From Darkness to Dynasty by Jerry Thornton

Author:Jerry Thornton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England

11

THE WRONG KIND OF SUPER BOWL RECORD

For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph, a tumultuous parade . . . A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.

GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON, Patton

The improbable, unfathomable Patriots run to the Super Bowl came for my friends and me during that blissfully responsibility-free time in our lives when you’re not living under your parents’ rule (even if in some cases still under their roofs) but are not yet domesticated by a woman. For most guys, it’s a narrow window, but the 1985 Patriots managed to hit it right in the sweet spot.

Details of that AFC Championship over the Dolphins are sketchy. But I have a pretty solid memory of a massive table by the television at the Weymouth (Massachusetts) Knights of Columbus covered with empty beer bottles. And a much more vague memory of crashing in my buddy Duke’s dorm room at Southeastern Mass University (now UMass Dartmouth) after a failed attempt to watch the Patriots plane land at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, just outside of Providence. But we will not speak of it here.

The point is, it was one of the great events in an immature young man’s life. Different people celebrated in different ways. Some went on pointless and stupid road trips; most were smart enough to go home. But the one thing the entire region did as one was get right to work on coming up with a goofy slogan. It’s how we rolled in the mid-1980s.

“BERRY THE BEARS”

The shameless boosterism that shook the region before the Miami game was only a minor tremor compared to what followed. The Yahoo Richter Scale was now measuring a 9.0 magnitude quake. In the span of three games, the Patriots had gone from merely relevant to surprising to shocking, and were now one win away from immortality. And the lameness of “Squish the Fish” was quickly replaced by the even more forced and cornball “Berry the Bears.”

In the normal course of things, the plucky underdogs who are riding a wave of improbability onto the white, sandy beaches of immortality would be the compelling story. They’d be the Cinderella everyone wants to see. America’s Sweethearts.

But not in this instance. Not even close.

Long before Super Bowl XX, the 1985 Bears had crossed over from the sports world and become a full-blown pop culture phenomenon. Even now, that team in that season is the standard by which all other teams are judged (“Team Blank’s defense has been OK, but let’s not make them out to be the ’85 Bears”), and you can’t overstate what a legitimately big deal they were that year. The whole roster had become household names. Walter Payton was already a running back legend. Jim McMahon was the pain-in-the-ass, outspoken, counter-culture rebel at quarterback. Defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan was more famous than half the head coaches in

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