Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

It's hard to top the Big Easy

New Orleans adds another chapter to its weird Super Bowl legacy.

By BRUCE LOWITT, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 30, 2002

Maybe it has something to do with the moon over the bayou, or the bourbon and the bodies that flow inexorably along Bourbon Street. Whatever it is, come Super Bowl week, making mischief in the Big Easy is, well, easy.

Imagine John Matuszak playing policeman-cum-prowler in Pasadena. Or Jim McMahon mooning in Miami. Or Duane Thomas finally talking in Tempe.

No, when it comes to Super Bowl silliness, New Orleans holds the copyright. This game is going to have a hard time living up to its eight Crescent City predecessors.

Gotta go through Ol' Tooz

Super Bowl XV at the Superdome was a study in contrasts, the regimented Eagles vs. the rambunctious Raiders. No one expected Oakland to adhere to coach Tom Flores' 11 p.m. curfew the way the Eagles honored Dick Vermeil's.

Vermeil threatened to send home any player who broke curfew. "If he coached us,' Raiders guard Gene Upshaw said, "he'd look up and down the sideline and see that he was all alone."

Matuszak, a 6-foot-8, 280-pound defensive end who never met a bacchanal he didn't like, anointed himself the Raiders' Moral Majority of One for the week. "I'm going to see that there's no funny business," the former University of Tampa standout said. "I'll keep our young fellows out of trouble. If any players want to stray, they gotta go through Ol' Tooz."

The next night, Matuszak and the wife of former Giants quarterback Charley Conerly were spied dancing in the French Quarter at 1 a.m. And two hours later, he was still in full carouse with other female companions.

Several writers, with no curfew of their own, spotted him sneaking into the Raiders hotel not long before dawn. Matuszak saw them, too, and wrapped his muscular arms around three of them. "You didn't see me here, did you?" he said, grinning wickedly -- to which one reporter replied: "Say, aren't you Jim Plunkett?"

Vermeil said he'd have put Matuszak on the next flight home. Flores fined Ol' Tooz $1,000 and left it at that. The Raiders rolled over the Eagles 27-10.

Gambling, balloons and the end of the AFL

A Super Bowl IV pregame race between balloons bearing the AFL's and NFL's logos ended with the NFL's crashing into the Tulane Stadium stands. The crowd turned ugly, ripping the balloon to shreds.

Then the sound system failed as Tonight Show bandleader Doc Severinsen played the national anthem and Pat O'Brien recited the lyrics. When it was revived, Severinsen was playing " ... the rockets' red glare ... " while O'Brien was up to " ... the home of the brave."

And the halftime show featured a wildly inaccurate re-enactment of the Battle of New Orleans. The British won when Andrew Jackson's horse bolted.

Five days before the game, NBC reported that Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson would be among several players summoned to testify in a federal gambling probe. It was the week's hottest topic. At 4 a.m. on Super Bowl eve Dawson experienced cramps and nausea. He barely slept.

And in the final game before the AFL passed into history, reconstituted as the AFC in the merger with the NFL, the Chiefs beat Minnesota 23-7. Dawson was the MVP.

A full moon in the Crescent City

Few teams have had more Super Bowl swagger than the 1985 Bears. Even before the playoffs they were dancing the Super Bowl Shuffle.

The team had many personalities -- Walter Payton, William "Refrigerator" Perry, coach Mike Ditka, defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan -- but the unquestioned star was quarterback Jim McMahon.

During the playoffs he had worn a headband. That was fine by the NFL. But commissioner Pete Rozelle took exception to McMahon's added touch, a handwritten ADIDAS across the front. Get rid of it, Rozelle commanded. McMahon did, replacing it with one bearing a handwritten ROZELLE. The commissioner shrugged, laughed, and that was that.

McMahon arrived in New Orleans for Super Bowl XX with a sore butt, an injury from the NFC Championship Game. He wanted Hiroshi Shiriashi to treat it with acupuncture. No way, the Bears said. But traditional treatment failed, the Bears relented, McMahon got Shiriashi, McMahon's rear end improved -- and it became a star in its own right when McMahon mooned a helicopter hovering over a Bears practice.

The game was a Super Bowl Trample. The Bears pounded the Patriots 46-10.

Concise

Duane Thomas was an enigma. As a rookie in 1970 he led the Cowboys in rushing, asked that they renegotiate his contract, was turned down, missed a training-camp practice, was fined, and was traded to the Patriots before the 1971 season. They quickly returned him to the Cowboys. Uncooperative, they said.

Thomas refused all interviews during the '71 season. Attendance at Media Day for Super Bowl VI was mandatory. Speaking was not. Thomas sat, listened to questions, answered none. Suddenly he spoke to the reporter next to him, then stood and walked away. Others converged on the writer. What had he said?

"He said, "Do you know what time it is?' "

Thomas maintained his vow of silence until the Cowboys' 24-3 victory over the Dolphins was over. He rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown and was collared in the locker room by CBS broadcaster Tom Brookshier, who gushed about Thomas' performance and ended a lengthy preamble with: "Are you really that fast?"

"Evidently," Thomas replied.

End of interview.

- Information from The Sporting News was used in this report.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright