants freed
their players late that afternoon, requiring them to
return to the hotel by one a.m. for the first of the
week’s bed checks.
TerrellDavis:
Ihad thedreamscenario—my
first Super Bowl in the townwhere I grew
up. Getting off that airplane, you couldn’t
knock the grin off my face. Then I saw all
themicrophones, and Iwas like, “Uh-oh.”
Long:
In1983, theyearIwent, youhad three
major networks, and ESPNwas four years
old. Media day was nothing like the mass
of humanity youhave therenow. Evenafter
media day, there’s no place that isn’tmiked
ordoesn’t havea camera.
HARRY CARSoN
A linebacker for theNewYork
Giants from 1976 to 1988 and a
captain of the team that defeated
theDenver Broncos inSuper Bowl
XXI. Hewas inducted into thePro
Football Hall of Fame in2006.
TERRELL DAvIS
A runningback for theDenver
Broncos from 1995 to2002 and the
engine that powered the offenses that
wonSuper Bowl XXXII (inwhich
hewas theMVP) andSuper Bowl
XXXIII. Heworks as an analyst on
theNFLNetwork’s
NFLTotal Access.
MIkE DITkA
A tight end on theSuper Bowl VI
championDallas Cowboys team and
the head coach of theSuper Bowl
XX champion, theChicagoBears.
Ditkawas inducted into thePro
Football Hall of Fame in 1988 and
currently appears onESPN’s
Sunday
NFLCountdown
and onWestwood
One’sNFL radio broadcasts.
HoWIE LoNg
Adefensive end for theOakland/Los
Angeles Raiders from 1981 to 1993
and a key contributor to the defense
that dominated theRedskins inSuper
Bowl XVIII. Longwas inducted
into theProFootball Hall of Fame in
2000 and has appeared on
FoxNFL
Sunday
since its debut in 1994.
oursuperLineup
duringsuperBowl
week, players and coaches on the two teams work
diligently tokeep their routinesas regular aspossible. Theypracticeon the samedaysasusual, con-
gregate at roughly the same times, and abide by the same rules. In short, it’s aweek like any other.
¶
Except it’s not.
¶
In theory, players prep for the Super Bowl just as theywould for aWeek Eight
clash against adivision foe. In reality, things tend tobe a littlemore complicated.
¶
Fewplayers ar-
rivehomeduring the run-up toWeekEight, for example, tofindaprocessionof groupies, autograph
hounds, and “long-lost cousins” clamoring for their time. There’s nodesignatedmedia day forWeek
Eight during which players are ambushed by ESPN pundits and undermedicated members of the
YouTube nation alike.
¶
Super Bowl week is, all past participants agree, a uniquely intense experi-
ence, one that’s twopartsbusinessandonepartcarnival. Yetmuchof it remainsamystery toall but
thosewho have been a part of the spectacle. What, precisely, do players, coaches, and executives
doduring their sevenor eight days in thehost city, anyway?EightNFL legendswhohavebeen there
giveus anoral historyof SuperBowlweek— theglories, theheadaches, and, yes, even the encoun-
terswith former
SaturdayNight Live
castmembers.
