FanHouse Willie McGinnest

After six Pro Bowl appearances and 13 seasons, well-traveled defensive tackle LaRoi Glover has decided to put away his jockstrap.

At his best, Glover was one of the better defensive tackles in the game thanks to a quick first step that allowed him to beat bigger and stronger offensive linemen (he was only 6-foot-2, 290 pounds). With the Saints in 2000, he led the NFL with 17 sacks, starting a string of six straight Pro Bowl appearances.

He carried that success over to the Cowboys, but Dallas' switch to a 3-4 defense left him trying to play nose tackle in a system that didn't fit him nearly as well. Eventually the Cowboys pushed him aside, bringing in Jason Ferguson to provide more bulk in the middle.

Every week I take a look at the line play in one NFL game. Check back every week for a new Between The Lines.

The NFL loves to make its game seem extremely complex, and sometimes it is. We hear about 300-page playbooks, 22-word play calls and marathon film sessions.

But then you watch a game like the Browns-Steelers game on Sunday night, and you get reminded that at times football is simply a matter of lining up and seeing who can win the man-on-man battle.

Admittedly, the Steelers-Browns game wasn't one that set offensive records, but if you focused on the line play, it was clear that the Steelers came into the game with the belief that their offensive line, as maligned as it has been, was better than the Browns' front seven. Then they went out to try to prove it.

And it's not even close.

Consider:

91 Trojans have played in Super Bowls (first overall in college football).

The USC coaching tree includes Joe Gibbs, who won several Super Bowls with the Redskins and Mike Holmgren, who won two one with the Green Bay Packers and nearly a third second last year with Seattle. Other notable former USC assistants include two former Super Bowl winning Cowboy assistants in Norv Turner and Dave Wannstedt.

Oh, there's this guy named Lynn Swann you may have heard of? USC guy and MVP of Super Bowl X. He was known to make a playoff catch or two.

The last non-suck Cincinnati teams were led by offensive tackle Anthony Munoz. Unfortunately for Munoz they also ran into the buzzsaw that was the 1980's San Francisco 49er squads.

The ferocious Ronnie Lott won several Super Bowls with San Francisco and later Tim McDonald won one himself. Both were incredible safeties at USC.

Marcus Allen was a Super Bowl MVP with the Raiders thanks to a memorable 75-yard touchdown run as part of a 191 yard day that at one point was a Super Bowl record. Rod Martin arguably should have been named MVP in 1981 for his three-interception effort against the Eagles.

Heisman Trophy winner Mike Garrett was a 1,000 yard back for one of the early Chiefs Super Bowl teams. Bart Starr got all the love but the game was different back then and the running back was pretty much everything to a successful offense.

More recently, Willie McGinnest set a playoff record for sacks and was the defensive heart and soul for several New England Patriot Super Bowl teams.

The San Diego Chargers would have never made the improbably run to the 1995 Super Bowl without the defensive efforts of Junior Seau. Yet again he fell victim to another San Francisco 49er buzzsaw, but that's how the game goes sometimes.

Mosi Tatupu was the fullback and special teams warrior for the 1985 New England Patriots. They, too, ran into a buzzsaw against perhaps the greatest Super Bowl team of all time, the 1985 Chicago Bears. That Bears squad had a young Jeff Fisher on its loaded defensive roster. Fisher was a quality safety at USC and a finer NFL head coach who would also make it to the Super Bowl with the Tennessee Titans.

This year is actually a quite rare event in that a Trojan isn't involved in either side. But, USC did have two of last year's Super Bowl stars with defenders Troy Polamalu and Lofa Tatupu.

The list goes on and on but you get the drift.
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