The Super Bowl is a different and refreshing experience these days for former St Louis Rams offensive lineman Tom Nütten, who first honed his football skills in Magog, QC and later played at Lennoxville in the CEGEP.

Nütten moved from his childhood home in Germany to Magog, just outside of Sherbrooke, north of the Vermont border and to the southeast of Montreal when he was 16 years old. He excelled as a versatile lineman, kicker, punter and special teamer at Bishops College School, a small boarding school of 300 students, of which about 22 played on the football team.

Here in Phoenix, Nütten is working as an analyst for German television station ARD, his fluent German language skills put to good use during the Super Bowl broadcast. Both a winner and a loser with the Rams on the sport’s biggest stage, Nütten has a multitude of memories of the NFL showpiece. In the short few years since he last lined up on Super Sunday against the New England Patriots in 2002, some things have changed, but the theme of the event remains the same.

“From my experience both times was when we only had one week, without the bye weekend, and we used to call it hell week because you were preparing for a game that in itself was a full-week job,” he said. “We had the distance you have to travel, dealing with media and family and friends wanting tickets. It was just big mayhem.

“The relief for me came on Saturday when everything was done and I had a nice dinner and was very relaxed. You know everything in terms of football preparation because you’ve been doing it for eight months by that time and obviously the routine works because you’re in the Super Bowl.

“Everything else is multiplied by a million and while at a home game you might have a friend come into town and on a road game you might go out to dinner, all of a sudden you have people calling you from high school or friends of a friend, all wanting tickets.”

Nütten never let the magnitude of what was at stake infiltrate his mindset and tried to prepare as he would for any regular season contest. He also remembers that the emotions of winning or losing a Super Bowl are in an odd way similar and equally draining.

He explained: “I think I made a conscious decision to push all the emotional things such as how important this game was out of my mind. I’m not a nervous player but I do feel I always put a lot of pressure on myself to perform, but I slept well the night before and was prepared. Then after the game it takes a while to kick in whether you win or lose. You’re trying to figure out what happened and what was this blur and what did it just mean. Sometimes that doesn’t kick in for a month.

“People ask me if I enjoyed it, but I never let myself enjoy it. I would tell a younger guy that you have to try to enjoy it. Don’t let the game take advantage of you, but make sure you have a real memory of it.

“The Super Bowl that we won I’ve watched on tape several times and obviously the visual pictures kick off the memories that you have. The one we lost I’ve never watched. My oldest son was born exactly two weeks prior to the game, so I really didn’t care that we lost because I was going home to a newborn and I think I remember perhaps two plays out of that game and that was one good one and one bad one.”

Nütten was a key member of the offensive line that blocked for quarterback Kurt Warner as the Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV and a year later was on the losing side as Tom Brady and the Patriots came of age. Nütten sees similarities in the dramatic moments in which both games were decided, the first by a game-saving tackle by Mike Jones, the second by Adam Vinatieri’s famous field goal.

“In both cases, I’m sitting on the bench preparing myself to go into overtime because I didn’t want to get overwhelmed by emotions because I might have had to go back out there,” he said.

“On a kick, when the ball goes five yards over the line of scrimmage you can kind of get a feeling for whether it is a good kick or not and then the confetti comes down. It’s a very hollow feeling and it’s draining mentally and physically after that whole week’s build up. It’s the end of the season and you just don’t know what to do. You don’t know if you should cry and are you supposed to sit there now and weep or run off the field or walk or shake hands. It was just a weird feeling, whereas when you win its easy to let emotions carry you away and let things take care of themselves.

When Nütten returned to the Super Bowl a third time, it was as a member of the media with ARD. He had signed briefly for the New York Jets before calling time on his career, though he would suit up again for the Rams after a gap year.

He added: “The first one I did was when I took a year off and actually was retired and that was very strange. It was the Super Bowl in Houston, the Panthers against New England and I hated it. I remember I came in and did the Thursday through Monday thing and I didn’t go out much. I stayed in my hotel room a lot because I didn’t have that closure yet.

“Luckily for me I got to play a couple more years. Even though I got a couple of bad injuries or longer lasting ones, I was able to enjoy those years a lot more than the first seven years of my career.

“Then once I had retired I had closure and I started enjoying watching the game. Before that I was jealous because I wanted to be a part of it. Now I’m happy for everybody that has a chance to play in the game and I always root for the underdog.

“For me the Super Bowl is now a gathering of people coming back because it is always nice to catch up and shake a few hands even if it is only for a few minutes. I really enjoy it and in my position with the German media and with my experience and my history I think I have a lot to offer. My role has increased dramatically, going from a little pregame gig to being on air any time I want to get in. I might not be as articulate as a professor, but I get my point across and I think the German public enjoys hearing a point of view from a guy who has been there.”

Although an offensive lineman during his professional career, Nütten can analyze with authority a multitude of positions, thanks to his time at Bishops College School.

He remembered: “The coach told me ‘you’re a big guy, so you play offensive line, defensive line, oh you can kick, so you’re the kicker and punter and we’d like you in the wedge too.’

“He would also say ‘being an athlete you’re only coming out when you need to take a breath’ and when I did come out he’d ask ‘are you ready to go back in?’.”

These days, in addition to his media commitments, Nütten also has a partnership in an Italian restaurant ‘La Tosca’ in Bradenton, Florida (941-714-0120 for any snowbirds looking to make a reservation), the state he now calls home. But his ties to Canada remain strong.

“It was still my home when I went to college and was always the place I came back to,” he said. “I have a lot of fond memories and my sister still lives there, so we usually get back there once or twice a year. It is a beautiful country with beautiful people, food, oh and I’m a big hockey fanatic.

“It’s God’s country. It’s peaceful and nice and I always tell my wife when we land in Montreal to look up at the sky because it’s crisper and cleaner. I don’t know why, it just is.”