Super Bowl pregame scandals

MCGEE MISSES CURFEW
Super Bowl I
Max McGee only caught four passes all season for Green Bay, and as a result he didn’t think he would play in the Super Bowl (then called the AFL-NFL World Championship). So, he partied all night, missed curfew and forgot his helmet before the game. But after Boyd Dowler separated his shoulder, McGee borrowed a lineman’s helmet and caught seven passes for 138 yards and two TDs (including the first touchdown in Super Bowl history) in the Packers’ 35-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. |

HENDERSON VS. BRADSHAW
Super Bowl XIII
Cowboys linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson caused a stir in the week leading up to the game when he took a shot at Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw. Henderson, who had predicted before the NFC Championship Game that the Cowboys would shut out the “no class” Rams, said “Bradshaw couldn’t spell ‘cat’ if you spotted him the ‘c’ and the ‘t’.” Bradshaw took the high road and didn’t fire back in the media, instead throwing four touchdown passes and earning Super Bowl MVP honors in the Steelers’ 35-31 win. |

MCMAHON’S MOON
Super Bowl XX
Jim McMahon was known for his crazy antics and wild personality, and what he did during Super Bowl week was no exception. With a news helicopter hovering over a closed practice, the Chicago Bears quarterback did what only he could do: he mooned it. |

WILSON’S RELAPSE
Super Bowl XXIII
The Cincinnati Bengals were about to hold their final team meeting the night before the Super Bowl when fullback Stanley Wilson said that he needed to go back upstairs to his room and get his playbook. He was found in his bathroom 20 minutes later, high on cocaine. He had been suspended twice and hospitalized four times in 11 months for using cocaine. He did not play in the game, and the Bengals would lose to the San Francisco 49ers, 20-16. Wilson would be banned from the NFL for life for his third cocaine-related offense. |

FAVRE CAUGHT PARTYING?
Super Bowl XXXI
Brett Favre was reportedly spotted on Bourbon Street with a beer in hand the night before the game – which was odd, given that he had detailed his addiction to painkillers and alcohol before the season. To make matters more interesting, he was seen dry-heaving on the field before kickoff, though the team said it was just a case of the flu. Favre would go on to throw two touchdown passes and run for another score in the Packers’ 35-21 win over the New England Patriots. |

EUGENE ROBINSON ARRESTED
Super Bowl XXXIII
Atlanta Falcons safety Eugene Robinson had received the Bart Starr Award for “high moral character” the day before the Super Bowl. That night, he was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute. He played in the game but was very ineffective as the Denver Broncos won, 34-19. |

ROBBINS GOES MISSING
Super Bowl XXXVII
Barret Robbins was a Pro Bowl center and first team All-Pro for the Oakland Raiders in 2002, but on the day before the Super Bowl he disappeared from the team’s hotel and was reported missing. Four anonymous teammates told the San Francisco Chronicle that Robbins was in Tijuana, Mexico. Robbins spent the Super Bowl in a San Diego hospital, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers routed the Raiders. Robbins would later say that he had been dealing with mental and physical health issues leading up to the game. |

LEWIS QUESTIONED IN MURDER
Super Bowl XXXIV
Ray Lewis wasn’t playing in Super Bowl XXXIV, but the night before the game he and several friends got into a fight with another group of people following a party in Atlanta, resulting in the stabbing deaths of Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker. Lewis and two others were indicted for murder and aggravated assault 11 days later. He eventually pleaded down to obstruction of justice in exchange for his testimony against the other two defendants. |

TANK GETS APPROVAL TO PLAY
Super Bowl XLI
Tank Johnson, a defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears, was arrested in December 2006 on gun possession charges, his third brush with the law in 18 months. A judge placed him under home confinement, meaning he was not allowed to leave Illinois. Three days after the NFC Championship Game, Johnson asked for approval from the courts to leave the state to play in the Super Bowl, and ultimately was allowed to play. He recorded four tackles and a half-sack in the Bears’ 29-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. |

SPYGATE TWIST
Super Bowl XLII
The initial videotaping allegations against the Patriots were made on Sept. 10, but the saga took an interesting turn in the week leading up to the Super Bowl when former video assistant Matt Walsh told the media that he had information on the scandal but wanted legal protection before meeting with the NFL. In addition, the Boston Herald reported the day before the game that the Patriots had videotaped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough before Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002. The Patriots denied the Herald report, and the paper eventually retracted its story. |