by Adam Lazarus
253 “I believe in my”—Mike Harris, “Positive Look: Norwood Takes on ‘The Miss,’” Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 13, 1992.
253 “I didn’t have”—Kevin Mannix, “Norwood Gets Kickback,” Boston Herald, January 13, 1992.
254 “Any Norwood”—Bud Poliquin, “One Little Field Goal Can Make Us Forget,” Syracuse Herald Journal, January 13, 1992.
254 “[Bills third”—Terry Blount, “Reich Reprises Roles as Clutch QB,” Houston Chronicle, January 4, 1993.
255 “We know”—Bill Plaschke, “No More Apologies Bills Won’t Give Up, and They’re Driven to Make Critics Shut Up,” Los Angeles Times, September 26, 1993.
255 “The last time”—Chris Dufresne, “Wiping Out Memory of Wipeout,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1994.
255 “It’s an end”—Vito Stellino, “Two Quick Changes Wipe Out Redskins’ Big Advantages,” The Sun, March 7, 1993.
255 “I want a team”—Frank Litsky, “Simms Signs On; Hostetler Signs Off,” New York Times, March 6, 1993.
256 “This was the”—Don Amore, “Hostetler Becomes a Raider, Signs 3-Year Deal for $7.5 Million,” Hartford Courant, March 25, 1993.
256 “He runs very”—Frank Litsky, “Add Hostetler and Bavaro to New Millionaires’ Club,” New York Times, March 26, 1993.
256 “It is still a team”—Ed McNamara, “NFL ‘93 Riding the Big Hoss,” Newsday, September 6, 1993.
257 “People can talk”—Harvey Araton, “Examining Reeves’s Reasoning,” New York Times, January 12, 1994.
257 “I went to talk”—Harvey Araton, “Examining Reeves’s Reasoning,” New York Times, January 12, 1994.
257 “You’ve just got”—Vic Carucci and Mark Gaughan, “Players Must Find Ways to Conquer Cold,” Buffalo News, January 15, 1994.
258 “It was very”—Vic Carucci, “Bounce-Back Bills Land in Title Game,” Buffalo News, January 16, 1994.
258 “You get in”—Jim Thomas, “Buffalo Zeroes In, but It Was Really Hot Stuff,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 16, 1994.
258 “I was hoping”—Chris Dufresne, “The Raiders Don’t Need Brown-and-Out Pattern,” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 1994.
259 “Jim put it right”—Syracuse Herald American, “Bills Thrill As Buffalo Chills,” January 16, 1994.
259 “We have a lot”—Vic Carucci, “Bounce-Back Bills Land in Title Game,” Buffalo News, January 16, 1994.
260 “I think if you”— Randy Schultz, “A Run for the Ages,” Football Digest, December 2004.
Epilogue: Super Bowl XLII
262 “The thing I’m”—Arthur Staple, “Third Thynes a Charm,” Newsday, January 21, 2008.
262 “It will be our”—Ira Kaufman, “Keeping Ball a Giant Part of Game Plan,” Tampa Tribune, January 28, 2008.
262 “It makes me”—Vinny DiTrani, “Parcells Proud of Former Aides Coughlin, Belichick,” The Record, January 24, 2008.
262 “There is a way”—Vinny DiTrani, “Parcells Proud of Former Aides Coughlin, Belichick,” The Record, January 24, 2008.
263 “later than”—Peter Yoon, “Morning Briefing; Fan Gets Mickelson and More,” Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2008.
263 “That offense”—George Willis, “Un-’D’-Lievable-Giant Defense Turns Juggernaut into Patsies,” New York Post, February 4, 2008.
263 “This is the”—Vinny DiTrani, “One Giant Jolt; Last-Minute Rally Denies New England Immortal Status,” Burlington Times-News, February 4, 2008.
Acknowledgments
I spent a great deal of time thinking about what I wanted my second (first solo-authored) book to be about. One day, I accompanied my then-fiancé, Sarah, to Coffee Tree Roasters on Walnut Street in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh, where she would study for the next of an endless string of medical school exams: Step-II if you know that sort of thing.
After a few weeks and a few failed ideas, Super Bowl XXV popped into my head in the summer of 2008. A handful of Hall of Fame participants, the quarter-century milestone, Whitney Houston’s national anthem, and the closest game in Super Bowl history rendered the idea viable. But it was the lesson taught to me by graduate-school mentor, Tom O’Boyle—that if you try hard enough and do it right, you can write an exceptional story about almost anything—that clinched the January 27, 1991, championship game as ideal.
Jim Kelly, Jeff Hostetler, Lawrence Taylor, Thurman Thomas, and Bill Parcells are naturally the foundation of this story. But the inclusion of many lesser-explored tales—Carlton Bailey, Stephen Baker’s love for key lime pie, a young James Lofton watching Super Bowl I with his father, and Captain Steve Abbot’s Super Bowl party—were directly the result of Tom O’Boyle’s guidance.
As the idea and the structure unfolded during the remainder of that year and the three years that followed, a large group of people contributed to both the book’s viability and research.
First, I want to thank all the people who granted me interviews that were so vital to the retelling of this story (see appendix 2). Many people helped me contact these interviewees. Thanks to Jim Neville, Billy Watkins, Mark Lepselter, Cynthia Winters, Frank “Digger” Dawson, Jill Fritzo, Ralph Cindrich, Don Jay Smith (executive director of the New Jersey Hall of Fame), Craig Kelley with the Indianapolis Colts, Pete Moris with the Kansas City Chiefs, Pat Hanlon with the New York Giants, and Andy Major and Chris Jenkins with the Buffalo Bills. And to the gracious people who provided back-jacket blurbs, I am equally grateful.
Quite obviously, Lynn Swann deserves special thanks as well. For this particular book—not only a time capsule of the 1991 NFL Championship Game but also a selective anthology of the Super Bowl’s history—the foreword could not have come from a more perfect candidate. Credit Sylvan Holzer with a game-changing assist there.
In terms of pure football counsel, University of New Hampshire running backs coach Mike Ferzoco—who happens to have been my college roommate and fellow Kenyon College Lords football player—provided key insights on the so-called X’s and O’s. And my former head coach at Shaker Heights High School, Dave Sedmak, did a wonderful job breaking down game film and reading portions of the manuscript to validate my observations.
For verification of the facts I found regarding the Persian Gulf War, much thanks is due Professor Glenn McNair at Kenyon College, who put me in touch with Richard S. Faulkner, the associate supervisory professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. During Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War, Professor Faulkner was an army captain and tank commander in the Third Battalion, Thirty-fifth Regiment, First Armored Division, stationed in Saudi Arabia.
For the vast research conducted for this book—and the notes section portrays only a portion of the archives collected—I have one person to thank. Steve Schlossman, my coauthor of Chasing Greatness: Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer, and the Miracle at Oakmont, my first book, about the 1973 U.S. Open, taught me how to “break the back” of the research phase. Without his training and diligence on that earlier project, I would never have pursued the finer details that make this book so rich.
There were a few rough bumps on the road to finishing this project, and for that, Don Van Natta Jr., Flo Conway, and my uncle, Jim Siegelman, gave wonderful counsel on many “off-the-field” issues.
Peter Burford also deserves my endless gratitude, as do his colleagues at Taylor Trade: Rick Rinehart, Flannery Scott, Gene Margaritondo, Alden Perkins, Kalen Landow, and everyone who worked on Super Bowl Monday. My thanks also go to Cathy L. Gonzalez and Reuben Canales at the Associated Press, Brooke Thomas at Getty Images, and David Valenzuela at the Buffalo News.
My two-part June 2010 research adventure was also vital to the book. I visited the NFL Films offices in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. Chris Willis and Linda Endres deserve great thanks. The next leg of the trip was at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Jason Aikens and Jon Kendle were a tremendous help, pulling archives and microfiche, as well as yielding control of the copy machine for quite a while.
My “research assistant-ish” on this fruitful journey, Dr. Hillard Lazarus, was tremendous assistance.
And a very special thanks to Colleen Smith-Grubb at NFL Films. Without her enthusiastic and exceptional kindness, this book would not have turned out as well as I had hoped.
