By JOEY JOHNSTON

The Tampa Tribune

(c) Tampa Bay Times. Originally published Jan. 26, 2003.

SAN DIEGO – This is the day.

Finally, it’s almost time for Super Bowl XXXVII. For the Bucs and Oakland Raiders, kickoff is just hours away.

But here’s the tricky part. Veterans of past games will tell you the day actually began on Saturday night after the final team meeting. In the solitude of a hotel room. Where there are no reporters or fans or family members.

Where strangely, for the first time all week, there is quiet.

Where the clock seems to slow down.

It is the longest day.

“When did I wake up that morning?” former Raiders coach John Madden said. “I’m trying to remember if I even slept.”

“Before my first Super Bowl game, I remember sitting in my room, turning to my roommate, Billy Thompson, and saying, ‘This time tomorrow, we’ll be world champions,’ ” former Broncos linebacker Tom Jackson said. “That’s the last thing on your mind before you turn out the lights and your eyes shut. “I’m going to be a world champion player.’ “

Sometimes, there is restlessness. But there is also the peace that comes with preparation and confidence.

Finally, you wake up.

And you’re faced with a new problem.

“You realize there’s still a long time to go,” Giants defensive end Michael Strahan said.

“For me, it was like Christmas morning,” former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin said. “Some kids can’t go to sleep. Other kids, like myself, go to sleep really early so tomorrow will hurry up and get here. It’s kind of idiotic. But that’s how you think. Then you wake up and it hits you. ‘It’s here. It’s really here. Oh my God.’ “

Just Another Game?

This is what’s ahead for the Bucs and Raiders. Another game. But a game unlike any other.

“I am emotional, though I have tried to cool it a little bit,” Bucs coach Jon Gruden said. “This game is going to be a very emotional one for me for obvious reasons. It’s a big game. But it’s a game.”

Or is it?

“You wake up and the thought immediately hits you: In a few hours, my life will change,” former 49ers quarterback Steve Young said. “One way or the other, it’s going to change. It’s like you’re trapped in this circumstance and there’s no way out. It won’t be the same and you realize that.”

“I walk down the street and somebody yells out, ‘Hey, what about 65 toss power trap?’ ” former Chiefs coach Hank Stram said. “Somebody else yells out, ‘Just keep matriculating that ball down the field.’ Now remember, I coached a few hundred games in my day. That was one afternoon in my life. But they kept showing that damn highlight tape. I play along with everybody. It’s amazing how many people have seen it. This game is not an ordinary game. Believe me.”

These are your thoughts. The trophy. The ring. The legacy. Maybe you’ll think about the other side, just briefly.

“Losing felt like somebody had kicked me in the stomach,” said Bucs offensive tackle Lomas Brown, who played for the runner-up Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. “This is it. Next year will be different. The team will change. You may never have this chance again. You just don’t want to lose. It’s hard for me to imagine those guys in Buffalo.”

“I had lost an AFC Championship Game earlier in my career and I must have replayed every play of that in my head,” former Ravens defensive lineman Tony Siragusa said. “How could I have changed the outcome? It drives you crazy. In Tampa [at Super Bowl XXXV], I felt like a caged animal. I had one of the cops drive me to the stadium. It was six hours before kickoff. I was the first one there. But that calmed me down. This was new to me, the Super Bowl.”

Nothing Like First Time

For most Bucs, this is the first time.

“The week is an assault on your senses,” former 49ers and Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders said. “Everybody you know wants tickets. You’re in a different city. You’d love to go out and join all the festivities, but you can’t. It’s like Sunday is crawling toward you like a turtle. You just want to scream.”

“It’s like trying to describe love,” Irvin said. “It’s up, it’s down, it’s everywhere. You’re feeling things you’ve never felt before. You’re excited, but you’re nervous. You’re confident, but you’re scared. You want to take a nap, but you’re scared you’ll miss a meeting or miss the bus. The second time was easier.”

Former Dolphins running back Larry Csonka agrees with that. In his first Super Bowl, against the Cowboys, Csonka fumbled for the first time all season and Miami lost 24-3.

“We weren’t ready,” Csonka said. “We hadn’t been through it before. It’s like putting on a new pair of shoes that don’t feel quite right just yet. Sometimes half the game is gone before you get a handle on things.”

Not ready to play? Is that possible? Jackson felt the same way about his Broncos in Super Bowl XII. Denver committed eight turnovers. Csonka said he wonders if the less-experienced Bucs might have big-game jitters.

“I’m going to look at my teammates in the pregame,” Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks said. “I can look at the majority of them and see who’s ready to go. You see it in their eyes, their posture, their conversation. If they don’t look ready, I’m saying something to them. This is too important.”

Then there’s no time for words.

There’s a walk through the tunnel. The pregame introductions. The enormous swell of emotion, color and noise.

“It hits you at ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ I believe,” Strahan said. “There’s a flyover. The people are going crazy. You think back to all those years in front of the TV and say, ‘Wow, now I know what it’s really like.’ “

“Simply put,” Sanders said, “you’re about to walk on the biggest stage of your life. And it’s forever.”

If you win, certainly. If you lose, too. Maybe your team won’t be remembered. But you’ll never forget the disappointment.

“As bad as Philadelphia and Tennessee felt last week, somebody is about to feel a whole lot worse,” Jackson said. “Whoever loses this game will be absolutely devastated. Just getting here is never enough. Never. For those three or four hours, you’ve got to be at your absolute best.”

Kickoff is just hours away.

“I’m in new ground, uncharted waters,” Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. “You’ll have butterflies until the first hit.”

“You’ve got to realize the enormity of what we’re trying to do here,” Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said. “You can’t not think about that.”

Tampa Bay’s longest day is under way.