For Gale Gilbert, It’s V in a Row : After Four Years With Bills, He Thinks He Might Get to Play

The Super Bowl legend of Gale Gilbert continues to grow, along with the crowd of sportswriters queuing up for a seat and a few minutes with the San Diego Chargers’ Been-There, Didn’t-Do-That hero.

“I’ve done more interviews the last two days than I’ve done in nine years,” Gilbert says, greeting another wave.

“I probably did 400 of ‘em yesterday.”

That works out, roughly, to 10 interviews per 1994 pass completion, so take heed, ABC--it could make a nice graphic for Dan Dierdorf to talk over Sunday afternoon.

Gilbert is in demand this week because of what he has done every January since 1990, and what he hasn’t done.

Gilbert goes to Super Bowls.

That’s the hook, that’s the angle.

And that’s it.

He goes, he watches, he has a lousy time, he spends the entire postgame mob scene pondering whether to shower or conserve the water because, well, let’s be reasonable. Asking Gilbert to clean up after a Super Bowl is like asking Deion Sanders to elaborate before one. Totally unnecessary.

Like his uniform, Gilbert’s Super Bowl record is spotless.

Four Super Bowls attended, zero minutes played.

Four Super Bowls attended, zero bottles of champagne sprayed.

Gilbert spent the last four Super Sundays as third-string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, backing up Frank Reich, who backed up Jim Kelly. This year, he makes his drive for five with the Chargers as Stan Humphries’ backup, having made a push up the professional ladder.

Consequently, Gilbert gets asked such things as, “So what’s it like to be the first man to play in five consecutive Super Bowls?” and usually has to set the questioner straight. This will be his fifth Super Bowl, yes, but if he plays a down, it will be a first.

And if he goes 0-5, as he appears helplessly fated?

“I’m undefeated in Super Bowls,” Gilbert corrects one more time.

“I stood and cheered in four of them.”

Gilbert is amused by his new-found celebrity. He is famous for doing nothing. So he has been at the Super Bowl the last five years. So were the bear claws they were serving the media at the Broward County Convention Center Wednesday, and nobody was demanding to interview them.

“Who does that commercial with Jimmy Johnson, the one where the guy goes to every Super Bowl but never gets in the game?” Gilbert says. “That’s me.”

Or maybe he’s Ringo Starr. Have coattails, will clutch them for dear life throughout the entire meteoric ride. Several of Gilbert’s former Buffalo teammates have called to razz him for pulling it off a fifth year in a row, although Gilbert is unable to quote them verbatim.

“Something about a horseshoe being somewhere,” is all Gilbert will allow.

It’s a luck charm that cuts both good and bad, Gilbert admits. Sure, he went with the Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls, but their final point totals: Buffalo 73, Other Guys 139. And on deck are the Chargers, somewhere between three- and six-touchdown underdogs.

Said Gilbert: “The running joke on the plane back from Pittsburgh (after the AFC championship game) was that I was this rabbit’s foot that got us there--’Now let’s cut him and send him home. We’ll send him his check after we’ve won.’ ”

Actually, some Chargers had researched the subject a bit. In 1974, Gilbert was a catcher on the Red Bluff, Calif., team that reached the finals of the Little League World Series, only to lose to Taiwan, 12-1.

“We were 10-run underdogs and we didn’t cover,” Gilbert quips.

On the bright side, Gilbert reports, he did manage to get in the game.

“I went 0 for 2.”

Looking back, Gilbert can see that Red Bluff had to play at an unfair disadvantage, giving them something in common with the Chargers 20 years later.

“Those Taiwan kids certainly weren’t 12,” he says. “We knew that as soon as we stepped in there against their fastballs. They didn’t have mustaches, but I think they were older than 12.”

Gilbert began his professional career with the Seattle Seahawks in 1985, where he saw the other side of the NFL experience. He played a lot, lost a lot, got hurt a lot. Gilbert missed two entire seasons, 1987 and 1988, because of knee and rib injuries. He moved on to Buffalo, where he did enough mending for 40 men. In four seasons with the Bills, Gilbert appeared in two games, throwing 15 passes.

But he had great Super Bowl seats.

“We won the AFC four years in a row, but I just look at them as little trophies,” Gilbert says. “They don’t mean much to me. I was part of the team, but not part of the team, if that makes sense.”

Signing with San Diego last off-season enabled Gilbert to move up a notch, from third string to second, and mingle a bit. Humphries lives more dangerously in the pocket than Kelly ever did, so Gilbert served as an injury replacement for Humphries five times in 1994, starting once and helping win two games.

And therein lies the difference for Gilbert between this one and the last four.

“Simple,” he says. “I’ve got a chance to play in this one.”

At the very least, he will get to hold for John Carney on field-goal and extra-point attempts, assuming there are any.

“I’d kill to play,” Gilbert says, and maybe this could be the year.

“Of course, if I play Sunday, one of three things will have happened, and two of them are bad. It would mean we’re getting blown out or Stan’s hurt--or we’re blowing them out.”

For once, the Super Bowl odds are on Gilbert’s side.