Thoughts of a Middle Aged Man

As with our Rose Bowl trip, working for the world’s largest ticketing company gave me access to purchase a pair of tickets at face value to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. We didn’t find out that would get the tickets until Friday morning. That gave us enough time to cancel a previously planned Super Bowl party, find a place to stay, find out where to pick up my tickets and then find our way there and back from the game. We ended up driving to Phoenix Saturday afternoon, stopping by a downtown hotel to pick up our tickets and then out to Gilbert, southeast of town to stay with friends.

A late breakfast at Denny’s (the only breakfast place we could find in Gilbert and by the wait list, it was) followed by a drive to Glendale, we parked for free at the civic center and took a $5 round trip shuttle to the stadium. We wandered through the local mall that was hosting many of the super bowl parties (see the Super Bowl Pictures), the through security where we had to throw away everything but phones, cameras and keys. Into the NFL experience, then finally to the stadium to find our seats. We were having trouble finding our entry gate, so we asked for help at the club level gate. Low and behold the tickets I had were club seats. Escorted up top the private level, we had seats at the 35 yard line, and ended up surrounded by semi famous celebrities like Chris Berman and Tom Jackson of ESPN, Jack Kemp, a former US senator, Cal Ripken, and many of the NY Giants family members were behind us.

The Super Bowl reminds me of a huge corporate convention, probably similar to Mac World , loyal followers gathering for a week of fun that culminates in a huge event (except the excitement at Mac World is on the first day). The game started slow, but because we were in NY Giant territory the ending of the game excited everyone around us and we got swept up in the moment. With Alicia Keys and Tom Petty adding more entertainment, it was a super way to spend a weekend. After the game, we took the shuttle back to the car and made the long trip home, arriving at 1am on Monday.

With sleepy eyes, we headed off to work the next day smiling as we knew we checked another life experience off our list.