MVN - Most Valuable Network

My Super Bowl Experience in Arizona

What a week it has been! In case you didn’t know, your New York Giants are the NFL Champions. By now, it should have sunk in. The 10-6 NFC Wild Card team that everyone discounted is the NFL Champion, but you’ve heard all of that before. It’s almost at the point of overkill, though I can’t be sure if that’s possible in this situation. I have to say, being in Arizona for the game made this one of the best weekends of my life. I’d like to take you through my exciting experience, from start to finish, including pictures and stories along the way.

**(NOTE: I wrote this entry thinking that I would be able to attach the many pictures I have with the post, but, unfortunately, I need to pick up the USB wire from my dad. Pictures will be posted later tonight or tomorrow morning, so make sure to check back.)**

Before I begin, I would like to give you some background information, as I’m sure it will be asked. For years my father had been the president of a major media corporation that controlled the advertisement time slots for the Super Bowl. One of the perks this job had was that every year he was able to get two tickets to the big sporting events his company worked with - the Super Bowl and the Final Four. My brother and I would alternate who went to which event, so I had previously been lucky enough to go to Super Bowl XXXVIII and Super Bowl XL. This year, however, my father is working in a different field with a different company and we weren’t sure if he would still be able to get tickets to the game. Fortunately, a former colleague said that he could help us out. Though we were certain the seats would not be nearly as good as they had been in years past, just being there was good enough for us.

Saturday:
Leaving my house at 11:00 am, my father and I started on our way. After a long trip, which included a lay over in Houston and a heavy dose of “Scrubs,” we arrived in Arizona at around 7:00pm. We went to the hotel, had some dinner and went to sleep. We wanted to be well-rested for the ensuing big day.

Sunday:
This was it, the long-awaited day had arrived. I woke up, strapped on my Super Bowl-Edition Plaxico jersey and went off to receive the tickets from my father’s friend. My hopes of getting lucky with decent seats were crushed as I looked down and saw that we had been seated in section 436, all the way at the top of the stadium. Like I said, I was happy just being there, so there would be no complaints out of my mouth. After we got the tickets, we went off to brunch. Following the meal, we were faced with a small decision that had to be made. We had two invitations from both the NFL Network and CBS to attend their pre-game parties. If we went to the NFL Network “Tailgate” party, we wouldn’t have to do much since they were leaving from our hotel. If we were to go to the CBS party, we would have to take a cab to their hotel and then take the company bus from there. Though it didn’t seem like a very important decision at the time, we would later find out that it was one of the biggest decisions we made all weekend.

We opted to keep it simple and stay with the NFL Network. On our way to the party my father wanted to make sure he had exhausted all of his options in hopes of obtaining better seats. Mind you, many of the people in the advertisement industry that were there carried extra tickets for clients and stayed in a box, themselves. He received no response. We got off the bus and entered the Tailgate party. It was very nicely put together and looked like it would be a fun time before the game. As we stood outside the main area of the party, my father received an e-mail. It was a response from one of his friends and former co-workers who he had inquired with about swapping tickets. The e-mail basically read, “Meet me at the Tailgate Party.” We spotted him and, lo and behold, he had two tickets that we were able to swap with him. We thanked him sincerely and then looked down to read the tickets. “Gate 1, Section 108, Row 16.” I immediately went online to find the seating chart for the stadium and saw that our tickets put us directly on the 50 yard line in the first section, 16 rows back. We were ecstatic. A few minutes later my father received an e-mail from a friend at the CBS party he had inquired with who informed us that he was unable to help us. Good thing we went to the NFL Network Party.

The party itself was a lot of fun. There was good food and Willie Nelson came out and performed. There were also a few celebrities in attendance such as Steve Young and James Belushi.

At around 3:00 pm we decided to head into the stadium to make sure our seat predictions were correct. Spot on. It was incredible being so close to the action at the Super Bowl. I had to soak it all in. There were celebrities all around us, as Paula Abdula was seated a few rows in front and Larry David was a few rows to the right.

Before we knew it, it was kick-off time. The environment was surreal. Though we were on New England’s side of the stadium, our row was filled with Giants fans and it was easy to see the G-Men had more supporters than the Pats throughout. As for the game, I think we all know how that turned out.

And like that it was over. I think everyone was just in shock and awe. After that TD, I turned to the guy on my right, who I had befriended throughout the game, and jumped up and hugged him. Come to think of it, I think I hugged everybody around me. How could I not? It was the single greatest moment in my sports-watching history and the emotion that came over me was indescribable, especially since I was able to be there as it happened.

That night we went back to the hotel and celebrated with fellow Giants fans, discussing the events and re-watching the game on TV. Though I’m not of drinking age, I didn’t need to be - I was drunk off of the glory (God, that sounded cheesy.) When I got back to our hotel room, I watched the highlights about 30 times and even had a difficult time getting to sleep. I didn’t want the night to end. But alas, my body overpowered my mind and the night came to a conclusion

Monday:
Nothing awesome happened on Monday. I continued watching the commentary on TV and prepared for another long flight home. After all was said and done, I wound up getting back to my house at around 2:00 am. I was beyond exhausted, but it was all worth it.

Though I’ve been to many big sporting events, met many famous people, been on the field at the Meadowlands, been a ball-boy for the Knicks and more, this was by far the best sporting experience I’ve ever had in my entire life and I am extremely blessed to have been able to have it. I am infinitely appreciative of all the opportunities that I have been given and I truly know how lucky I am. It is something that I will never forget. My New York Giants - our New York Giants - are the champions of the world. I still can’t believe it. The word echoes in my mind as I convince myself it’s reality: Champions. We. Are. Champions.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Giants 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.