Super Bowl Memories: "Not a bad day, eh?"

The first was Super Bowl 33 (1999) between the Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos in Miami. I took my then 11-year old son to stay with my in-laws and on Super Bowl morning,drove to the stadium, paid $40 to park right next to the stadium in a huge tailgating lot. We made two signes on shoebox lids, one saying, "Need 2 Tickets - Go Broncos," and the other, "Need Two Tickets - Go Falcons." He held one and I held the other and whenever fans of one team walked by we flashed the corresponding sign. People laughed and some scalpers offered us tickets at ridiculous prices, but we waited. We walked around, ate, played football with others and kept flashing our signs. CNN interviewed us and as it got closer to gametime, we walked around the outside of the stadium with the signs. Finally, someone came up to us and said they'd sell us tickets at a reasonable price, we I took and we made it by less than an hour. We sat in the upper deck end zone but towards the end of the game moved down to the 50-yard line. I saw a couple of empty seats and asked if anyone was sitting there. I was told, "Not now, but Cameron Diaz was for most of the game." Chris Rock came up the aisle next to us and motivational speaker Anthony Robbins was on the other side of the aisle. Not a bad day, eh?

I went to the Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl 35 (2001) versus the New York Giants with my brother-in-law without tickets and we partied at the Ravens hotel and local bars taken over by Ravens fans. Saw Magic Johnson, Hank Aaron and lots of other celebs. On game-day we went to the Ravens bar with signs, one saying "Will trade wives for two tickets." A Baltimore TV station saw it and put me on TV, which my wife's sister saw and called her, prompting her to call and yell at me, slamming down the phone. A pretty blonde came up to me after the TV interview and asked me what my wife looked like, as she was thinking of trading the tickets.I said, "To heck with the game!" Anyway, we walked to the stadium and a food vendor snuck my brother-in-law into the game for $600, giving him a vendor shirt and badge, but no ticket. I waited until 20 minutes before gametime to finally scalp a single ticket but freaked out that I spent $1500 for it. While walking towards the stadium I tried to sell it and would have taken $2500 but the most I was offered was $2300. I went in and sat in the seat for the first and third quarters and let my brother-in-law sit there in the 2nd, with the other person walking around the stadium and sticking our head into the entrances to occasionally watch the live action. By the fourth quarter of the blowout, Giants fans were leaving so my brother-in-law sat next to me. Right in the seat in front of us was the guy who had snuck my brother-in-law into the stadium. He said it was a one-day job, but instead snuck six people in for $600 each, then quit and watched the game. $3600 plus watching the Super Bowl? Not a bad day, eh?