‘It feels like yesterday’: Mark Rypien looks back 30 years to his Super Bowl MVP-winning performance
Three decades have passed since the greatest day of Mark Rypien’s professional life, and he still reaps the benefits.
“The fruits of labor help,” Rypien acknowledged during a phone interview shortly after wrapping up 18 holes on an Arizona golf course.
Rypien was on the back end of an itinerary that started with a flight to Washington, D.C., to meet with his former NFL teammates and celebrate their 1992 Super Bowl win over the Buffalo Bills .
Also included on the trip were visits with daughters Amber and Angela in Maryland and Florida, respectively, a brief stay to play golf in Arizona and a final stop in southern California to attend the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open with brothers Tim and Dave in late January.
“Again,” he said, “I’m so blessed.”
Rypien, 59, was a three-sport standout at Shadle Park and starting quarterback at Washington State. A two-time Pro Bowler in an NFL career spanning 11 seasons, Rypien’s pinnacle as a quarterback was the 1991-92 season in which he led Washington to a 14-2 record during the regular season and three lopsided playoff wins, including a 37-24 victory over Buffalo in the Super Bowl to cap the year.
Rypien was honored as the game’s MVP.
He brushed off an early interception against the Bills and completed 18 of 33 passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns.
“Gosh, it’s weird,” he said, “but it feels like yesterday. You look back and say, ‘Wow, that was 30 years ago.’ ”
‘Banged up a little bit’
Rypien said he’s seen snippets and highlights from that Super Bowl win, but he never sat down and watched a replay of his performance in its entirety. His recollection of the game remains vivid, however.
A quick YouTube search unearthed the CBS broadcast of the game – with play-by-play commentator Pat Summerall and color analyst John Madden in the booth – on Jan. 26, 1992.
Rypien described the affable Madden, who died on Dec. 28, as “very professional and very gracious” in their encounters.
Summerall told viewers “there was some talk about (Rypien) spraining an ankle, but he says he’s fine.”
Rypien said he suffered the injury in practice Thursday, just three days before the game.
“It was the worst sprained ankle I ever had in my career,” he said. “I was a little bit worried about the game on Thursday, not knowing if I’d be able to play.
“But I got treatment and thought if I could get through a walk-through, there was nothing keeping me out of this game.
“It was intense, to be honest with you, and I was concerned I might not be able to play. Talking to Pat, I probably was a little coy about that, just to say I was banged up a little bit and not give any bulletin board stuff to Buffalo.”
Rypien flashed a thumbs-up as he ran on the field at the Metrodome in Minneapolis during pregame introductions, a nod to Mike Utley, a former teammate at Washington State who was paralyzed in an NFL game earlier that season.
“Mike is such a great ambassador for the paralyzed,” Rypien said. “He’s showed others and given hope to others that have been paralyzed that there is life afterward. He epitomizes that life and lives that life, and that’s why I came on the field with a double thumbs-up.”
The NFC champion Redskins entered the game with the NFL’s fourth-ranked offense and third-ranked defense. Buffalo, which had lost the first of four straight Super Bowls against the New York Giants one year earlier, countered with the league’s No. 1 offense. The Bills’ defense had allowed a league-low 12 touchdowns through the air.
Buoyed by a stout offensive line collectively nicknamed “the Hogs,” Rypien said he was confident Washington could move the ball against the Bills. Left tackle Jim Lachey and right guard Mark Schlereth both were named to the Pro Bowl.
“Those guys were the heart and soul of our football team,” Rypien said.
‘We’re going to Disneyland!’
Both teams began with a three-and-out series , but Rypien got his offense moving on the team’s second possession. He thought he had capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Art Monk on third-and-goal, but a replay review ruled Monk’s right foot was out of bounds in the back of the end zone. Washington’s ensuing 19-yard field-goal attempt was foiled by a fumbled hold, spoiling the possession.
Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly was intercepted on the next play from scrimmage, however, and Rypien was certain the Redskins would capitalize. Instead, a Rypien pass attempt was batted into the air by blitzing Bills linebacker Cornelius Bennett, resulting in Kirby Jackson’s interception at the Buffalo 11.
“I made a great read and threw the football, and it’s probably going to be a touchdown,” Rypien said, “but you’ve got to be kidding me, (Bennett) puts his big ol’ paw up there and tips it. I’m 6-foot-4. I don’t have many balls tipped. … How do you come back from that? Do you sit there and grieve over that? No. It was something out of my control, and I did what I was supposed to do.
“We had a walk-in touchdown, but it was taken away. Now it’s, ‘Come on, let’s get on track,’ and lo and behold that’s what we did.”
Rypien and the Redskins grabbed a 3-0 lead with Chip Lohmiller’s 34-yard field goal early in the second quarter. Earnest Byner caught a Rypien pass out of the backfield and raced 10 yards for a touchdown and a 10-0 lead with 10:11 left before halftime. Following a Darrell Green interception, Rypien hit receiver Gary Clark with a 31-yard pass to set up a 1-yard TD plunge by Gerald Green two plays later for a 17-0 lead.
“We are dominating this football team,” Rypien said. “We’re up 17-0, but it could be worse. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Kurt Gouveia returned a Kelly interception 23 yards to the Buffalo 2 on the first play of the third quarter, and Riggs scored on the next play to boost the Redskins’ lead to 24-0. The Bills closed within 24-10, but Rypien’s 30-yard TD strike to Clark with 1:56 left in the quarter gave Washington an insurmountable 31-10 advantage.
“The icing on the cake was the touchdown to Clark,” Rypien said. “That was a play we ran quite a bit, max protection if they come (with a blitz). … I looked (Buffalo’s Mark) Kelso, the safety, over to (receiver Ricky) Sanders’ side. I just had to put it out there. (Clark) ran an incredible route, and I just laid it out over the top.”
Clark finished with seven catches for 114 yards, and Monk nearly duplicated that effort with seven receptions for 113 yards. Brad Edwards intercepted two passes for Washington. Rypien noted he had plenty of competition of the MVP award.
“In order for that to happen, the best players have to play their best when it matters the most,” Rypien said. “I was playing at a high level, but so were all the guys around me. It kind of sucks, but they’ve got to give the Super Bowl MVP to someone. There was literally a whole host of people that deserved that accolade. I was grateful, blessed and very elated with what we just accomplished.”
Rypien said he was approached with about 2 minutes left in the game and asked to say “those infamous words.”
“They ask you where you’re going after the Super Bowl, and with my oldest daughter Amber on my shoulder, I said, ‘We’re going to Disneyland!’ … I was just so caught up in the moment.”
‘I may have had a cold beverage or two’
After the trophy presentation, media obligations and postgame celebration in the locker room had concluded, Rypien joined 56 of his closest supporters nearby at the Cathedral of St. Paul, where room had been set aside downstairs for the party.
“The nuns sublet it and had Marriott Hotels come in and put in beds,” Rypien said. “We came back afterward, and it was a lot of my closest friends and people I wanted there. The nuns did a great job. … I’m up with my brothers and cousins and uncle and agent until 2, 3 in the morning. I get up at 5:30, 6 o’clock and I’m on the NFL Network (morning show) and the networks talking about how great it is to win the Super Bowl.
“I may have had a cold beverage or two in me there.”
Rypien joined several of his teammates at the Pro Bowl in Honolulu as the NFC’s starting quarterback. He completed 11 of 18 passes for 165 yards despite learning earlier in the week he’d be playing with a cracked rib. Rypien located receiver Michael Irvin for a 13-yard TD pass late in the first quarter, and his 35-yard TD pass to Clark gave the NFC a 14-12 lead at halftime.
He parlayed that success into three-year, $9 million contract – following a 23-day holdout in training camp – and finished 9-7 in 1992. He was 3-7 in 10 starts in 1993, signaling the end of his run in Washington, where he was 45-27 in six seasons.
Rypien played in Cleveland, St. Louis (twice) and Philadelphia over the next four years, and he appeared in four games as a 39-year-old in Indianapolis in 2001.
Rypien said the fame resulting from his Super Bowl performance ultimately would benefit the Rypien Foundation, a charitable effort founded in 2004 six years after the death of Rypien’s son, Andrew, to cancer.
The nonprofit raises money “to support initiatives that improve the quality of care and quality of life for families fighting childhood cancer in the Inland Northwest”, according to the foundation’s website.
“It’s funny,” Rypien said, “how winning a Super Bowl opens the doors to other things.”