This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The night before the biggest football game of his life, Steve Young dragged a mattress down a hotel hallway so he could join his usual road roommate.
The former BYU quarterback is a great storyteller, and he detailed that episode in "Super Bowl Gold: 50 Years of the Big Game."
The production of Time Inc. Books thoroughly chronicles each of the first 49 Super Bowls via a combination of Sports Illustrated's reprinted coverage, classic photos and details of every matchup. The unique element of the book is a first-person account of each game from a member of the winning and losing teams.
Young writes about his MVP performance for San Francisco against San Diego. Kevin Dyson, a receiver from Clearfield High School and the University of Utah, recounts the moment when he caught a pass and was tackled at the 1-yard line on the final play of Tennessee's loss to St. Louis.
Young likens winning the Super Bowl to conquering Mt. Everest, which is only a slight exaggeration, considering the circumstances of following Joe Montana as the 49ers' quarterback and trying to live up to the franchise's expectations in the mid-1990s. The background of the mattress story is that players were assigned their own hotel rooms for the Super Bowl, but Young wanted to keep his pregame routine the same by joining teammate Brent Jones, his roommate all season.
His other main insight involves how 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan was so convinced that Young would shred the Chargers' defense that he challenged him to throw eight touchdown passes. Young settled for six TDs, but might have gone for more if not for being taken out in the fourth quarter of the rout.
Every game gets full treatment, which is why this book should be valuable to fans of any Super Bowl contestant — particularly the winning teams. For someone like me in the media, Sports Illustrated always has been the gold standard of game coverage with its background reporting and high-level writing. Even so, it is remarkable to me how well these accounts hold up over the years.
The charts that cover the attendance, weather, point spread, TV audience, ticket price, national anthem performer, halftime act and statistical leader are also valuable.
The book's release was timed for the buildup to Super Bowl 50, so in one sense, it will be outdated after this weekend. But with more than 300 pages, 600 photos and phenomenal reporting, no one should feel cheated.
Twitter: @tribkurt