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SUPER BOWL XXXIII

For some reason, the older I got, the more difficulty I had with a wet ball. I was one that put a lot of pressure and held the ball tightly, so it acted like a grape and squirted out of my hands when it was wet. Therefore, one of my biggest nightmares would have been playing a Super Bowl in the rain. When we went to Miami, I spent 25 percent of my time watching The Weather Channel to see the weather report. The whole week, starting on Thursday, there was a 50-50 chance of it raining on Super Bowl Sunday. Normally when I watched TV, I didn't watch The Weather Channel, but that was 25 percent of my viewing because of my fear. I kind of kept that to myself because there was enough going on, and I didn't want to put that pressure on anybody else. I kept hoping the weather report would change, but it stayed 50-50. I also was concerned because that was the first Super Bowl I'd gone into where we were heavy favorites. ... We thought we were a much better football team, but I didn't want to play in the rain. Before the game, I kept looking above. There were no clouds and it stayed pretty clear for warm-ups. Once we kicked the game off, I thought we might make it through. Fortunately, it didn't rain. We had a great game and won the game big. I remember about 30 to 45 minutes after the game, the sky opened up. It rained cats and dogs. Even though I had not announced my retirement, that was another decisive thing to make me retire. I thought, "God had held this off long enough, and he's telling me I should retire."
-- As told to Ashley Fox of ESPN.com