|
| | Wednesday, January 24
Parker and Cross remember Super Bowl XXV
By Greg Garber
ESPN.com
TAMPA, Fla. -- Scott Norwood sells insurance in suburban Virginia. Lawrence
Taylor is in the Hall of Fame, while Jim Kelly still waits for an invitation
to Canton. Bill Parcells is out of football entirely.
They were all part of Super Bowl XXV, 10 years ago in, of all places,
Tampa. A decade is an eternity in terms of football years, but there are two
survivors here at Super Bowl XXXV who played in that glorious game:
offensive guard Glenn Parker and tight end Howard Cross, both wearing Giants' blue.
|  | | Glenn Parker is trying to avoid going 0-5 in the Super Bowl. |
"It was a long time ago," said Cross, now in his 12th season. "The
country was at war. I think about the security around, guys in army
fatigues walking around with M-16s, being frisked going into the stadium,
Whitney Houston singing the national anthem. It was hard to think about the
game with all that going on."
Cross, then in only his second season, caught four passes for 39 yards (and
three vital first downs) as the Giants scraped past the Buffalo Bills,
20-19. Norwood's 47-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right with seconds
left, giving the Giants their second Super Bowl title in five seasons.
Parker, a rookie offensive lineman for the Bills, was on the field when
Norwood's kick missed. He was playing right end for the kicking team.
"Our main thing was not to jump offsides," Parker said. "It was: your
head ready, watch that ball, get ready to go and just protect. Then after it
was kicked, it was 'hook, hook, hook.'
"Scott's kicks always hooked. A bitter pill. I can't talk about them. I
remember real well. I remember vividly. I'm still not over it. Every time I
see it on film, it upsets me."
In retrospect, that single-point loss was as close as Parker and the
Bills got to winning the Super Bowl. Buffalo reached four straight Super
Bowls, but later fell to Washington and Dallas (twice) by greater margins.
"It's interesting," said Parker, now 34. "When you're really young, in
those first one or two years, you think this is pretty easy. You get old
pretty quick and realize it and start appreciating it. In the last seven
years, I really haven't got close. You battle every year and there's a lot
of changes in your life and you see guys go to that game and never get back.
"I feel badly for the rookies on our team right now, because they are
going to think it's easy. A few years from now they're going to wonder what
happened."
Parker has been wondering himself. For the record, he is 0-4 in Super
Bowl games. On Sunday, he will either join former Bills teammates Don Beebe
and Mike Lodish as the only Buffalo players to win Super Bowl rings with
other teams or -- and this is the depressing part -- he'll go to 0-5 in the
ultimate game, along with Gale Gilbert.
"You try to tell yourself you're happy to get in there, but you're
not," Parker said. "You've got to win it.
"I can tell you this: after all the trips down to Super Bowls, guys
talk about what fun it is. You know what? I honestly don't remember any of
the bars or the parties that I went to, but I remember four losses."
Psychic baggage aside, Parker is happy to be here. After seven seasons
in Buffalo he signed with Kansas City where he played three years. He might
have retired after the 1999 season if the Giants hadn't come calling. He
will start at left guard, between Lomas Brown and Dusty Zeigler, each in
his first season with the Giants.
On a team that features Kerry Collins throwing the ball to Ike Hilliard
and Amani Toomer and the Thunder & Lightning combination of Tiki Barber and
Ron Dayne, it is easy to overlook Cross. Fact is, he has played in 191 of a
possible 192 games since the Giants drafted him in the sixth round of the
1989 draft.
|
“ |
Our society places a premium on winning. Let's face it, from the time you are a kid growing up, second place is not good enough. It's not a bad thing. Losing does not define my life or career, but you want to win. That's what it's all about. ” |
|
|
— Glenn Parker |
Cross, 33, has always been a blocker first and a receiver second. He
caught only four passes this season, but the last happened to be the 200th
of his career, good for No. 16 on the Giants' all-time list. He started 11
games this season and split time with Pete Mitchell, who is a pass-catching
specialist.
"I'm not a big attention guy," Cross said, smiling. "This right here
is tough. The reason I'm doing press interviews is because you guys make me.
But it's just part of it, and I understand that you guys want to talk about
it and that it's the biggest game.
"Hey, they almost stopped the war to watch it."
Parker, perhaps because he doesn't have that Super Bowl ring, has more
of a sense of urgency.
"Our society places a premium on winning," Parker said. "Let's face
it, from the time you are a kid growing up, second place is not good enough.
It's not a bad thing. Losing does not define my life or career, but you want
to win. That's what it's all about.
And, if the Giants win, will it completely fill the void, will it ease
the terminal ache?
"No," Parker said, "because then I'll say, 'What could have
been?' "
Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
| |
