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Coaches go through the same kind of preparation and routine as the players. They carry a similar burden, and experience the same kind of exhilaration or dejection.
Yet, Proehl can find some positive out of not winning that final game on the schedule.
Carolina's Michael Oher and Ed Dickson earned rings with Baltimore, Roman Harper with New Orleans.
"You are on top of the world,cheap jerseys nfl wholesale, on top of your profession," said the former receiver who played for six teams in a 17-year career,wholesale jerseys china, the first nine of which he didn't reach the postseason.
"We got beat by a hot team and a better team that night,NFL Jerseys Authentic Cheap," he said of the 43-8 whipping Seattle put on Denver two years ago. "It was disappointing. It was a tough pill to swallow."
Antonio Smith, a 12-year veteran, has reached his second title game. He was with Arizona when it lost to Pittsburgh in the final minute in 2009.
"Every time I look at the NFC championship ring, that's what I think: I left that field a loser," Smith said Wednesday morning just before learning his father had passed away after recently undergoing heart surgery. "So I have been focusing in on what I need to do here for me to walk off with a better result.
"Yeah, man," Sanders added,Cheap NFL Jerseys Supply, the smile disappearing from his face. "Does it ever hurt."
"You start out with a common goal and you're going with guys to attain a dream,China Cheap Jerseys, and then you are hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Everyone in this league should be able to feel that feeling with their teammates."
Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders joined the Steelers two years after that thrilling victory. Against Green Bay in 2011, he felt the sting of defeat as a rookie.
Proehl sees little to no difference in working the sideline or being in the coaches' box as opposed to performing on the field in the championship game.
"You know, it takes a special group, and not just guys with talent," he said. "It takes a selflessness. Every Super Bowl team I have been a part of has had that.
Suffer?
"I love this game of football, I love putting it on the line every week. But in the end, you're doing it to have the opportunity to be called champion."
Proehl has relayed those sentiments to some Panthers, emphasizing just how good the opposite feelings are.
"I've been here and I have a loss," said Sanders, who has become one of Manning's go-to guys. "I can't suffer that again?"
"It's such a blessing to play in this game," he said. "I would rather be in it and lose than never get there."
The defensive end, in his first season with Denver, has a memento from that season that reminds him why he strives each day to go one step beyond.
But only four players who will suit up Sunday have had that joy, just one current Bronco: Peyton Manning with the Colts.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The pain of losing a Super Bowl never really disappears. It drives players who have experienced it to get back and get it right.
"And then they rush you off like it's a cattle drive so they can set up a stage for the winning team. You sometimes don't even get a chance to congratulate the winners.
"Anger, disbelief, shock," Proehl said Wednesday of his reactions to walking off the field a Super Bowl loser.
"It's painful."
And there's no way of ever easing the hurt unless you return to the Super Bowl and pull off the victory.
"You want it for them."
Asked how he thought the Buffalo Bills of the 1990s must have felt when they fell four straight times in the Super Bowl, Sanders simply shook his head.
Ricky Proehl has been to four Super Bowls as a player, going 2-2. He won and lost with the Rams, lost with the Panthers, and got the second ring in his final NFL season, 2006 with Indianapolis.
Five seasons later, as Sanders has developed into a top receiver, he still shudders when thinking about coming up short.
And the guys who have fallen short, including Manning, have used that letdown as motivation.
It's a pill still stuck in the craw of Super Bowl losers. And it doesn't matter if the result was lopsided or down to the wire.
He's at the big game again as Carolina's wide receivers coach, buoyed by memories of earning those rings, haunted by remembrances of the two failures. |
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