MINNEAPOLIS _ Gary Kubiak and I go way back. That's based on having covered what had to be the most embarrassing loss of Kubiak's playing career.
The scenario for this was created when Jackie Sherrill was hired away from Pittsburgh to become the football coach at Texas A&M for the 1982 season. The deal made Sherrill the first million-dollar football coach _ not $1 million a year, but the total package.
Sherrill's deal was $1.7 million for six years, with a chance to earn $3 million over 10 years. Bum Bright, the chairman of the A&M Board of Regents, was given credit for negotiating the deal.
The contract for Sherrill was considered so out-of-line for college coaches that Loel Schrader, the college football-loving sports editor of the St. Paul newspapers, sent me to College Station, Texas, to cover Jackie's first game.
The opponent was Boston College. The Eagles were an Eastern independent, a lesser program taking payday games and anticipated losses on the road against big-time programs _ much like FCS teams playing Power Five opponents today.
As it turned out, the Eagles had an undersized, unheralded sophomore quarterback named Doug Flutie, and he lit up the Aggies for a 38-16 victory.
Moderate research this week revealed the losing quarterback that evening was Kubiak, a senior who had survived the firing of Tom Wilson to maintain his starting position with Sherrill.
Kubiak threw 43 passes in a comeback attempt, with one touchdown and two interceptions.
"I don't know what to think," Kubiak said postgame. "Nobody could've told me that we'd go out and get beat like that."
