IN MIAMI, THEY USUALLY GET LAST WORD.

Byline: Dave Anderson New York Times

Two days before Super Bowl II, the first in Miami, Vince Lombardi looked around at his Green Bay Packers.

``This may be the last time we'll be together,'' the legendary coach said, his voice breaking. ``So . . . uh . . .''

Lombardi turned away, Packers guard Jerry Kramer wrote in his book ``Instant Replay,'' and slid into a chair next to a film projector. Emotionally, he had indicated to his players that this would be his last game as the Packers' coach. And it was.

Not long after the Packers routed the Oakland Raiders 33-14 for their record third straight National Football League championship and fifth in seven seasons, Lombardi resigned as coach to concentrate on his duties as the team's general manager.

Without realizing it, Vince Lombardi had established a Super Bowl tradition in Miami, where the words have often been more memorable than the games.

Only a year after Lombardi's goodbye, Joe Namath, with a napkin-wrapped glass of Johnny Walker Red in his right hand, stood behind a microphone at the Miami Springs Villas banquet room to accept an award as 1968's Pro Football Player of the Year from the Miami Touchdown Club.

``We're going to win Sunday,'' the quarterback told 600 listeners. ``I guarantee you.''

When the Jets fulfilled that guarantee with a 16-7 upset of the Baltimore Colts at the Orange Bowl, Namath's words were chiseled into pro football history. Two years later, Duane Thomas, a sometimes-silent running back for the Dallas Cowboys, chiseled another phrase as he sat on the grass before practice at nearby Fort Lauderdale Stadium.

``Is the Super Bowl,'' he was asked by an inquiring reporter, ``the ultimate game?''

``If it's the ultimate game,'' he said, ``why are they playing it again next year?''

But it turned out to be the ultimate game for the Baltimore Colts, who won the Super Bowl for the only time in franchise history, 16-13 over the Cowboys on Jim O'Brien's 32-yard field goal with five seconds remaining.

``I had this dream last week, this long field goal going through to end it all,'' O'Brien said later. ``But I didn't know I'd be the kicker.''

Five years later, Lynn Swann, the Pittsburgh Steelers' acrobatic wide receiver, didn't know where he was after suffering a concussion in the AFC Championship Game against the Raiders.

But in Super Bowl X, Swann caught four passes from Terry Bradshaw for 164 yards, a 41-yard average that included a 64-yard touchdown and a 53-yard aerial act, as the Steelers held on to defeat the Cowboys 21-17.

``If there hadn't been a two-week break,'' Swann said, ``I couldn't have played in this game.''

Before Super Bowl XIII, Thomas ``Hollywood'' Henderson, a Cowboys linebacker, wisecracked, ``Bradshaw couldn't spell `cat' if you spotted him the `c' and the `a.' '' Bradshaw's answer was to throw four touchdown passes as the Steelers won 35-31, their fourth Super Bowl victory in six seasons.

Ten years later, the Super Bowl finally returned to Miami, this time in new Joe Robbie Stadium: the San Francisco 49ers against the Cincinnati Bengals.

When reporters arrived in the press box, an NFL release contained the most stunning words in Super Bowl history: ``Stanley Wilson of the Bengals will be ineligible to play in Super Bowl XXIII due to a violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy.''

The 49ers won 20-16 when Joe Montana found John Taylor in the end zone with a 10-yard pass with 34 seconds remaining. But the 49ers remember the start of that final drive at their 8-yard line with 3 minutes, 20 seconds left.

By Super Bowl XXIX, Steve Young, now the San Francisco quarterback, finally shook the Montana monkey off his back when he threw six touchdown passes in the 49ers' 49-26 stomping of the San Diego Chargers.

And judging by the Miami tradition, whether the Denver Broncos or the Atlanta Falcons win Sunday in Super Bowl XXXIII in Pro Player Stadium, somebody's words might well be more memorable than the game.

SUPER BOWL HISTORY

Bowl Result

I Green Bay (NFL) 35, Kansas City (AFL) 10

II Green Bay (NFL) 33, Oakland (AFL) 14

III N.Y. Jets (AFL) 16, Baltimore (NFL) 7

IV Kansas City (AFL) 23, Minnesota (NFL) 7

V Baltimore (AFC) 16, Dallas (NFC) 13

VI Dallas (NFC) 24, Miami (AFC) 3

VII Miami (AFC) 14, Washington (NFC) 7

VIII Miami (AFC) 24, Minnesota (NFC) 7

IX Pittsburgh (AFC) 16, Minnesota (NFC) 6

X Pittsburgh (AFC) 21, Dallas (NFC) 17

XI Oakland (AFC) 32, Minnesota (NFC) 14

XII Dallas (NFC) 27, Denver (AFC) 10

XIII Pittsburgh (AFC) 35, Dallas (NFC) 31

XIV Pittsburgh (AFC) 31, Los Angeles (NFC) 19

XV Oakland (AFC) 27, Philadelphia (NFC) 10

XVI San Francisco (NFC) 26, Cincinnati (AFC) 21

XVII Washington (NFC) 27, Miami (AFC) 17

XVIII L.A. Raiders (AFC) 38, Washington (NFC) 9

XIX San Francisco (NFC) 38, Miami (AFC) 16

XX Chicago (NFC) 46, New England (AFC) 10

XXI N.Y. Giants (NFC) 39, Denver (AFC) 20

XXII Washington (NFC) 42, Denver (AFC) 10

XXIII San Francisco (NFC) 20, Cincinnati (AFC) 16

XXIV San Francisco (NFC) 55, Denver (AFC) 10

XXV N.Y. Giants (NFC) 20, Buffalo (AFC) 19

XXVI Washington (NFC) 37, Buffalo (AFC) 24

XXVII Dallas (NFC) 52, Buffalo (AFC) 17

XXVIII Dallas (NFC) 30, Buffalo (AFC) 13

XXIX San Francisco (NFC) 49, San Diego (AFC) 26

XXX Dallas (NFC) 27, Pittsburgh (AFC) 17

XXXI Green Bay (NFC) 35, New England (AFC) 21

XXXII Denver (AFC) 31, Green Bay (NFC) 24

CAPTION(S):

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BOX: SUPER BOWL HISTORY (see text)