The pain of losing a Super Bowl never really disappears. It drives players who have experienced it to get back and get it right.
Ricky Proehl has been to four Super Bowls as a player, going 2-2. He won and lost with the Rams, lost with the Panthers, and got the second ring in his final NFL season, 2006 with Indianapolis.
He's at the big game again as Carolina's wide receivers coach, buoyed by memories of earning those rings, haunted by remembrances of the two failures.
"Anger, disbelief, shock," Proehl said Wednesday of his reactions to walking off the field a Super Bowl loser.
"And then they rush you off like it's a cattle drive so they can set up a stage for the winning team. You sometimes don't even get a chance to congratulate the winners.
"It's painful."
Proehl has relayed those sentiments to some Panthers, emphasizing just how good the opposite feelings are.
"You are on top of the world, on top of your profession," said the former receiver who played for six teams in a 17-year career, the first nine of which he didn't reach the postseason.