Ex-Steelers lineman Max Starks, a former UF and Lake Highland Prep standout, has his own Super Bowl connection.
Ex-NFL players Ross Browner and son Max Starks share Super Bowl bond
He’d dreamed about that moment. Defensive players always do. Some big play, taking down a top player.
And sacking Joe Montana in Super Bowl XVI couldn’t get much bigger.
The Cincinnati Bengals were in the midst of a grand comeback. They’d trailed Montana’s San Francisco 49ers 20-0 at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., on Jan. 24, 1982, and ended up losing 26-21. More than 85 million people were watching.
Ross Browner had no idea his sack would be the only one of the game for his team.
He also couldn’t have imagined 24 years later, his phone would ring with his son, Max Starks IV, on the other line, calling from the field where it all happened while practicing with the Pittsburgh Steelers for Super Bowl XL.
“It’s going to be a tremendous day for you,” Browner said to him.
It was. The Steelers won at Ford Field, about 30 miles from their Silverdome practice facility. Browner, who had missed so many moments in his son’s life, was there to see it.
They won’t be together for Super Bowl 50, though, when the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos suit up at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., at 6:30 tonight.
Browner will be home in Nashville, Tenn., probably analyzing formations and trying to keep his adrenaline under control as he reclines in his theater room and watches on his 70-inch Sony.
Starks, an Orlando native, will watch from his mother-in-law’s home in Ohio, where he and his two young daughters are supporting his wife after the death of her grandfather.
Both predict the Panthers will take home the title.
“I’d hear all the stories, ‘Ya, you guys are making a lot more money than we did. The swag you get is a lot different. My Pony contract wasn’t as cool as your Nike contact,’ ” Starks said, recounting his father’s tales with amusement. “But it’s still the same feeling. You get to your sport’s pinnacle, and you get to stick your flag at the top of that summit. It’s pretty cool.”
Starks, a University of Florida and Lake Highland Prep alum, now lives near Scottsdale, Ariz. He played 10 years as an offensive tackle in the NFL and went to three Super Bowls.
After that first one in Detroit, the Steelers won again in 2009, beating the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in front of Starks’ family and friends in Tampa. He also played a role in Super Bowl XLV, helping coach tackles while on injured reserve. Pittsburgh lost to the Green Bay Packers 31-25 in February 2011 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“When you see someone of Max’s stature, 6-8, 345 pounds in 10th grade, you could see there was potential there for him to become a professional,” Lake Highland athletic director Frank Prendergast said. “He had the essentials. He was given size and talent, and had the character to develop those talents.
“It’s very rewarding to see one of your students become successful, reach their potential, realize a dream. After he accomplished those things, it was hard to imagine how he played in high school. You think back to him being a 16-year-old, very large young man and almost feeling sorry for the kids who had to play against him, because he didn’t really change all that much in size. He was a formidable young man.”
Starks, 34, can remember in vivid detail every step of his football career, from when a coach at Jones High, where Starks attended his freshman year, approached him in the hall and asked whether he would play football because it would “be a shame to waste all that size,” and then pitched the idea to his mother, Elleanor, in their living room after she said no.
Basketball had been his thing. He grew up with the Orlando Magic and was always the biggest kid in his class. He wanted to be Shaq so bad, but it didn’t take long to see that football was his future.
Starks was raised by his mother and Max Starks III, his dad, but never knew who his biological father was. When recruiting letters began pouring in, some for basketball but mostly for football, Elleanor thought Browner could help with the process, and the two met for the first time. Starks was 17 years old.
“He said, ‘I don’t want to come in and make up for 17 years. I can be an adviser and mentor and friend to you whenever you need it. I’ve been through most of the things you’ve been through. I’ve handled them great or terrible, but I will always have advice for you,’ ” Starks said of his father. “That was pretty remarkable.’’
The relationship took time to develop, but each year, the two grew closer.
The Browner family is one of the most established in football. Browner, 61, and five of his brothers played NCAA Division I football. Four of them made it to the NFL.
Browner was one of the most decorated defensive ends in college-football history at Notre Dame, where he played with Montana in the 1970s and won two national championships (1973, 1977). He won the Lombardi Award and the Maxwell Award, given to the nation’s best player, in1977, and finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting as a senior.
He became a first-round pick by the Bengals in the 1978 draft and spent 10 years in the NFL, including one season with the Packers in 1987 before retiring.
“To get to the Super Bowl is so hard,” said Ron Zook, the Packers’ current special teams coordinator and former head coach at Florida when Starks played there. “All these guys dream it, but they don’t all do it. So many things have to happen. It’s incredibly hard. The fact that you have a father-son combination? It’s such an incredible feat.”
Starks remembers watching Super Bowl XXX between the Cowboys and Steelers when he was in eighth grade. He went outside to shoot hoops at halftime and thought, “Man, I’m going to be there one day.”
“As a kid, you try and imagine that one day, you’ll be somewhere special,” Starks said. “I really didn’t believe that I was going to the Super Bowl, ever.”
Or more than one. Super Bowl XLIII was Starks’ favorite. Not only was he playing close to his hometown, but he was starting at left tackle, a position he didn’t think he could play in the NFL, because a teammate was injured. He also was engaged to his wife, Tiffany, and they married later that year.
“To have her come down and really get to meet family and friends before the wedding, and a lot of them get to pitch why they deserve a +1 was pretty funny to watch,” Starks said.
Once on the field, hearing the national anthem by Jennifer Hudson, Starks’ mind wandered. He kept thinking, “Don’t mess up. Don’t be the reason your team doesn’t win.”
“In those moments before the contact happens, all the inadequacies and anxiety you have, they creep into your mind, big time,” Starks said. “But once the ball is kicked and the game starts, you see all the lights flashing for the Super Bowl, all that goes away. It kicks back in that this is a game. I’ve done this 19 times prior.
“All the hype, all the chatter goes silent when you go on that field. You have a job to do. It’s to win that game, win your individual battle, team battle and win the game.”
That last part didn’t happen for Browner, and it’s all Montana’s fault. The two are still close friends, and he tells him all the time, “Ya know, anyone else. I would have won a Super Bowl if it wasn’t you.”
“All the hype, all the chatter goes silent when you go on that field. You have a job to do.’’
Max Starks, who played in three Super Bowls