XLIV

February 8, 2010







XLIV

Saints come marching in!

In January of 1995 I attended my first and up to now only Super Bowl. Like this year, the game was held in Miami and featured the San Francisco 49ers pummeling the San Diego Chargers 49-26. I think the face value of the tickets was around $300.00 compared to the $900.00 price on this year’s tickets, but the real difference was just in the size and scope of the experience of attending the game.



Drew & Andy



The day of the game started fairly early and I joined two fellow Colts fans, Danny & Adam, who just happened to be staying at our hotel and were also scheduled to attend the pregame tailgate party that my friends from Indianapolis had organized. After a brief stop for some provisions, we headed over to the stadium. We were early enough that we didn’t hit any major traffic at all.





My buddy Andy Deemer had scouted out a good tailgating spot in a nearby high school where we set up camp. Throughout the day we were joined by about 50 additional Colts fans both known and new friends who all wanted to celebrate being at the game. It was cool to hang with so many Colts fans, everyone was pretty excited and it was a really good time.





After spending a few hours at the tailgate, we headed over to the stadium where we joined the throngs going through the exceedingly tight security. It didn’t take that long and after a few minutes, we were through the gate at actually at the Super Bowl. It has grown into a massive, massive event. There were stages, activities, concessions and even a few rides set up all around the stadium, literally acres and acres of stuff to do. While the throngs at the beach were overwhelmingly Saints fans, at the actual game the ratio was far more even. I think many New Orleans fans just made the drive down to party, having no intention of attending the game.



With the Lombardi Trophy

The area around the stadium had a carnival atmosphere and there was all sorts of stuff to do, from watching the live CBS broadcast of the pre-game show in person, to watching the likes of Daughtry or Steve Winwood perform at the FanFest tailgate party to going through the NFL experience where you could compete in training exercises conducted by former NFL players.



Jeff

With George Teague

We tried to do as much as possible, catching a little bit of each thing before eventually heading in to our seats. Andy was able to recognize former Dallas Cowboy George Teague, who famously knocked Terrell Owens off the Dallas star at midfield some years ago an got him to pose for a photo with Andy holding a No T.O. sign.

Emmitt Smith





After a few hours enjoying the fun, we headed in to our seats. A group of us were sitting in the same section, though not together. Section 155 was located on the lower level in the endzone toward the Colts side of the field. We were way closer to the field than I’d ever imagined. They were great seats. We were able to get a great view of all the pregame action and even caught a good view of celebrities like Demi Moore & Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler as well as all the new members of the NFL Hall of Fame including Jerry Rice & Emmitt Smith.





The pregame was as exciting as any I have ever seen, the mood of the crowd was totally electric. Queen Latifah sang “America the Beautiful” and Carrie Underwood did a great job on the National Anthem, and then it was time for the actual game to begin.