IRVING, Texas -- On Sunday, Larry Brown will be hobnobbing with some of the best players in NFL history. This time, he won't be booed.
Dallas Cowboys teammates Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith will be there. Cowboys greats Roger Staubach, Chuck Howley -- who will participate via video -- and Randy White have been invited. Joe Montana, Steve Young, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris, Richard Dent, Doug Williams, Jerry Rice, Marcus Allen and many others have been, as well.
The last time he was in the full company of those greats was 10 years ago at Super Bowl XL, when the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field.
Before the game, the Super Bowl Most Valuable Players were announced to the crowd before a game filled with Terrible Towels, thanks in part to the short drive from Pittsburgh to Detroit.
"They were all taking bets on who would get booed worse," Brown said. "It got down to me and Ray Lewis. Troy walked out and they cheered. Me? Yeah, I get booed. I told my wife, 'Of all the Super Bowls where they honored us, it had to be when the Steelers made it,' because they still hate me for that. They didn't boo Troy and Emmitt. I got booed."
Twenty years ago, Brown was named MVP of Super Bowl XXX after the Cowboys beat the Steelers at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Brown's two interceptions were the difference-making plays in the Cowboys' fifth -- and last -- Super Bowl title. It was the Steelers' first Super Bowl loss.
Before kickoff of Sunday's Super Bowl 50 between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, Brown and the rest of the title game's MVPs will be on hand to celebrate at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
"It's making me feel like an old man," Brown said. "It started at five, then 10 and now it's 20 years."
Brown's first interception of Neil O'Donnell came in the third quarter after Pittsburgh cut the Cowboys' lead to 13-7. He returned the pick 44 yards to set up a Smith touchdown.
"We did a lot of blitzing in that game," Brown said. "One thing Mike Zimmer, our defensive coordinator, said was, 'Be where you're supposed to be.' A lot of times guys get into trouble because they get out of position. The first interception I was where I was supposed to be. Charles [Haley] had a good rush and barely hit O'Donnell's hand, and it altered the path of the ball. So the first one was really a gift."
The second is remembered as a bigger gift. Once again, the Cowboys blitzed, and O'Donnell expected a Steelers receiver to break off his route. Brown beat him to the spot and returned the pick 33 yards to set up a second Smith touchdown.
"I was really taking a chance, and fortunately I won and made a play," Brown said. "I just jumped and went to go get it."
The Cowboys have not experienced a Super Bowl since that night 20 years ago.
"Because we've not gone, it makes people remember the last one we went to even more," Brown said. "It's helped me in that, but it's not like I want it like that. I want to see them have success. But people are clinging to the last one we went to. They remember where they were. I've got all kinds of stories."
Brown remembers meeting a guy years afterward whom he threw his gloves to after the game. Another guy was on a plane with Brown's agent at the time on a flight to Phoenix that was delayed and ended up missing the game. The pilot made the announcement that the Cowboys won.
"He said the whole plane started cheering," Brown said. "Go figure. Who would think you'd run into people there. That's the great part of the game."
Brown signed a five-year, $12.5 million free-agent deal with the Oakland Raiders after the Super Bowl. A salary-cap crunch kept the Cowboys from making a play to keep Brown. Many believe his Super Bowl performance led to the contract, but Brown had six interceptions in the regular season in 1995. He also had an interception of Brett Favre in the NFC Championship Game.
It came in a year in which he started only because cornerback Kevin Smith was hurt.
On a Cowboys team with future Hall of Famers like Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Haley and Deion Sanders, Brown was one of the more unlikely Super Bowl MVPs in history.
Current Cowboys coach Jason Garrett sees Brown as a teaching tool for teams everywhere.
"He made two huge plays in the game, and we're still talking about taking the ball away and ball security," Garrett said. "Those things make a difference. Certainly on a stage like that, those are the plays that change the game, and the two interceptions that he had, it changed the game. It took away their opportunities to score and gave us opportunities to seal the game. It's indicative of how important it is to have everybody involved doing their job. He had a couple of opportunities, and he took full advantage of them."
The Cowboys took Brown in the 12th round out of TCU in 1991. That round of the draft does not exist today. He would have been an undrafted free agent now, but he forged a nine-year career and has a Super Bowl memory no one can take away.
"Charles Haley told me this: 'A lot of guys come in and out of this league and you can't remember everybody.' And I'll never forget that," Brown said. "I don't know everyone, but I know the names that matter most. I look at my career and think of the guys that know my name: Marcus Allen, John Elway, Brett Favre, Jerry Rice. These guys know who Larry Brown is. It wasn't just because of the two interceptions. It's because you had a chance to compete against them at a high level and had some success that that time.
"At the end of the day, I was a starter on three championship teams."