How break in routine nearly undid Wannstedt in Super Bowl originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Routine. It’s one of the most boring factors of success in football, but almost every single player, in every single press conference, mentions the importance of routine. You’ve heard the same questions ahead of every Super Bowl: “Are you approaching the Big Game any differently? Any special preparations?” And every Super Bowl you hear the same answers: “Nope. Just got to treat it like every other game on our schedule.
But the fact of the matter is, the Super Bowl is not just any other game. There’s pomp and circumstance, and nothing resembling a regular routine. In Dave Wannstedt’s case, that break nearly undid him in Super Bowl XXVII when he was the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.
“I had my perfect routine,” Wannstedt told NBC Sports Chicago. “I did the warm ups with the players, I went into the locker room, I got my gear, I shook hands, got up to the press box and got up there just in time to sit down and put my papers up— everything was to the minute— and kickoff, here we go. No wasted energy. And back then I was actually puffing on a cigarette, so I’d have a smoke.
But on Super Bowl Sunday, players and coaches work on other peoples’ schedules too.
“Well, I go through my warm up with the players, I go in the locker room, I shake hands, I go up there, I sit down, I’m all ready, I finish my smoke, and I’m sitting there, I’m ready for kickoff, and no one’s around,” Wannstedt said. “I said, ‘What’s going on here?’ And they said, ‘Coach, this is the Super Bowl. We have flyovers happening, we have Michael Jackson performing at halftime, we’ve got a lot of activities. We’re not going to kick off for another eight minutes.”
While eight minutes might not seem like much, in the extremely rigid world of football it can feel like an eternity.
“Honest to god, I’ve never been there that long, and now I’ve got nerves kick in,” Wannstedt said. “Now I start thinking that this is the Super Bowl… I was a nervous wreck making the first call. I was totally out of sync.”
Sure enough, the Dallas defense started the game by surrendering a 14-yard pass from Jim Kelly to Andre Reed.
“At that time I was the head coach of the Bears, and the defensive assistant head coach of the Dallas Cowboys,” Wannstedt said. “I had accepted the Bears job the week before. So now, I’m sitting in the press box, and I’m thinking, ‘What’s going to happen? I haven’t signed a contract?... What’s going to happen if we lose this game? They might not want me.’
“Fortunately we won 56-10 or something (it was really 52-17, but who’s counting?) so it was a good win. Everything worked out.”
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