How I Caught the Pass that Won Super Bowl 50

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Bennie Fowler, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.

The following is adapted from Silver Spoon: The Imperfect Guide to Success.

I like to think there’s a lot more to me—both as an athlete and a person—than catching a single pass. The fact is, however, that there will always be one moment from my professional career that stands apart.

It’s what people think of when they hear my name. It’s the story they want me to tell. The time I caught a pass from Peyton Manning to secure victory for my team, the Denver Broncos, in the fiftieth edition of the biggest game of football on the calendar.

It stands out as an example of athletic success. In reality though, it was as much a triumph of mindset as of physical prowess. There are many talented football players in the world. What separates the good from the best is the mental approach the greats bring to their game.

In Super Bowl 50, years of mental and physical preparation combined to create a moment I’ll surely replay for as long as I live. Here’s how it went down.
Heaven in Super Bowl L

In roman numerals, L refers to the number 50. For the losing team, Super Bowl 50 was indeed a little taste of “L.” For the winners, it was a slice of heaven.

The pressure could not have been greater. It was the third most-watched program in American television history. Over 110 million people were tuned in when my team, the Denver Broncos, squared off against the Carolina Panthers in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

The sidelines were thick with former NFL stars on hand to mark the fiftieth anniversary of this championship game, and the stands were packed with more than seventy thousand fans.

Carolina was a tough team. They’d gone 15–1 and their quarterback, Cam Newton, was the league’s MVP. In the eyes of some, Newton looked invincible.

My team, on the other hand, was led by the oldest quarterback to start a Super Bowl: thirty-nine-year-old Peyton Manning. Peyton missed several games during the regular season with a foot injury. He led the league in interceptions and was having his worst season since his rookie year in 1998. Earlier in the year, Peyton had been benched for the first time in his illustrious career. Toward the end of the regular season, however, he had worked his way back into the lineup.

Thanks in large part to our defense, we were leading 16–10 with four minutes remaining when Carolina got the ball near their own twenty-yard line. Anyone who’s watched an NFL game knows that this did not make us feel overconfident. Newton had plenty of time and talent to mount a drive that would allow Carolina to take the lead.

Then, on third and nine, Newton dropped back to pass, and our great linebacker, Von Miller, swept in and stripped the ball as Newton was beginning his throw. The ball bobbled around before our safety, T.J. Ward, fell on it a few yards from the Carolina end zone. A few plays later, running back C.J. Anderson plunged in from two yards out for the touchdown, and we were up 22–10.

While most of us celebrated, our coaches were urgently talking into their headsets. Kick the extra point? Or go for the two-point conversion?

If we kicked the extra point, we’d be up by thirteen points. But there was still time left for Carolina to storm back. If the Panthers could get a quick score and get the ball back on an onside kick or a turnover, they could still win the game 24–23 with a second touchdown.

Head Coach Gary Kubiak elected to go for the two-point conversion, which would put us ahead 24–10 and keep us in the game even if Carolina came back in the final minutes.

That was my cue.

Pressure? What Pressure?

As I trotted out onto the field with Peyton and the rest of the offensive unit amid the stadium roar, how do you imagine I felt? Nervous? Terrified, even? Surprisingly not. As I soaked up the enormity of the moment, I felt one dominant sensation:

Joy.

I knew the play because I’d practiced it over and over. I knew where the ball would arrive because I’d visualized this moment over and over. I could picture the spinning laces as Peyton’s spiral cut through the air. I could see it sailing into my hands, and I could feel it slamming into my gut as I came out of my break. My mind was quiet and focused because I had learned to fill it with positive thoughts and flush out any feelings of self-doubt or fear.

People think of NFL players and other professional athletes as great physical specimens—and they are. Look at my former teammate Demaryius Thomas—he’s tall, muscled, runs like a deer, and has fluid moves that leave most defenders flailing.

But people often don’t realize how much mental work goes into being a professional athlete. The best ones—the Peyton Mannings, the Kobe Bryants, the Von Millers, the Draymond Greens (well, there really is only one Draymond Green)—are towers of mental strength too. They have immense powers of perseverance, patience, and discipline, and they have trained their minds as finely as they have honed their physical skills.

They train their minds by following simple principles and practices. They close out negative thoughts while cultivating rich, prosperous ideas. They focus on the things they can control, and as they gain mastery over those factors, any sense of anxiety fades away. Their heart rate goes down, their breathing is relaxed, their muscles are loose, and their thoughts are clear and precise.

These are skills I’ve learned in my five years in the NFL, but they are skills anyone can master. When you focus on what my mentor and friend Dr. Rick Perea calls “the process,” your performance improves. Who among us wouldn’t benefit from becoming healthier, calmer, more confident, and successful?

Focusing on the process allowed me to smile to myself as I prepared to receive the biggest pass of my career from a future Hall of Famer throwing the last pass of his career.

Harnessing Mental and Physical Strength

The moment of truth was only seconds away. The play we were about to run is called scat and vertigo. It’s not always designed to go to me, but on this occasion, I knew it was. In the huddle, Peyton looked me in the eye.

“Just give me a little time to find the laces,” he said in that now-all-too-familiar Southern drawl of his. Since his retirement, Peyton has come to be known through his commercials as a sort of goofy optimist who thinks he can write country songs better than Brad Paisley. But make no mistake—Peyton Manning is smart, intense, competitive, and anything but a hayseed.

I approached the line of scrimmage and spread out wide to Peyton’s right. As he barked out the signals, he looked to his left and then to his right, locking his eyes on mine for a split second. I raised my hand slightly, letting him know that the coverage was what we expected and that I was ready. Suddenly, the field exploded with twenty-two men bolting upright and slamming into each other in a wild flurry of grunts and shouts.

It was a beautiful ballet of violence, inch-perfect in its choreography. I was joyous.
Peyton dropped back two steps as I raced for the end zone. The ball arrived as I came out of my break, smacking into my gut as my arms folded around it. I tumbled, rolled twice, and then popped back to my feet, holding the ball aloft. My teammates bunched around me, slapping my helmet.

I danced like everybody was watching, holding the ball tight.

A Story to Last a Lifetime

That play didn’t guarantee that we’d win the Super Bowl. It did mean the Panthers had to score two touchdowns in a few minutes to force the game into overtime. A big ask.

As history records, they couldn’t do it. Our defense held firm and Peyton enjoyed one last moment of triumph before his retirement. I had the joy of knowing that I played my part in a famous victory.

Millions of people saw the moment of glory. Very few saw the endless hours of practice, conditioning, and mental preparation that made that moment possible.

For more advice on the preparation that goes into success, you can find Silver Spoon: The Imperfect Guide to Success on Amazon.

Bennie Fowler is a six-year veteran of the NFL. He began his career as an undrafted free agent signed by the Broncos in 2014. He spent four years with the Broncos and was a member of the Super Bowl 50 championship team in 2016. Bennie played college football at Michigan State University, where he was a member of the 2014 Rose Bowl championship team. Bennie holds the annual Bennie Fowler youth football camp in Detroit, Michigan, is an in-demand speaker trained through the NFL Speakers Bureau, and lives in Denver during the offseason.