Mac Is Back XI Years Later

Eleven years after his notorious run through Super Bowl week in New Orleans, which included alleged remarks he says he never made; the mooning of a helicopter, which he does not deny, and death threats, which he angrily enumerates, quarterback Jim McMahon, then the starter for the Chicago Bears, now the backup to Green Bay Packer Brett Favre, drew a crowd at the Superdome when the annual cattle stampede known as Media Day was held Tuesday.

McMahon is merely a mop-up guy now but it didn’t take him long to warm up Tuesday when surrounded by microphones, television cameras and tape recorders.

“You guys started it all,” he said, repeating for the 100th time that he had not made a crude remark about the women of New Orleans on the Thursday before the 1986 Super Bowl. “It was fun [that year] until Thursday. Then, I couldn’t wait to get out of town. Getting death threats and all was no fun.”

McMahon addressed his Packer teammates before arriving in town. And what did he tell them?

“To watch out for you guys, watch their backs,” he said. “Make sure there are no microphones around.”

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Asked about the possibility that New England Coach Bill Parcells will leave after the Super Bowl to coach the New York Jets, his quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, said, “From a football sense, we understand each other. As far as the rest of his life is concerned, I don’t have a clue what he is thinking.”

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The University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre played, is conducting a bus outing today titled, “Explore the beginnings of Brett Favre.”

Included is a trip to his hometown of Kiln, Miss., about an hour’s drive away, to “meet Favre family and friends,” followed by a trip to the campus at Hattiesburg, Miss., to “meet former USM coaches, teammates and friends.”