LETTERS OF STATE
Casual MY FIRST OF MANY SUPER BOWLS Can you imagine spending $29,385 on a football game? That sum, nearly as much as the average Mississippi household earns in a year, is what...
...There to witness the upset, in seats on the 50-yard line, was Marc, a mutual fund manager who told the Associated Press that he paid $40,000 for a package that included tickets for himself and his three young sons, all Giants fans...
...So is this Marcel Nadeau crazy...
...Sean Payton, coach of the New Orleans Saints, also demurred, but gave me a hint about his politics...
...On an unrelated note, it’s worth mentioning that the NFL employees who deal with the media are the best in the world at this kind of work...
...party...
...That Tyree was a relatively unknown player who had lost his mother six weeks earlier gave the narrative further dramatic appeal...
...Not this year...
...That stinks...
...It’s not something I’m going to do on a regular basis...
...And those involved in credentialing deserve a big, fat raise...
...I’m different...
...That sum, nearly as much as the average Mississippi household earns in a year, is what Massachusetts native Marcel Nadeau paid to take his two sons to the Super Bowl...
...On Friday night, I walked down the red carpet at the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center to attend ESPN the Magazine’s athlete-studded “What’s Next...
...Or he might have bought a threebedroom, one-bath summer home for sale right now in Batesville, Arkansas...
...I do see it as something I’d like to do on a regular basis...
...I’m confi dent the Patriots will win,” he said before the game...
...Instead, they made history by losing—the second biggest upset since the first Super Bowl some four decades ago...
...NFL teams have inspired this kind of fanaticism across the country...
...But those fl ashes never came because the only pro athlete I resemble now is bowler Brian Himmler...
...Not surprisingly, I didn’t make it to a breakfast sponsored by “NFL Play 60,” the league’s “youth health and fi tness campaign...
...Mike Ditka...
...On an unrelated note, did I mention how great the NFL . . . ) STEPHEN F. HAYES...
...The Giants...
...I thought I’d fake out the long line of eager photographers by pulling my baseball cap down over my eyes and shielding my face from the blinding fl ashes the way the celebrities do...
...With all of the hype surrounding the Super Bowl, it’s easy to see how the game itself sometimes gets lost...
...The undefeated New England Patriots came to Arizona poised to make history as the NFL’s fi rst 19-0 team...
...Jim Belushi, an avid Chicago Bears fan, said he planned to write in his choice...
...Nadeau got three nights’ hotel, breakfast, and transportation to and from the game...
...For about the same amount, Mr...
...My NFL experience could not have been better...
...I see it as a once in a lifetime event,” he said...
...I’d much rather tell you who I’m supporting here,” he said...
...Nadeau could have had a never-before-driven 2008 BMW 128 ($28,000...
...Why...
...According to a recent Harris poll, professional football is almost as popular as baseball, auto racing, and basketball—the next three pro sports—combined...
...Plus, Mr...
...Or he could have stood outside the stadium and given each of the 75,000 ticket holders one pre-game Pabst Blue Ribbon...
...No thanks...
...No, he just has more money that most of us...
...They’re the more conservative club...
...There was C.C...
...I went for free, as one of nearly 5,000 credentialed journalists from around the world...
...I also passed on an opportunity to see “The Taz?n Latino II”—a fl ag football game between retired NFL players and Latino celebrities—that took place at something called “The NFL Experience Built by Home Depot,” sponsored by Coors Light...
...Sabathia, Brian Westbrook, Marcellus Wiley, Willie McGinest...
...The highlight of the game— and possibly of the decade— came when Eli Manning shed three Patriots defenders to fi re a pass 32 yards downfield to David Tyree, who seemed to defy the laws of nature by clutching the ball against his helmet and then holding on as he crashed to the turf...
...Mmmmm, how to put it...
...No bacon...
...As a writer there to cover the game and to do some reporting for a longer article on the NFL, I could pick and choose among Super Bowl week’s non-game-related activities...
...Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, told me he had maxed out his support to McCain...
...MC Hammer, who looks just the same as he did when I saw him live in 1991, wouldn’t touch it...
...In a feeble attempt to combine my interest in football and my interest in politics, and because the game was in John McCain’s home state two days before Super Tuesday, I spent the weekend asking anyone I recognized who they support for president...
Vol. 13 • February 2008 • No. 23
