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It wasn't the greatest performance by the Cincinnati Bengals, playing Super Bowl XXIII at Joe Robbie Stadium. Starting quarterback Boomer Esiason, having completed only 11 of 25 passes, was sacked five times. Cris Collinsworth was the leading receiver with only 40 yards receiving and the game's lone interception was Bill Romanowski's third quarter pick that led to a field goal and a 6-6 tie with less than a minute before the fourth quarter.
That's when running back Stanford Jennings settled under the ensuing kickoff at the Bengals seven-yard line.
Jennings didn't do anything complicated. See hole. Hit hole. Sprint forward into the endzone. The Bengals took a 13-6 lead entering the fourth quarter.
"I had just moved to New Jersey after graduating from college and was living in a rented house in Livingston with three other characters straight out of a sitcom," recalls Dave who predictably goes by the name BeerRun. "The most normal guy was another Midwest transplant, a dude from Minnesota named Thor. Seriously: Thor. He was engaged and spending Super Bowl Sunday at her place, so since all I had was a little portable black and white TV (and I had to walk two miles in the snow, uphill, both ways, to change the channel), he let me hang out in his room for the game.
"Thor's room, you see, had two things: a giant water bed and a giant-screen TV. You know, one of those pre-flat screen mothers with a CRT the size of a truck cab. There was only about six inches of space between the foot of the bed and the screen, and I'm sitting there with my nose pressed to the screen because have you ever tried to watch TV on a waterbed? Not what they are made for. I can't tell you much about the first half because it was incredibly dull but the Jennings, whose wife had just delivered, got the ball and gave the newest Jennings a great birthday gift. And I was jumping up and down in those six inches as he ran down the field screaming RUN YOU BEAUTIFUL MAN RUN. And it was great, it was awesome, then they lost and it sucked."