Super Bowl time! This is one of my favorite times of the year. When I think about my favorite moments of watching Super Bowls, many great plays come to mind, like the Rams stopping the Titans at the goal-line in the waning moments of the game in Super Bowl XXXIV or Joe Montana throwing the game winning touchdown pass to John Taylor in the final minute to beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII. However, for me the best moment I’ve ever had with a Super Bowl was when I was able to attend Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego.
When I found out that the Super Bowl was coming to San Diego, where I lived at the time, I knew that I had to go to that game. Ever since I was a little kid, I always wished that I could go to the Super Bowl, but there were always a couple of hang-ups: I didn’t live in a warm-weather city and I didn’t have the money to buy the tickets. Well, I finally lived in a warm weather city but the stars didn’t exactly line up for me in San Diego, as I still did not have $1,000 to spend on a ticket as I had to pay for my upcoming wedding in July.
Luckily for me, I had a friend with a solution. While he was unemployed, he had attempted to work concessions at Qualcomm Stadium in order to make a few bucks and go to a few Chargers games for free. However, he didn’t get the job and ended up getting a “real” job a few days later. They told him, though, that they might need him and a friend to work at the Super Bowl. That’s where I came in. I was more than happy to be that friend. Finally my stars had aligned.
It was actually a pretty tough task to get to the stadium, as there was so much security and only trolleys and buses were allowed to go to the parking lot. When we finally arrived, we went to the workers’ tent, where we were given a long-sleeve Super Bowl shirt and a cap. The job we had to do consisted of being a runner for food in the lower mezzanine section, which were great seats. A waitress would take all the orders while a line of runners would wait in the aisles watching the game (and occasionally run to get the food). Luckily my section had the slowest waitress, so I got to spend the majority of the first half watching the game from the aisle.
Then in the second half, we only had to serve people through half of the third quarter. After that we were allowed to watch the game from wherever we could find empty seats. Surprisingly, there were two seats in the front row of our section that were open. So I got to watch the rest of the game from great seats. The game was not the best, as Tampa Bay beat up on Oakland pretty good that game, which was surprising since Oakland was favored to win. I was loving it, though, as the pageantry is unmatched. There were fireworks, fighter jets flying overhead, sky-divers, confetti and great singers. From my front row seat, I was able to watch Jon Bon Jovi give a concert after the game.
After the game, my friend and I decided to collect Super Bowl seat covers, which were placed on every seat. Many people had left theirs so we scooped up as many as we could carry. In addition, they came with a Super Bowl walkman in the front pocket. I also was able to snag a Super Bowl flag hanging over the entrance that I kept as a memento.
This was definitely one of the more memorable experiences I have had. I was actually glad that I hadn’t just bought tickets to the game. Instead, I was able to have a great experience, collect a few mementos, and make some money doing it.
