It’s Sunday, one week before Super Bowl LX.
The players arrive today at San Francisco International Airport on their team charter flights. The pilots routinely display the team flag out of the cockpit window in a salute to their passengers. The players check into their hotels and the tension for the upcoming game builds.
On Sunday, players, coaches and staff will look at the clock as 3:30 p.m. approaches and will think that in just one week at this hour they will be taking the field to play in the biggest game of their life.
Between now and next week’s game, there will be lots of distractions. Some caused by league activities they are required to attend, others of a more personal nature.
There have been a number of incidents in past Super Bowls where players took a wrong turn in their game preparation. In the very first Super Bowl, before it was even known as a Super Bowl, Max Magee of the Green Bay Packers spent the night before the American and National Football League Championship Game out drinking with little regard for the curfew Vince Lombardi had imposed.
McGee, who along with teammate Paul Hornung, was a world class athlete off the field in activities better not advertised. McGee didn’t wander back into his hotel until the morning sun on January 15, 1967, had already lit up the eastern sky. He was hungover when he went through his morning drills at the Los Angeles Coliseum and implored starting receiver Boyd Dowler not to get hurt and force him to play.