A Trip Report: Going to Super Bowl XLVII with strangers
03-08-2013
, 09:35 PM
In early January I posted a couple videos on Facebook heckling my Viking fan friend before the Packers/Vikings wildcard game. The stadium collapse, a collage of Viking fans reacting to Favre’s INT in the ’09 Championship game, a fan burning his jersey and disowning the team. He responds with some trash talk and it goes back and forth and that’s that.
But wait, there’s more!
A friend, we’ll call him S, who I only barely knew and had maybe only once spoke with since college saw these posts and started talking to me on FB the next day. He was a Vikings fan and knew the guy I was heckling, and thought it was funny. We caught up and he mentioned that he had gotten free tickets to the Super Bowl in New Orleans (where he lives), and that, wait, he has one ticket that’s unspoken for, and that, wait, would I like to go?
Yes. Yes I would.
But who does that? Who just invites someone you barely know to join him and three of his friends on a trip to the Super Bowl? The obvious answer: someone who wants to bang you. I was shipped nudes. I wasn’t that interested so I brought the question up to a couple of my straight friends: Would you get cornholed for a free trip to the Super Bowl? After an hour of deliberations, the jury was still out.
After some assurances (full disclosure…I’m fatter back than back when you knew me, I’m kind of a hot mess, etc.) I booked the flight and it was in stone. I was going to Super Bowl XLVII.
Then of course my team forgot how to play defense in the divisional round and was run over by the Niners. I wanted to bail. But you can’t man, it’s still the Super Bowl.
To make me even more nervous, 4 days before I left, S informed me he had sold our 5 600 level seats to some idiot for 2k a piece with plans to upgrade (600 level seats were going for 1500 or so when he sold them). I asked him if he was sure we could get tickets, he told me he’s a pro at this and knows what he’s doing, and besides, prices are dropping fast. Is this a trap? Am I going to fly across the country to not see the Super Bowl? All these questions ran through my head, but the flight was booked, no refund, so I decided to go with it. And come the Friday before the game, I found myself waiting at a bus stop in -11 wind chills at 6 am on my way to O’Hare. Take off.
03-08-2013
, 09:51 PM
03-08-2013
, 09:52 PM
03-08-2013
, 09:53 PM
03-08-2013
, 10:11 PM
03-08-2013
, 10:13 PM
03-08-2013
, 11:21 PM
03-09-2013
, 12:38 AM
I was pretty nervous about this whole experience, so at O’Hare I had a full breakfast and a couple bloodys at like 7:30 am. I figured if I was going to NOLA I should train myself to drink 24/7, and it totally killed my anxiety about the trip.
The flight was pretty uneventful – had to get some Chick Fil A at the Atlanta airport (amazing obv). The only thing of note was that from Atlanta to Gulfport first class was all Niners fans and coach was all Ravens fans. This theme would carry through the weekend. The people I sat next to were going to the game and it seemed like pretty much everyone else on the plane was too.
Once we landed, S greeted me in an SUV he rented for the weekend to ship us all around in, and I met the first stranger, J, who was on the same flight as me. J was from North Carolina and had a pretty sweet southern drawl. S had promised us a daiquiri and 30mg adderall upon arrival, but the daiquiri shop wouldn’t let him leave with them, so we had to settle for the addy and search for the liquor store.
Let me just say that Mississippi is the scariest ****ing place on earth. All the women look like the after pic in those don’t do meth ads. Mr. Egypt didn’t have any beer (or teeth), so we settled for beers at a gas station down the street and hit the road.
S and J were definitely more chatty than I was. S was pretty queeny, in a very Southern way, which was entertaining to say the least. As for J, if he hadn’t started talking about dudes I would’ve thought he was the one straight stranger. They both seemed nice and I just tried to keep up with the conversation since they knew each other a lot better than I knew either of them. It was about a 75 minute drive from Gulfport to NOLA.
After seeing some blown out signs and leveled buildings from Katrina east of NOLA (none of which I got pictures of), finally we made it to NOLA.
I think me and this city will get along just fine.
We stopped off at S’s condo where we stayed for the weekend, which was right in the French Quarter a couple blocks off Bourbon St. The place was beautiful. This is the courtyard inside where we stayed.
After a couple drinks, we decided to go check out the NFL Experience at the convention center. We made some roadies for the way there. To get there we had to walk through the area where there were concerts going on and a huge beer tent. I walked past Willis McGehee on the way there, although I wouldn’t have known it was him if Ravens fans weren’t yelling “Big Willie Syle” at him.
Ravens fans were outnumbering Niner fans about 10:1 from what I saw, but they were also more annoying by that ratio (we'll get to this later).
It was right along the waterfront and there was a huge steamboat that you could ride, but we passed all that. The boat was playing that “OH..UH OH UH OHHHH..OHHH” song that became their super original battle cry and that I would hear pretty much everywhere I went for the entire weekend. I think it’s great to be passionate about your team but at least find a song that like 50 teams across all of sports don’t claim as their own.
By this point the addy was kicking in as well as the booze and I was feeling quite good. We slammed our drink outside the convention center and went inside.
The NFL Experience is pretty much what you’d expect – a bunch of games for the kids and exhibits with memorabilia and other cool stuff.
All the prior Super Bowl rings
The prize, birthed by Saint Vince. Thankfully I've seen 4 of these a lot closer and didn't bother standing in line for 20 minutes to see. If you've never seen one of these before you should probably find a better team.
A ball signed by Jim Brown. There was a bunch of signed memorabilia and I think it was all for sale for like a million dollars.
There were all these games you could play too.
I decided to try my hand at a game where you field a punt, then have to return the punt through some tackling dummies. Obviously I’m the only non-parent adult in line. I’m kind of ****ed up at this point so there’s no guarantee I can field this punt and/or run after, but I was pretty focused.
IRL it seemed twice as fast as that, which is hilarious. I thought I was sprinting through the whole thing.
Thankfully there was a scout in the crowd who saw my sick moves, and I was immediately drafted #1 by the Packers. I was going to settle for 9M/year but they insisted on a 6 year 78M contract.
They also had a life size statue of a headless football player for every team.
Overall I’d say the NFL Experience is a must see if you ever find yourself at a Super Bowl, especially if you have kids. It was like $25 for adults, and I’m sure it’s cheaper for kids, but it’s worth it imo.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see like a third of it because S had found suite tickets that had dropped down to about 2k a piece and jumped on it. After like 15 minutes of standing around waiting for him, he gave us the news: we would be attending the Super Bowl from a suite.
After exiting through the gift shop, we wandered back through the riverfront, which was packed full of people, and made it back to the condo, had another drink or two, and got ready for dinner.
The flight was pretty uneventful – had to get some Chick Fil A at the Atlanta airport (amazing obv). The only thing of note was that from Atlanta to Gulfport first class was all Niners fans and coach was all Ravens fans. This theme would carry through the weekend. The people I sat next to were going to the game and it seemed like pretty much everyone else on the plane was too.
Once we landed, S greeted me in an SUV he rented for the weekend to ship us all around in, and I met the first stranger, J, who was on the same flight as me. J was from North Carolina and had a pretty sweet southern drawl. S had promised us a daiquiri and 30mg adderall upon arrival, but the daiquiri shop wouldn’t let him leave with them, so we had to settle for the addy and search for the liquor store.
Let me just say that Mississippi is the scariest ****ing place on earth. All the women look like the after pic in those don’t do meth ads. Mr. Egypt didn’t have any beer (or teeth), so we settled for beers at a gas station down the street and hit the road.
S and J were definitely more chatty than I was. S was pretty queeny, in a very Southern way, which was entertaining to say the least. As for J, if he hadn’t started talking about dudes I would’ve thought he was the one straight stranger. They both seemed nice and I just tried to keep up with the conversation since they knew each other a lot better than I knew either of them. It was about a 75 minute drive from Gulfport to NOLA.
After seeing some blown out signs and leveled buildings from Katrina east of NOLA (none of which I got pictures of), finally we made it to NOLA.
I think me and this city will get along just fine.
We stopped off at S’s condo where we stayed for the weekend, which was right in the French Quarter a couple blocks off Bourbon St. The place was beautiful. This is the courtyard inside where we stayed.
After a couple drinks, we decided to go check out the NFL Experience at the convention center. We made some roadies for the way there. To get there we had to walk through the area where there were concerts going on and a huge beer tent. I walked past Willis McGehee on the way there, although I wouldn’t have known it was him if Ravens fans weren’t yelling “Big Willie Syle” at him.
Ravens fans were outnumbering Niner fans about 10:1 from what I saw, but they were also more annoying by that ratio (we'll get to this later).
It was right along the waterfront and there was a huge steamboat that you could ride, but we passed all that. The boat was playing that “OH..UH OH UH OHHHH..OHHH” song that became their super original battle cry and that I would hear pretty much everywhere I went for the entire weekend. I think it’s great to be passionate about your team but at least find a song that like 50 teams across all of sports don’t claim as their own.
By this point the addy was kicking in as well as the booze and I was feeling quite good. We slammed our drink outside the convention center and went inside.
The NFL Experience is pretty much what you’d expect – a bunch of games for the kids and exhibits with memorabilia and other cool stuff.
All the prior Super Bowl rings
The prize, birthed by Saint Vince. Thankfully I've seen 4 of these a lot closer and didn't bother standing in line for 20 minutes to see. If you've never seen one of these before you should probably find a better team.
A ball signed by Jim Brown. There was a bunch of signed memorabilia and I think it was all for sale for like a million dollars.
There were all these games you could play too.
I decided to try my hand at a game where you field a punt, then have to return the punt through some tackling dummies. Obviously I’m the only non-parent adult in line. I’m kind of ****ed up at this point so there’s no guarantee I can field this punt and/or run after, but I was pretty focused.
IRL it seemed twice as fast as that, which is hilarious. I thought I was sprinting through the whole thing.
Thankfully there was a scout in the crowd who saw my sick moves, and I was immediately drafted #1 by the Packers. I was going to settle for 9M/year but they insisted on a 6 year 78M contract.
They also had a life size statue of a headless football player for every team.
Overall I’d say the NFL Experience is a must see if you ever find yourself at a Super Bowl, especially if you have kids. It was like $25 for adults, and I’m sure it’s cheaper for kids, but it’s worth it imo.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see like a third of it because S had found suite tickets that had dropped down to about 2k a piece and jumped on it. After like 15 minutes of standing around waiting for him, he gave us the news: we would be attending the Super Bowl from a suite.
After exiting through the gift shop, we wandered back through the riverfront, which was packed full of people, and made it back to the condo, had another drink or two, and got ready for dinner.
