As an offensive lineman, Joe Staley’s job generally involved staying out of the limelight.
A good game as a left tackle was one in which his name was barely mentioned - and he never wanted it to stay that way more than in the Super Bowl.
His first taste of the biggest occasion came at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans nine years ago as his San Francisco 49ers took on the Baltimore Ravens.
And if ever there was any need for a reminder that it was not just an ordinary game, it came when he looked over to the sidelines and saw Jay-Z and Beyonce.
“I do definitely remember coming out for pre-game warm-ups and feeling way more anxiety than I had ever felt as a football player on the field,” Staley recalls.
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“You’re looking around and there’s Jay-Z on the sideline, and Beyonce is with him, and you’ve got all these people.
“You see them and you’re like, ‘this is a big deal’, then there’s a lot of cameras and you realise, ‘there’s probably 500million people that are going to be watching this’.
“As an offensive lineman, man, if I mess up, holy cow. You just have to make sure you get out of that mindset as quick as you can.”
It is not just on gameday that players are taken out of the ordinary and shown the importance of the Super Bowl.
The entire week leading up to the game, spent in the host city, involved a host of media commitments and external activities for players from both teams.
Staley, now retired, looks back with fond memories of the game week setup despite coming out on the losing side in his two Super Bowl appearances.
“I love how they set it up,” he says. “The first time I went there I was younger, the prime of my career, and we went in with a lot of confidence.
“The way the NFL sets it up is awesome, because you get really all your work for the week done before you go down to wherever the venue is.
“That’s all the really heavy install, a lot of the film study, because once you get down to wherever you are going, for us it was in New Orleans the first year then Miami the second time, there’s a lot of media, a lot of obligations.
“There are a lot of things that can take your attention away from the actual game, so you get all your work done beforehand and then it’s a case of making sure you prioritise your time.
“In the play-offs, usually you can say it’s just another game because in a lot of ways it is, you’re still in your normal routine.
“It’s hard to say that with the Super Bowl, because of the magnitude.”
Watch Super Bowl LVI from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles live from 11.30pm on Sky Sports NFL & NOW on Sunday, February 13; with all the pre-game build up from 10pm
