Come Saturday night, the Minnesota twilight will shut the door on another Super Bowl Week hype-fest. Talks about dog masks and Bill Belichick's tickle spots will soon subside. Sunday morning people will wake up to football — and only football.
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Most of the time.
Every now and again a headline comes across the bows of our collective morning cereal the deserves a double take. Those times when players get themselves into a certain kind of mess only conceivable during Super Bowl Week. Sometimes the story is told instantaneously. Other times we have to wait decades before the truth finally seeps out.
These are the most infamous night before the Super Bowl.
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5. Max McGee + 2 Flight Attendants = MVP-Caliber Game
Some version of this story has been told in the over five decades since it happened. Max McGee was a washed-up wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, who rarely ever played. In those days, wide receivers rarely caught balls so it was a combination of probabilities that led McGee to spend the night before the Super Bowl partying with two flight attendants rather than get a good night's rest.
McGee reportedly didn't return back to the team hotel until well after the sunrise, even passing starting quarterback Bart Starr in the lobby. He started the game on the bench, as one might expect. That was until starting wideout Boyd Dowler injured his shoulder in the game's opening minutes.
McGee entered the huddle smelling like a dive bar linoleum floor and proceeded to catch 7 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. It's a wonder he didn't win Super Bowl MVP, or throw up.
He rose to the occasion and delivered one of the greatest performances by a wide receiver in Super Bowl history. Had he not, though, his name would have been used as a classic cautionary tale. Instead, it's just a great story.
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4. Jim McMahon + Brett Favre + NOLA = Chaos
While Jim McMahon and Brett Favre were on the same Green Bay team that beat New England in Super Bowl XXXI, these stories are separate, but their fates the same.
In 1986, long before Twitter, Instagram and smartphones, Jim McMahon made New Orleans his own personal playground. Chicago head coach Mike Ditka gave no curfew to the Bears team and things spiraled out of control for McMahon quickly. Each day McMahon flirted with disaster, from partying with Bob Hope to "mooning" a helicopter to being falsely accused of demeaning the entire city of New Orleans, calling all women "sluts" and men "idiots."
For McMahon and the Bears, luckily the week leading up was of more interest than the game itself. The Bears overwhelmed the Patriots for a Super Bowl win.
There's no telling whether or not McMahon encouraged Favre to have his own Bourbon street moment 10 years later. Favre who has confessed to battling addiction for most of his career made the most of the New Orleans nightlife.
From Fox Sports:
So, more than a few eyebrows were raised during Super Bowl week when the Packers QB was allegedly seen partying with beer in hand on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Favre and the team downplayed the sightings, but more mumbles were heard when Favre reportedly got dry heaves before kickoff on game day.
Favre, just like McMahon, came out victorious.
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3. Barret Robbins + Mexico = AWOL
Sometimes playing a Super Bowl in Southern California can have its disadvantages. Barrett Robbins disappeared from the team hotel the Friday before the Super Bowl, returning more than 24 hours after an alcohol-fueled trip to Mexico. The Pro Bowl center was banned from the team and removed from the Super Bowl roster.
That Sunday, the Raiders were walloped 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Robbins has been in and out of rehabilitation facilities since being released by the Raiders in 2003. He also has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement.
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2. Stanley Wilson + Cocaine = Banned From The NFL
Stanley Wilson was the third-string running back on the 1988 AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals, but was considered an important piece of their offense. He also had issues with drug use in his past. Wilson had already failed two drug tests when he missed a pre-Super Bowl meeting. He was found in his hotel bathroom in the middle of a crack-cocaine binge. Wilson was kicked off the team immediately and because it was his third strike, was banned from the NFL.
He tried to kick his cocaine habit with multiple rehab attempts. Nothing ever stuck. In 1999, Wilson was convicted of stealing $130,000 from a Beverly Hills property and sentenced to 22 years.
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1. Man of the Year + Woman of the Night = Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson was arrested the night before the Super Bowl on a misdemeanor charge of soliciting sex from a prostitute. In an ironic twist of fate, that same night he received the 1999 Bart Starr Award from the religious group Athletes in Action. The award honors athletes of high moral character.
To make matters worse, Robinson was beaten like a drum in the Super Bowl, including getting lost on an 80-yard bomb in the game's opening moments.
Robinson would return the man of the year award, unfortunately, his place on this list is permanent.
