Super Bowl Sunday 2/2 – “We poppin’ bottles, like I scored the winning touchdown!”
One of the first things you notice outside the stadium is the big Roman Numerals and as corny as it sounds, it’s cool to see and you start to feel the energy and excitement.
I walked around some more and they had a couple stages around the stadium where bands and cheerleaders were performing. Here are the Jets’ cheerleaders, aka the “Flight Crew.”
Now, I was “auxiliary press.” This means you get a credential, but you aren’t in the press box. There are a few sections of seating that are for aux press – mostly radio folks and people who don’t need a table and are there either to talk about the game the next day or get post-game interviews. In the aux press box you get a box lunch. In the real press box you get a hot meal.
However, the aux press credential gets you INTO the press box… just not into a seat. Thus, I outsmarted the rest of the aux press and went in and got a hot meal.
Esca it aint, but it beats a box lunch – which I could then save for halftime so I didn’t have to leave my seat and miss the show. I also got a piece of cake. Did I mention something before about diet and exercise? Well I did climb about 10 flights of stairs to get to the press box, so I’ve got that going for me.
Opening kickoff…
I kept thinking to myself, “Man, am I really covering the Super Bowl?” A panoramic right before the halftime show, which was awesome.
After the game I had a choice – postgame interview tent where they have a bunch of press boxes, Seahawks locker room or Broncos locker room. Um, easy choice. A lot of guys were still in their jerseys and pads coming right off the field or wearing the Super Bowl champs t-shirts, but Marshawn Lynch… well, I’ll just show you. Sorry, it’s blurry. Beast Mode wasn’t standing still.
A couple of times I got within arms length of the Lombardi Trophy.
But the best part, by far, was being in there for Pete Carroll’s post-game speech/celeration. He told the guys to stay out all night and celebrate, talked about how it would bring them inseparably close and ran through some players accomplishments. My favorite part went something like this.
“Russell! 18/25, 200 yards, 2 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 123 QB RATING! (team cheers)… Malcolm Smith… How bout a pick six and a fumble recovery for the SUPER BOWL MVP! (team cheers)… Percy Harvin… kick return for a touchdown PERCY! (team cheers)… Marshawn Lynch… What, three? Two yards? Whatever, TOUCHDOWN MARSHAWN! (team cheers)”
I got the video on my phone and stuck it on Facebook but I don't know if I can link that in on here - anyone know?
Anyway, Definitely an experience I’ll be remembering fondly for the rest of my life… It also made my future decision that much more complicated.
Oh yeah, and at one point I was in the interview tent briefly and saw a credential on the floor. I picked it up and read the name and looked around and said “Is John Smith here? John Smith?” Some guy ran up and thanked me, but didn’t exactly look like the picture on the tag. I did kind of a double take but he had already grabbed it, and I figured he had to have it to get in so there was no reason for one media guy to steal another’s credential… Maybe he got a haircut or whatever.
Then I saw the video of the 9/11 truther who jumped up to the podium. I’m not 100 percent sure it was him, but there’s definitely a chance…
Alright, that should be as non-poker as it gets for a while. Hopefully you guys enjoy hearing a little bit about my life away from the tables and the way it all gets the wheels turning with my ongoing internal dialogue about poker as a career.