JIM LANG'S AMAZING SUPER BOWL STORIES

I have been lucky enough over the course of my career to have covered five Super Bowls. For this week’s blog Rod wanted me to share some of memories from those five games. So here goes:

Detroit – Super Bowl XL (40)
The Steelers beat the Seahawks

Since this was my first time covering a Super Bowl I found the whole experience slightly over-whelming. Nothing I had done in my career to that point had prepared me for covering anything of that magnitude. This was also my first experience covering media day.

No less than 3,500 reporters were crammed in and around the 50 yard line at Ford Field. All players and coaches from both teams are made available to the media throng for exactly one hour on media day. Mario was the senior member of our crew had covered three other Super Bowls. As a result he had a lot of helpful advice for a rookie like me. The first thing he told me is that on media day a reporter has to be aggressive if they want someone to answer any of their questions.

He said you really have to yell out their name to get their attention, and then you can ask your question. Sure enough I am at the podium with then-Seahawks Coach Mike Holmgren. He is a big, intimidating man and there must have been over 350 reporters crowded around his podium firing off questions. Well by God this little Canadian reporter was not going to be denied. So after Holmgren finished answering a question from John Clayton of ESPN I used my best radio voice to get his attention. “Coach Holmgren! Coach Holmgren!”

All of a sudden he stopped talking and turned to me and had a grin on his face. I asked my question and he gave me a very nice answer. It was only later that I realized that my voice cracked like a 12 yard old girl at the moment and must have went up 5 octaves when I yelled out “Coach Holmgren”

Now I know why he was grinning as he turned to look at me.

It still ranks as the single most embarrassing thing in my career. They must have played that clip behind the scenes at Sportsnet over 100 times. People were in tears laughing at my suddenly squeaky voice trying to ask Mike Holmgren a question.

Our analyst in Detroit was none other than Jesse Palmer. Jesse was a guy who grew up in Nepean, Ontario, played college ball for the Florida Gators and went to play quarterback for the New York Giants. Jesse was also the star of the reality show “The Bachelor”. I had no idea what kind of effect a show like that has on women until I went to dinner with Jesse. The man couldn’t finish a meal unless we found a place to hide him in the corner of the restaurant. That is because an endless stream of women, young and old, kept coming up to the table to get his autograph and take a picture with him. One night Jesse politely asked if he could just finish his meal. No less than a dozen well dressed women at a nice restaurant waited over 15 minutes by the main entrance for Jesse to finish his meal.

The real fun took place when Jesse managed to get us into the FHM Magazine party in downtown Detroit.  When we arrived we were escorted into the VIP entrance in the back so Jesse and his “Entourage” could avoid the massive line-up at the front. Once we got inside it took at least three of us running interference to part the crowd enough for the guy to get a drink. It was nuts.

On top of being a celebrity Jesse Palmer is also one of the nicest athletes I have ever worked with. He had one sacred rule; we all ate dinner as a team after we were done for work for the day.

The game itself wasn’t anything special. But I will always remember embarrassing myself in front of Mike Holmgren, partying with Jesse Palmer and interviewing Roger Staubach for a feature story I put together while I was in Detroit.

Phoenix – Super Bowl XLII (42)
The Giants stun the undefeated Patriots

This was far and away the craziest week of media coverage of any of the five Super Bowls I covered. This was the week the 18-0 Patriots were set to meet the underdog New York Giants.

Media day for that Super Bowl was beyond insane. A scantily clad model from a Mexican television station asked Tom Brady to marry him that day. About 45 minutes into the Patriots availability I noticed there wasn’t anyone around Bill Belichick’s podium. So I wandered over and asked him a few questions. I would have had better luck pulling his molars out with a rusty wrench then getting the man to answer a question. He wanted nothing to do with media day and wasn’t shy letting you know that he wasn’t happy.

The weird thing was when the Giants came out to speak to the media half of the reporters had left. It was almost as if nobody cared to speak with the Giants. Nobody but me that is! I got a weird feeling after talking to the Giants on Thursday that they were going to make a game of it and it wasn’t going to be the blow-out everyone predicted.

Now I had no idea that the Giants would actually win the game. I just couldn’t shake the gut feeling the Giants were going to give the Patriots a run for their money.

Later that night I ended up at the excellent Fox Sports grill in Scottsdale with a number of my colleagues. As I got out of the car a group of guys yelled out “Hey Langer!” It turns out a bunch of guys from Saskatoon were in town to play some golf and watch the game.

Just before the end the game I was in the bowels of the stadium with a huge contingent of reporters from New York and Boston. When the Patriots scored to take the lead the Boston reporters let out a cheer. When Eli Manning threw the game winning touchdown and the Giants had pulled off the miracle upset the New York reporters went a little crazy.

The post-game media scrum on the field after the game was the most insane thing I have ever been a part of as a reporter. At one point I had to elbow Ed Werder from ESPN out of the way so I could talk to Giants receiver Steve Smith. Later on I almost got slew footed by a reporter from WFAN in New York who was trying to get to Michael Strahan.

My greatest memories of this week will be seeing Cheap Trick in concert, the calm, cool demeanor of Eli Manning and the ferocious Giants pass rush.

While much is made of the miracle catch made by David Tyree the Giants would not even have been in a position to win the game if it wasn’t for Strahan and their defensive line. The Giants sacked Tom Brady five times that night and made a point to hit the Patriots quarterback every chance they got.

Tampa Bay – Super Bowl XLIII (43)
The Steelers beat the Cardinals

I hate to admit this. But covering a Super Bowl in Tampa in early February doesn’t suck. Especially when your wife and kids call and leave a voice mail complaining about how cold it is back home and how they have to shovel snow every day.

I tried telling my wife I was only a working man trying to feed the family. That didn’t go over very well.

From the moment the U.S. Navy Blue Angels F-18’s went screaming overhead the stadium at the end of the National Anthem there was something special about this game.

More than anything this was a game that will be long remembered for three big plays.

James Harrison returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown. Larry Fitzgerald had the stadium rocking with an incredible 64 yard touchdown reception. And finally Santonio Holmes made a nearly impossible catch for the game-winning touchdown.

The Steelers tried everything possible to stop Fitzgerald and the Cardinals receiver still ended up catching seven passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns.

Beyond the weather a number of things will always stay with me from that week. Both Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner were first class professionals and a pleasure to deal with all week. In fact, both teams made it easy to get my work done. Of all of the Steelers I spoke to that week my two favourite were defensive end Aaron Smith and offensive lineman Max Starks. Both men were completely unpretentious, humble and could not have been happier than to just sit and talk football with me.

Much like the Giants did in Super Bowl 42, the Steelers won the game in dramatic fashion at the end of the fourth quarter. That just added to the gong show on the field after the game.

Amid the pandemonium of the post-game celebrations I caught up with Steelers punter and Vancouver native, Mitch Berger. Berger started yelling about how he was going back home to Vancouver with the Vince Lombardi trophy and get drunk in his pub. After toiling in the NFL for 15 years who can blame the guy for wanting to party a little bit after winning the Super Bowl?

South Florida – Super Bowl XLIV (44)
The Saints beat the Colts. 

Now I have seen some crazy football fans in my travels but Saints fans rank right near the top. Better known as the “Who Dat Nation” it seemed as if half of the State of Louisiana had invaded South Florida.

All you had to do was yell out “Who Dat” and dozens of Saints fans would start yelling “Who Dat” in response. So many Saints fans had descended upon South Florida that no matter where you went, they were there.

But when you consider New Orleans was nearly wiped off of the face of the earth because of Hurricane Katrina you couldn’t blame these long suffering fans for making sure they enjoyed every moment of Super Bowl week.

For decades the Saints were thought of as such a joke around the NFL that everyone called them the “Aints” and the thought that they would ever be good enough to make the Super Bowl was pure fiction.

Well Sean Payton and Drew Brees changed all of that when they arrived in New Orleans. By the end of the week you could see it in the eyes of the Saints players. They would have rather died on that field than lose that game. On game day Brees was spectacular, completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns.

This was far and away the most emotional post-game celebration I have ever witnessed in sports. A lot of tears were shed by fans, coaches and some players afterwards. The Saints had done it. They had beaten the mighty Peyton Manning and the Colts and were going to bring a Super Bowl back to New Orleans.

The day after the Super Bowl I started a vacation with my wife and kids in Orlando. We were the only car on the Florida Turnpike not with Louisiana plates. Every car with Louisiana plates was plastered with signs and slogans like “Who Dat”, “Geaux Saints” and “LaBreesiana” on every inch of the car. I am not joking. The only part of these cars that didn’t have some something on it celebrating the Saints Super Bowl win was the windshield.

Sports can mean different things to different people. But there is little doubt that after the Saints won that game those fans knew in their hearts that all the jokes about their team had finally stopped.

This was also the week that I was mistaken for Steve Young. I was shooting a segment with Jamie Dukes (Great guy, impeccable dresser) from the NFL Network. Just then I man walked by the set pointed at me then yelled out to his wife, “Hey Honey, that’s Steve Young!” I wasn’t sure what I should do. Jamie just looked at me told me to wave to the guy. So I did and by the look of it I made his day.

North Texas (Dallas) – Super Bowl XLV (45)
The Packers beat the Steelers. 

This was the week of the infamous ice storm in Dallas and the kerfuffle with the seats at Cowboys Stadium.

On Monday night I could hear the ice and freezing rain pelting the side of our hotel. When I joined Arash Madani and the rest of the crew in the lobby the next morning it was bad. But since we are Canadian it wasn’t like we hadn’t seen anything like that back home. Well the Dallas-Ft. Worth area was practically shut-down in the aftermath of the ice storm. Cabs refused to drive anywhere and the local cops told us Canadians to be careful driving to the stadium for media day because everybody is a “crazy driver”.

The police were not kidding. On the way to the stadium we witnessed pick-up trucks sliding sideways up the interstate. The fine people of Dallas-Ft. Worth did not have the slightest clue how to drive in icy and snowy weather.

On the Wednesday morning of that week I got on the first media bus (6:30AM) to make our way to the Packers team hotel. Since we had a full police escort we had no trouble getting there on time. I am a big fan of a police escort if you have to get anywhere on time.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful as both the Packers and the Steelers were a pleasure to deal with.

The day of the game was a different matter altogether.

It turns out the Fire Marshall denied Jerry Jones and the NFL the right to sell extra seats because of a code violation. The problem was the seats were already sold and the people had paid big money to sit in them.

Now Arash Madani and I were sitting in the auxiliary press box which was located on the second deck of the stadium up from the corner end zone. All of a sudden in the empty media seats around us were dozens of angry fans who were threatening to sue the NFL.

At the end of the second quarter Arash and I had heard so many sad stories from fans who had been ripped off in the seat debacle that we left our spot in the stadium and went down to the media work-room in the bowels of the stadium.

Don’t feel too bad for us; there was better food down in the media work-room.

Now I have been lucky enough to attend sporting events at some impressive facilities, but Cowboys Stadium beats them all. University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the Cardinals, is impressive, but it is no Cowboys Stadium. The high definition video screen that hangs high above the field is the clearest, most incredible thing I have ever seen. It doesn’t make sense that a video screen that large could have such a clear picture. A Fox NFL analyst once admitted to me that he got caught staring at the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders on that huge video screen and nearly missed a play.

One thing about Packers quarterback and the MVP of Super Bowl 45, Aaron Rodgers, he sure paid his dues to get to that moment in his career. He talked earlier in the week about how tough it was to bide his time and back up Brett Favre early in his career. While running the scout team Rodgers said he came up with the idea of the “Championship Belt” celebration. Anytime he made a good play in practice he would break out the “belt”. Sure enough as Rodgers was on the podium to receive the Vince Lombardi Trophy linebacker Clay Matthews draped a WWE Championship belt over Rodgers’ shoulders.

When I think of that week I will always remember the ice storm that descended upon the Dallas Metroplex. I will remember visiting Dealey Plaza. I will remember the good times I had with Arash, Mario, Rick and the rest of the crew we had down there. I will remember the respect that the Packers defenders had for Charles Woodson. But about all else I will remember the humility of Rodgers and how much winning that game meant to him.

(Follow Jim Lang on Twitter at @JimLangSports)