He may be one of the unlikeliest Super Bowl MVPs ever. He was a 12th-round draft pick way back in 1991. He was only starting for the Cowboys in the 1995 season because regular corner Kevin Smith was hurt. No matter. Larry Brown will forever be remembered by Cowboys fans as the man who sealed the deal on their last Super Bowl win.

It was January 28, 1996 in Tempe, Arizona. The Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelershad gathered for Super Bowl XXX. I was hosting a Super Bowl party at the time while living in Atlanta, Georgia. I was feeling so confident that the Cowboys would win their third Lombardi in four years that I deviated from my normal routine and allowed a large group of people to disturb my focused viewing of a Cowboys Super Bowl.

The Cowboys came out strong and were leading 13-0 in the first half, so my hosting duties we easy. Keep an eye on the game but mingle, make sure food and beverages were good… fun times.

Then things changed. The Steelers started to grab the momentum with a touchdown right before the half, and then were set up on their own 48-yard line in the third quarter. Things were getting serious now, I was no longer a free-spirit floating around my party. Fortunately, order was restored when Larry Brown got his first interception.

“We did a lot of blitzing in that game,” Brown said. “One thing Mike Zimmer, our defensive coordinator, said was, ‘Be where you’re supposed to be.’ A lot of times guys get into trouble because they get out of position. The first interception I was where I was supposed to be. Charles [Haley] had a good rush and barely hit O’Donnell’s hand, and it altered the path of the ball. So the first one was really a gift.”

He returned it to the Steeler 18-yard line and Emmitt Smith eventually punched it in for a 20-7 lead. But, the Steelers were not done. After a field goal cut the lead to 20-10, the Steelers stunned the Cowboys with a successful onside kick. They scored on that drive and it was now 20-17 and all the momentum was on Pittsburgh’s side.

Needless to say, I had dropped all pretense of hosting my party and was plopped on the floor about four feet in front of the television as 20 or so invited guests did whatever they were doing behind me.

The Steelers stopped the Cowboys on their next drive and forced a punt, and with 4:15 left in the game Pittsburgh was set up at their own 32-yard line ready to drive for the win. You could feel Dallas was back on their heels and that everything was slipping away. Then, on second down, a miracle happened.

The second [interception] is remembered as a bigger gift. Once again, the Cowboys blitzed, and O’Donnell expected a Steelers receiver to break off his route. Brown beat him to the spot and returned the pick 33 yards to set up a second Smith touchdown.
”I was really taking a chance, and fortunately I won and made a play,” Brown said. “I just jumped and went to go get it.”

Brown returned the ball to the Steelers six-yard line and Smith would again scored a touchdown to make the final score 27-17. The Steelers had outplayed the Cowboys that day, they held statistical advantages in many of the important categories. But thanks to Larry Brown’s two interceptions (special shoutout to Pittsburgh QB Neil O’Donnell), my Super Bowl party ended on a very successful note!

The five most important people in Le’Veon Bell’s life for the next five months are large, unassuming guys paid to make him look good. Nobody knows an offensive lineman’s value better than a running back, whose prosperity depends on open spaces created by these behemoths.

Bell’s ability to get in sync with the guys in the trenches will be one of the most crucial elements to a season with so much promise. How will the perennial Pro Bowler work off his blocks? How will the linemen adjust to one of the most patient ball carriers of this generation?

Will there be a significant learning curve or seamless union?

“I want to run the plays that the o-line’s more comfortable with,” said Bell, who is not expected to play in the preseason opener against the Giants on Thursday. “I’ll obviously get on the same page with those guys. They’re the most important. They’re the ones that make everything run. I want to work with those guys and continue to try to get better.”

Bell is no dummy. He’s fully aware that his success will hinge on a shared understanding with Kelvin Beachum, Kelechi Osemele, Ryan Kalil, Brian Winters and Brandon Shell. When last we saw him in action in 2017, he was buying ridiculously expensive Hublot watches for the Steelers offensive linemen.

The teams with the most effective rushing attacks are the ones with the best chemistry between ball carrier and line. It’s not rocket science. You can’t sustain a formidable ground game if the guy with the ball isn’t working in tandem with the guys up front.

Although Winters maintained that Bell runs with “a whole different style for us” and that his patience will require linemen to “stay on your blocks longer, fight your blocks longer,” there’s also a comfort level knowing that the veteran is one of the smartest and most instinctive players in the game.

“He’s a guy that just reads and reacts,” Osemele said. “If a guy doesn’t like the way things are being done, he’s going to tell you or ask you questions about a play. Which angle should I enter at? What should I be reading? Le’Veon is such an instinctual player that he doesn’t need to do all that. He knows exactly where he should be hitting… where to react, where to cut. Just knows how to read. It makes your job a heck of a lot easier.”

Bell has looked like a kid let out for recess at camp. He’s smiling, laughing and seemingly enjoying every moment with his new team. He appears in terrific shape after rededicating himself in the wake of his year-long hiatus. He looks refreshed. He appears flexible and open to new concepts, which should benefit everyone on offense. He seems to be enjoying the process of learning which runs make the most sense for Adam Gase & Co.

“We’re getting in that rhythm right now,” Bell said of his relationship with the offensive line. “We’re already working. When we go in and watch the film off… practice, we’re going to see if there was a time when I missed a hole or I could have hit a hole quicker or different run plays.”

“We’re going to find our base run plays that we run well,” he added. “It’s just going to take time to find what runs we want or what’s comfortable for us. Once we find those base runs and we’re comfortable with them, the run game is going to just gel. We don’t need to have 50 run plays. We could have eight of them and run those eight really well.”

The Jets made the smart move signing Bell to a multi-year deal with a two-year window of guaranteed money. He’ll surely be motivated to prove critics wrong after his decision to sit out last year rather than play on the $14.5 million franchise tag.

Bell’s arrival should jump-start a rushing attack that ranked 26th in the league last year. Osemele and Kalil are upgrades for a line that struggled in run blocking last season. Gang Green’s backs were stopped for no gain or lost yardage on a league-high 26.1 percent of their carries last season.

That should change in 2019 thanks to one of the most dynamics running backs in the NFL.

“I think I’ll still be able to do what I’ve been able to do,” Bell said. “I go out in practice the same way I was practicing two, three years ago. It feels the same. It actually feels slower now for whatever reason because I think I understand the game better. Once I actually get in a game — yeah, the first series or two when I get in there — it might feel a little different because the game’s going to be faster (than practice), but I’ll adjust and get right to it.”

Bell will be a pivotal piece to Gase’s puzzle even if he doesn’t get the same volume of touches as he was accustomed to in Pittsburgh. The greatest unknown will be how long it will take for him to get rolling with the new guys in front of him.

“You can’t put a measure on having reps together,” Beachum said. “So, I think that is going to be necessary… At the end of the day, if you provide a crease and you provide a hole and you move people in the fashion that we need to move people, he’ll find a way to make it happen.”

The success of the Jets offense depends on it.

Browns receiver Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, who was snatched up by Cleveland after having not played football for two years, impressed in training camp as a return man. In his first game in an NFL uniform, he helped the Browns extend their lead over the Washington Redskins by running a punt back for a touchdown. Considering his backstory, which sounds like it’s straight out of a Hollywood movie, this touchdown becomes even more significant.

Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi takes it to the house!#WASvsCLE pic.twitter.com/iEbWQk0fHR

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 9, 2019

Sheehy-Guiseppi is only on the field because he showed up at Browns workout after not having played football for two years and being forced to sleep outside, lied about knowing VP of player personnel Alonzo Highsmith, and proceeded to stun the coaches with his sub-4.40 speed.

If he can continue returning kicks like this, Sheehy-Guiseppi might be more than just an interesting story, and could find himself with a full-time role on Browns.

In April, Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi was sleeping outside and had to talk his way into a workout with the @Browns …

Tonight, he scored a TD in his first #NFLPreseason game and his teammates were hyped 🧡 (via @thecheckdown)pic.twitter.com/CO6R5vnktl

— ESPN (@espn) August 9, 2019

There isn’t a soul alive rooting against Sheehy-Guiseppi in his quest to go from near-homelessness to an NFL returner in the span of a few months.