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Flozell Adams Feared by Many, Respected by All
By Chris Harry
DALLAS -- His Pittsburgh Steelers teammates had a surprise for Flozell Adams when he got to the airport for the team's chartered flight to Super Bowl XLV.
They were all wearing No. 76 Michigan State jerseys, circa Adams' sterling career at the Big Ten school in the 1990s.
"I had no idea," Adams, Pittsburgh's starting right tackle, said Monday upon arrival at the team's Fort Worth hotel. "It was special for them to bring back the throwbacks and they're all still walking around here with 'em on."
It was a nice gesture for Adams, to be sure, but wouldn't No. 76 Dallas Cowboys jerseys have been a better touch?
After all, this was Flozell "The Hotel" Adams, the 6-foot-7, 338-pound whipping post of Cowboys fans for the better part of the last decade. Adams may have gone to some Pro Bowls, but he was the most penalized offensive lineman in the league during his previous 12 seasons, and the big fella did not discriminate when it came to flags. Holding penalties, false starts, tripping, personal fouls ... whatevs.
Which brings us to the richest irony of any sub-plot at Super Bowl XLV.
Adams, 35, was one of two starters from Dallas' 2009 NFC East Division championship team -- the squad that won the franchise's first playoff game since the 1995 season -- that owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones deemed unworthy to bring back for what Jones and everybody in the Lone Star State figured was going to be a march to a Super Bowl in their own backyard.
The Cowboys, of course, went 6-10.
Adams, meanwhile, will start against the Packers in Cowboys Stadium on Sunday night.
Jones will have a nice view of his former tackle from a midfield suite, no doubt.
Give Adams credit, though. He could easily have had some fun with it all Monday, but instead took the high road back into town.
"In the playoffs, you just concentrate on the team you're playing," said Adams, who played left tackle in Dallas but stepped into the right tackle spot for injured Willie Colon after signing with Pittsburgh last summer.
"We played Baltimore and then the (New York) Jets, and then when you make it, you think, 'Super Bowl, Super Bowl,' and now I've got questions about how I feel about going to Dallas. But as long as the Super Bowl's the Super Bowl, you don't care where it's being played."
Apparently, the Steelers knew it probably mattered a little bit more than that. Out came the jerseys.
Adams, however, was initially taken aback by it all.
"He's always got the same look on his face -- and he's a mean guy," linebacker James Farrior said. "No one wanted to talk to him."
"It may sound funny, but he doesn't always have a great disposition, but we enjoy that about him," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. "His intentions have been so pure since the day that he joined our football team. ... The guy just wants to win. He's brought that mentality and that approach since Day 1. He's a veteran player and doesn't ask out of anything. He works extremely hard and has a can-do attitude. All of those things endear him to his teammates -- and there is a respect there.
"He's a big reason why we're here and those guys felt it necessary to honor him. I'm just glad they did."
Adams may be back in his home of the previous 12 years, but he likes just fine the place he's spent the last eight months. The place (and people) that got him back to Dallas.
For the Super Bowl, of all things.
"It was tough for a little while because I'd never been in that situation (changing teams) before and, when I got here, I was like, 'How are these guys going to react to me?' " Adams said. "But they all embraced with open arms."
And matching jerseys.