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(Tim Hubbard / photo illustration; Associated Press photos)
The conversation occurred in the immediate aftermath of Super Bowl XXVII, when Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman was riding with his agent from the Rose Bowl back to the team hotel in Santa Monica.
“Do you know what just happened?” Leigh Steinberg asked his exhausted client.
“Yeah,” Aikman said, “we just won the game.”
“No,” the agent corrected him. “When you entered the game you were Troy Aikman, very good quarterback. You left the game as Troy Aikman, superstar, name in lights.”
There have been 57 Super Bowls and 34 starting quarterbacks who presided over winning teams. They are members of the most exclusive club in sports.
Buccaneers’ quarterback Brad Johnson waves a team flag to the crowd during a Super Bowl victory parade in 2003. (Peter Muhly / Getty Images)
“It’s talked about from middle school to high school to college, all the recruiting, how to evaluate the position,” said Brad Johnson, who won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in 2002. “And it’s the ultimate prize to lead your team to win the ultimate championship. If you’ve hoisted that trophy, it’s a dream come true. It’s a wow. It’s not a vote. It’s not a political thing. It’s won, and it’s earned.”
Next Sunday night, when the Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers, one starting quarterback will be standing on the Allegiant Stadium dais in Las Vegas amid a blizzard of confetti.
If it’s Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, it will be his third Super Bowl victory. San Francisco’s Brock Purdy is going for his first, and the 49ers’ first Lombardi Trophy since the 1994-95 season.
“The old saying is possession is nine-tenths of the law; I learned that in law school,” said Steve Young, the last San Francisco quarterback to win it all. “Only in this case, it’s `perception’ not possession. The perception is that Super Bowls define careers, and they do.”
Steve Young (8) celebrates the 49ers’…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/57-super-bowls-changed-lives-120004011.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-02-04 12:00:04
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