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Dallas Runner Duane Thomas thought of the movies, but the Super Bowl's Garbo made it only as far as a momentary job in microfilm at 20th Century-Fox. "I may not be a movie star," says the leading rusher of Super Bowl VI. "But I'm a moving star." A number of sales positions have gone by, and for the past six months he has been selling medical supplies to hospitals. Imagining Thomas a spieler is a little startling. "Oh, I've always been able to communicate. It's just that football is a nonverbal communication. Anything I believe in wholeheartedly, I can get across." His famed iconoclasm on the Super Bowl--"If this is the ultimate game, why is there another one next year?"--still suits him. "I've always had this certain character," says Thomas, 38. "The motto at my high school was 'You pay your debts to the past by putting your future in debt to yourself.' Even in college I'd audible to the quarterback if I didn't agree with the play. I know it's been hard for people to accept the way I am. It's been hard for me to accept being this way. But I have to be myself."
VII Miami Dolphins 14 Washington Redskins 7The little Cypriot necktie maker and tie-score breaker, Garo Yepremian, 41, completed (in a manner of speaking) the only pass he ever attempted, for a touchdown at that, in a Super Bowl of all places, to the other team, alas. "One pass, can you imagine?" he says. "Some guys throw 50 a week and are never remembered by anyone." Six years before, Yepremian had kicked off for the Detroit Lions in the first American game he ever saw. But by the climax of his second Super Bowl he had mastered the nuances. As Miami sought to clinch its undefeated season with two minutes left, Washington bounced Yepremian's 41-yd. field goal attempt right back to him, and Garo knew what he had to do. He still damns the fates: "If only I wasn't left-footed and right-handed." For days after the disaster, Yepremian felt like "an outcast." Then, one day, "a letter arrived from Coach Shula full of all the good things I'd done. still take it out and read it sometimes. Besides fooling around with ties, I'm doing promotions. There are other Super Bowls to achieve. I can throw a mean pass now."
VIII Miami Dolphins 24 Minnesota Vikings 7When you ask for Mercury Morris, a correctional officer says, "You mean 'Euu-Geeene' Morris," which is O.K. with the Dolphins' lost runner. "Mercury did the crime," says Morris, 39. "Gene is doing the time." For the past four years, "one day at a time"; for the past three months, Thursday to Thursday. Like and scores, appellate results are posted weekly, and Morris is full of hope again that the mandatory will be removed from his 1 5-to-20-year cocaine sentence. His humor is intact. He can smile at the memory of being singled out in front of everyone as someone who would never be singled out. No pictures in old jerseys for Merc, who must always be in uniform now. Wistfully he says, "A prison is lit up like a stadium, and sometimes it even sounds like a football game. Every team has fans in here, and the countdown to the Super Bowl is amazing. For a 4 o'clock game they start staking spots at the TV around 11." Morris waits for the kickoffand springs to the telephone. "That's when the line is the shortest."