Boston.com / Sports / Bruins

McGinest sheds the goat horns

By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Staff, 2/4/2002

EW ORLEANS - He paced the sideline in a daze, not sure whether to smile, weep, or drop to his knees in forgiveness. Within moments of New England's heart-stopping 20-17 Super Bowl victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams, Patriots veteran Willie McGinest did all three.

As his parents, Willie and Joyce, approached with open arms, proudly wearing their emotions on their No. 55 sleeves, all the pent-up feelings of a season that alternated between frustration and elation came pouring out of this big man with an even bigger heart. He grabbed his father, held him tight, and cried like a baby.

''It's been a tough season, man,'' McGinest said. ''Lots of ups and downs, but the best thing about it is nobody believed in us, and we did it anyway.

''We beat Oakland, and they said the best team didn't win. We beat Pittsburgh, and they said the best team didn't win. Well, what else is there to say? Who is left to play? We've got to be favored next week because there's no one left standing.''

It is amazing McGinest was not wobbly himself in the wake of a season that began with back surgery that, for a time, reduced him to a shadow of his former self, and nearly ended in disgrace for him last night, when he was flagged for holding in what could have been the pivotal play that shattered the Patriots' hopes.

New England was dominating the game, 17-3, with 101/2 minutes to play when, on a fourth and goal from the 31/2, Rams quarterback Kurt Warner was staring at an end zone of covered St. Louis receivers. He decided to run for it, fumbled at the 2, then watched in disbelief as Tebucky Jones recovered and ran it back 98 yards.

But then McGinest saw it - the yellow flag on the left side of the field. He had been whistled for holding running back Marshall Faulk. Instead of a 24-3 Patriots blowout, the Rams retained possession half the distance from the goal line, and eventually scored a touchdown that made it 17-10.

McGinest walked toward the sideline with a look of utter despair. He might have been on his way to becoming the Patriots' own Bill Buckner.

''He tackled me,'' Faulk said. ''That stuff was going on almost every play. I got held, I got grabbed, but fortunately for us, the ref saw it [that time].''

McGinest admitted he ''might have been too aggressive'' with Faulk, but that was his assignment on this night. He was to hit the league's top running back, whether he had the ball or not. On that play he was to double-team him, and keep him out of the end zone.

''I never saw the flag,'' McGinest said. ''I was watching Tebucky.

''Was it a penalty? They threw the flag. You can't dwell on it. I knew I had made a bad play. What you have to do in that situation is come back and make a good one.''

McGinest wasted little time in doing that. On the next play, he yanked Faulk down from behind for no gain. It was his third tackle of the game, in which he was his old, menacing self. But when Warner walked in on the quarterback sneak one play later, he knew he wasn't off the hook just yet - and neither was his team.

What was he thinking as the minutes ticked down, and St. Louis tied the game at 17? ''I was thinking we'd find a way to win it, like we always have,'' he said.

He had talked just three days earlier of how he still believed he was a ''difference-maker.'' The penalty was not what he had in mind.

''I hated to see that,'' said teammate Damien Woody. ''He's already had so much happen to him. He has been criticized for being injured all the time, but the guy has played good football for us. People forget he's a human being.''

Nobody could appreciate the pain McGinest played through in the first month and a half of the season. It was only in the past three or four weeks that he could feel the old juice returning.

Nobody possibly could understand what it was like to prepare for the Super Bowl knowing this could well be his last game in a Patriots uniform. McGinest knows his salary will count for almost $8 million on the Patriots' cap next season, and New England likely will leave him unprotected in the expansion draft. He will find out tomorrow whether that is the case, but last night, in the glow of the win and his loving family, McGinest wasn't thinking about anything but being a Patriot.

''You ask me how I feel,'' he said, pulling a string of Mardi Gras beads around his neck, ''but I can't tell you that. I can't possibly describe it. It is happening too fast. It just isn't real yet.''

Let his football future wait. Last night, Willie McGinest was a Super Bowl champion who refused to let one mistake tarnish the moment he had been waiting for his entire career.