MINNEAPOLIS -- Remember the Super Bowl Shuffle? Remember when Jim McMahon mooned a helicopter? Remember the wild and crazy guys who were the 1985 Chicago Bears?
Wilber Marshall remembers them all.
"We had a lot of characters on that team," he said. "The guys did all kinds of things, taco commercials. You name it. It was a fun group."
Marshall won a Super Bowl ring with that team, but left two years later in the spring of 1988 when he signed a five-year, $6 million deal with the Washington Redskins.
They were then the defending Super Bowl champions, and Marshall assumed they would make it back fairly quickly.
"With the talent we have, I thought we'd be up there," he said.
Instead, it took the Redskins four years to make it back, and it's six seasons since Marshall made it with the 1985 Bears.
That's why he's one of the veterans telling the young players that they can't take the Super Bowl for granted.
"You've got to seize the moment," Marshall said. "Who knows the next time I'm going to be back? I try to instill that in the young guys. Hey, this might be the last one."
Marshall also talked about how difficult the transition was for him when he went from Chicago to Washington.
It took him time getting accustomed to the low-key style of coach Joe Gibbs after the fiery style of Mike Ditka in Chicago.
"I liked Ditka," Marshall said. "I liked the way he was aggressive. He wanted his players to play that way. He put that little pressure on you. It was hard for me at first [to get used to Gibbs]. You see Ditka get ticked off and [Gibbs says after a loss], 'Hey, we've got to come together next week and we've got to win.' I didn't quite understand it. But after a while, you can tell his tone of voice and you can just see his face and you know he wants it."
Marshall also had to get used to being the high-priced newcomer on a team that had just won the Super Bowl. Some players who were making a fourth of what he was making resented his contract.
"It was tough being the new kid on the block," he said. "It took me a little time to get used to everybody. The guys didn't know how to react to this guy coming in. At first, I used to just hang out by myself, but then things started to click."
Marshall now feels very comfortable with Washington.
"We do things together and we're more tight like it was in Chicago," he said. "I think that's what it takes to win."
