Former Stars Provide Different Perspectives on What It's Like to Never Win a Super Bowl
By Henry McKenna
During Super Bowl LIII media week, players and coaches of the past and present have arrived in Atlanta, generally to give their take on the outcome of the game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. The Patriots have 38 players with Super Bowl experience, with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick appearing in their ninth NFL championship.
It’s easy to lose sight of how hard it is to make the Super Bowl and how few players actually get a chance to play for a ring on Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, there are quite a few players and coaches in the media who finished their career without a Super Bowl appearance, including retired quarterback Tony Romo, who will be calling the game.
“I never got there, and it’s one of the biggest disappointments,” said Romo, who is the lead analyst at CBS. “I wasn’t able to do that. You leave your whole body and your heart into it and you try, and it’s something you have to live with.”
He was asked whether that might pose a challenge while calling the game.
“I guess we’ll find out,” Romo said.
These players have ended up watching a number of Super Bowls, rather than playing in them.
“There’s are a lot of ways I can answer that question that’ll make me sound like an asshole, so I’m probably not going to respond,” Steve Smith said. “I have a fine ass wife. I’ve got about $35 million in the bank, and I drive a Bentley and a Tesla. What the fuck do you think it’s like?”
He then asked me to leave immediately, while reminding me to tell his superiors how he “clowned” on me. Did I strike a nerve? After all, Smith’s Panthers lost, 32-29, to Belichick and Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
Receiver Nate Burleson, however, made a point of maximizing that viewing experience, even if he couldn’t play in the game.
“Every year, I’d get bounced out of the playoffs and I’d head home and I’d throw a party, catered with food, and I’d stock the place with drinks and I’d have friends, family and ballplayers from the team,” Burleson said. “And we’d watch the game like a fan. I didn’t fall into a depression. I didn’t think of the game as a football player. I tried to watch the game like I was a child, and that kept me from being bitter about it.”
But with hindsight, the Super Bowl seems to hold some meaning to him.
“If I had a chance to do something different in my career, would I have played for the Patriots? And the answer is a resounding, ‘Yes.’ No question. But then you have to sacrifice something,” Burleson said.
Indeed, New England tends to gouge veterans for shorter and smaller contracts. So as Burleson recounted the three contracts he signed over 11 years, he began bargaining against the past. He pondered the possibility of getting just two contracts and shortening his career to play for the Patriots.
“At 37, the answer is, ‘Yes.’ At 27, the answer was, ‘No.’ Two different individuals,” said Burleson, who played for the Lions, Seahawks and Vikings. “But sitting back, looking at the excellence of the New England Patriots, of course I wish that I was a part of that.”
The problem, of course, is that with hindsight, he knew he’d be getting a ring. Every Super Bowl appearance should be their last for a very long time. And yet, they continue to make these runs.
“For these guys to have nine Super Bowls together in these 18 years is ridiculous,” retired Lions and 49ers coach Steve Mariucci said. “They’re defying all odds.”
Mariucci’s perspective on the situation is unique and seemingly painful. As a head coach, Mariucci made four playoff runs with one NFC championship game appearance. Including his time as an assistant, he made three NFC championship appearances during his coaching tenure, but he never advanced to the Super Bowl.
“Kind of left at the altar three times,” Mariucci said. “I wasn’t at the Super Bowl, but you can see it from there, and you fall short. It’s very disappointing. Very disappointing. When you coach football, that’s what you think about and dream about, aspire to do. So falling short is kind of a bugger.”
It wasn’t all stories of agony and frustration.
A Super Bowl ring might be a career goal. It may be something players value. But as Smith noted, players can get so much more out of the game. Maurice Jones-Drew, a retired Jaguars running back, lended the obvious perspective: football is very lucrative profession.
“This is going to sound bad, but oh well. There’s a lot of people that made the Super Bowl that didn’t make a lot of money,” Jones-Drew said. “This is a job for a lot of people, and I was able to change my family’s life for a long time. Making the Super Bowl would have been the cherry on top. But to come where I came from to do the things I’ve done now, it’s all because of this game. So you know, granted, I’d like to have made the Super Bowl and have a ring and those types of things, but I’m happy.”
Ring and trophies are nice. Financial security — and significant wealth — can be liberating for a player and that player’s family. In Burleson’s case, he sounds willing to sacrifice some of that wealth for a championship experience and a Lombardi Trophy. In the case of other players, they seem content with what they accomplished as members of teams and as individuals.
“It’s kind of one of those things where you don’t know the feeling because you’ve never had it,” LaDainian Tomlinson said. “And so it’s hard to miss something you’ve never experienced, and so I don’t even know what that feeling is like. And so at the end of the day, I always say there are championship moments in everyone’s career that you have. It’s not necessarily winning a Super Bowl. It might be winning the division championship or winning a huge record the becomes a championship moment for your team and for the fans and all that stuff. I have plenty of championship moments. Now, I can imagine what the Super Bowl would feel like because of those championship moments. But to experience the pinnacle of winning a championship, I never got the experience so I can’t really say I miss it.”