My Super Bowl Experience [Posted For FootballNorth]

[Axegrinder]

Please don't post until Football North has his info up and in place.

[IowaSkinsFan]

FootballNorth:

Please PM one of the Admins or Moderators when you are ready to post and we will open your thread.

[FootballNorth]

Hi gang,

I had the pleasure of being at the Super Bowl this year, and though it would be great to share my experience with all you other fellow Skins fans. It was an incredible few days that I will remember forever.

To start, check out my website at www.footballnorth.com. I have “Super Bowlized” it with photos from in and around the game, including me at the game proudly wearing my Brunell Jersey the whole time.

Here are some facts/highlights from the trip:

- I found a “steal” on my ticket package. There was someone on ebay selling a package deal their daughter had won in a drawing for 4 nights at the Downtown Marriott with a pair of tickets to the game. The posting was quickly removed by ebay as it violated some of their policies related to tour packages, but luckily I was able to get some contact information before this happened. We worked out a deal and the rest is history.

- My wife and I drove down from our home in Toronto the Thursday before the game. After literally loading the car up with booze (the duty free shop at the border had a deal where you got a free case of beer if you spent $100 that I could not pass up) we arrived in the early evening, and were immediately overwhelmed by the number of people and police.

- The next few days were filled with visiting the city and the game-related events and sights. Being from Toronto I had been through and to Detroit a few times before for Lions and other games, and the best part has usually been leaving. The city tried, and pulled off the week quite well. Amongst the still numerous boarded up buildings and overwhelming lack of places to eat, there was a huge series of tents/skating rink/concert stages/Model T Rides and other events set-up for the entire week. There was also a pretty large snow tubing ride for the kids and a dog sled demonstration, which did not really happen as there was no snow and it was not cold enough for them to make any. Just a pretty mild and drizzly weekend. There was also the “NFL Experience” event that was pretty neat, as well as ESPN was there broadcasting SportsCenter and other live broadcasts.

- I did not get my tickets to the game until 2:30 PM on Sunday. I was only promised upper endzones so was elated to see they put me in section 333 (on the 24 yard line on the Seahawks side). Although I would have liked her to come, my wife wanted to sell her ticket as she is not really a fan. So with her enjoying room service and other hotel amenities during the game (and pocketing $2,500 for her single) I was off to the game. Actually holding MY TICKET to the game for the first time put tears in my eyes and I was shaking.

- Then it was off to the game and the sea of Steelers fans. The lineups began blocks before the game, and after winding around in lines for about 25 minutes I got through the various pat-downs and metal detectors and finally had my ticket carefully ripped and I was in. It might sound odd, but this moment was likely my favorite of the entire trip. I WAS GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL (and my ticket was not a fake)!

- After tickets being ripped everyone was still about 3 blocks from the stadium. They had this entire radius blocked off, and if you did not have a ticket you could barely get close enough to see the stadium.

- I’ll end this initial posting here, as a lot of the rest you can see from my photos and I will be sticking close to this posting most of today and as much as I can over the next few days to chat with anyone who wants to.

In closing – what an incredible experience. It would have been magnified many times over if the Redskins were in the game, but in my mind this is a must for any football fan to do at least once in their lives.

Wait until we get in again soon, and we’ll see you all there!

Rob (footballnorth)

[CNYSkinFan]

cool pics...glad you were wearing your colors to the game.

[Patrick]

Most Excellent job Rob!
Getting to attend a Superbowl is one of my "Before I Die" things I want to do so I envy you.
AND the wife getting $2500 - too cool!
Thanks of sharing!!!!

[chrisbcbu]

Thats good stuff! Im hoping next year with the Super Bowl not to far away from me, that i may be able to go.

Thanks for sharing!

[dj_stouty]

Great write up.

I'm curious...how did your wife sell the ticket? Online or outside the stadium? If it was indeed outdoors, how do you cautiously count $2,400 during the exchange? :)

[FootballNorth]

We actually sold my wife's ticket to someone I met a few days before the game through ebay. To make a long story short, both her and I were getting the run around on another set of tickets we both bought on ebay from the same guy and were working together to straighten it out. By the time it came for the exchange we fully trusted each other and it was as simple as exchanging my wife's ticket for 25 Franklin's. I didn't even bother counting it until I got back to my room to drop the cash off and get a good look at my ticket. We sat together at the game, and despite her being a Cowgirls fan, had a great time.

Funny thing though, there were a tonne of scalpers in the hotel lobby, and they seemed to know when this tour company's block of tickets were being released (they had about 100 tickets to give away) and they were hovering around like vultures.

The ticket situation in the days and hours leading up to the game was nice to see. All the scalpers were looking for tickets, but no one was selling.

[RedskinsDave]

I was only promised upper endzones so was elated to see they put me in section 333 (on the 24 yard line on the Seahawks side).

You are the second person I have heard this from now.

[RedskinRyan]

great pics. although i hope that one woman leaves the terrible bra on and DOES NOT swing it around.

[FootballNorth]

That lady in the terrible bra was an odd one. I'm pretty sure she was quite drunk already. It reminded me of being in college when someone would get so drunk that you could shave their legs and put make-up on them because they were too incapacitated to know any better.

[BurgundyNGold]

Sounds like you had a great time, FN. Way to represent!

[ryflan47]

Dang man, I didn't see ya there! I was right by the replay booth with my Redskins hat on! I saw a few skins fans there though! Way to represent!

[HAWGZHEAD]

Nice pics and great write up. Sounds like a great experience. Hopefully I will get to go to my first next year to see the Skins!

[whistleandthumb]

Fantastic pictures, FN... I'm very jealous. I would love to get to a SB one day; hopefully, they'll come back to the Rose Bowl at some point. Great story, and I'm glad you had a fun time.

[Axegrinder]

Great job.
I love it when people share their experiences and take pics to document the moments.

Do you have any pics of your accomodations?
What were the prices for souvenirs?
What did you get in your Super Bowl gift bag?



To Rob and all others:
Please feel free to share any and all football experiences with us.
It helps bring the hR community together while we're spread out all over the globe!
Thanks again Rob!!!:)

[FootballNorth]

Axe - Stay tuned about 15 minutes. I just took a photo of some souvenirs I have at home here and will also upload some other photos of another souvenir and the main hotel. I'll make another post when I'm ready to go with a link to the new page on my site.

Rob

[LadyNRedskinsfan]

great pics and write up rob! going to the super bowl is definitely on my life long to do list along with getting to all 32 nfl stadiums. 5 down, 27 to go! :)

[RedskinRyan]

great pics and write up rob! going to the super bowl is definitely on my life long to do list along with getting to all 32 nfl stadiums. 5 down, 27 to go! :)

which stadiums have you already been to?

[LadyNRedskinsfan]

which stadiums have you already been to?
lets see....of course, ive been to fedex. :beer: ive been to m&t bank stadium but not to see the redskins and ravens yet. ive been there to see the ravens vs. titans, redskins vs. ravens in the pre-season and to see little league football games, but not yet a regular season matchup between the skins and birds. invesco field in 2005, cleveland browns stadium in 2004 and the georgia dome in 2003.

[FootballNorth]

Axe - Okay, I just added a page to my website (entitled "HOTEL, PROMOS"). Here are explanations of the photos:

1. Ask the eight ball. This is a souvenir I bought right when I got there on Thursday. It was priced everywhere at $119 (not real leather) or higher, but I was able to get it for $100. It's not my style (too flashy and reminded me of Putty from Seinfeld and his eight ball jacket) but it so accurately summed up all of my emotions of being there I had to get it. I knew I could not pull off wearing it out of my room, but I wore it most of the time I was in the room. My wife took the photo of me with a pair of tickets to the game.

I ended up giving the jacket to my father-in-law. Half to thank him for taking care of our house when we were gone and half because I know he would love it. He has been strutting around town the last week with it. He says he has had many offers to buy it from him, but he would never do it. He just loves telling people his son-in-law was at the game.

2. I just took this photo now of some souvenirs, on your request. Giveaways at the game were the seat cushion as well as the little flashlight pictured with the XL logo on it (used by the aucience as a prop for TV during one of the Stones songs). There was also that little black AM/FM radio with the XL logo on it. Also some advertising materials and those Michigan postcards from the photo.

The other things from the photo include the T-Shirt on the treadmill and the jacket. I got both of these things the day after the game for $60. The souvenirs were going for about half price then. The hat, believe it or not, I found in a souvenir bag on top of a garbage can downtown. I felt really bad for taking it and waited around a few minutes in case the owner came back, but if I did not take it someone else would have (it was brand new and obviously just purchased).

The cat was not a souvenir, she just wanted to be in the picture.

3. The SportsCenter photo is from inside the Renaissance Center hotel (a part of the huge 5 building GM complex that served as media and other headquarters) on Saturday night. It was a complete zoo. The announcers sat just to the left side of the scene in the photo.

4. The dark photo is of the tallest building of the 5 I took on the walk back after the game. The XL logo took over about the top 15 stories of this building. I wish I had taken a photo during daylight hours as it was really impressive looking.

Rob

[CornerBlitz]

Glad to hear you had such a fun time! Good job on your site, the pictures were really helpful to get the perspective and fun to see. Way to represent the skins too with the Brunell jersey :awesomewo HTTR

[Axegrinder]

Thanks for the update Rob!
I hope that good fortune allows us [Redskins fans] to meet up in Miami for next years festivities.:)