We left Madison early Friday morning and were pretty lucky with all our flights. We had a couple delays, but nothing too serious and made it to Dallas at about 5pm. After picking up our car, we headed to our hotel. The roads were absolutely terrible. There was ice and snow everywhere. Even when the roads were relatively clear, there were patches of black ice all over them. I live in Wisconsin and I am used to driving in poor conditions, but it was still a bit scary driving on Friday. We were pretty tired so we just headed out to a popular BBQ restaurant in Arlington for dinner (David's). It wasn't in the best area and the place itself was pretty much a dive, but the food was pretty good. Having lived in Kansas City for awhile, I know good BBQ and this was pretty good.
Our friends who drove got into town late Friday night after a treacherous drive from Wisconsin. They said for 2 hours Thursday night in Missouri and pretty much the whole drive Friday, they feared for their lives. They said the highway was complete ice. They saw numerous cars and semi-trailers slide into the ditches and even across medians and into other lanes of oncoming traffic. We were certainly glad we drove. They did however catch a star studded late dinner at Nick & Sam's Grill once in Dallas. They saw Mark Harmon, Al Michaels, John Madden, Bob Kraft, Rush Limbaugh and others eating there at the time. When it was time to go home that night, they couldn't get a cab because the Dallas cab drivers were on strike. They got lucky and caught a ride home with some hotel employees they ran into.
Saturday morning, my friend and I went to Ft. Worth and Sundance Square. The roads were much better Saturday! ESPN was broadcasting from there, and it was pretty obvious we were in Steelers country since we were outnumbered 10 to 1. I think most Steeler fans stayed in Ft. Worth since the team hotel was there. It was fun watching them broadcast for a bit. There were random "Here we go Steelers" and "Go Pack Go" chants. Hodge and Jaworski were good sports and interacted with the fans even stopping to shake hands and take pictures when they were done.
After that, we headed to the NFL Experience to meet our friends. They had free tickets, so we thought we would join them. When we got there... there was a 2 hour wait for tickets. We should have planned better and bought them ahead of time. A guy walked up to us and offered us tickets for $40 ($25 face) and we took them. It sounded a lot better than waiting in line for a couple hours. The experience was cool. If you had kids with you, it would be a must see. Some of the old memorabilia was fun to look at. It would have been fun to do some of the demo's like the field goal kicking or the timed throw but we were not in the mood to wait in all the lines. We just enjoyed being there and taking it all in. Here were the highlights from the NFL experience. We ran into Brady Poppinga and his family. His kids (very young) were doing to kiddie training camp drills. I just said hey Brady, not wanting to draw any extra attention to him since he was with his family and told him how proud all of Packer Nation was of him and his teammates. Second, we sat in on an hour talk by Brian Billick. Honestly, I think he is full of himself and has his facts wrong half of the time, but it was still cool to listen to a Super Bowl winning coach for an hour.
That night, we went to a great restaurant called The Screen Door and hit a few hotspots for drinks. It was a fun day and a great primer for Super Bowl Sunday!
The next day, our friends picked us up at 11 since they had purchased parking near the Stadium. The people who owned the parking lot had a custom BBQ trailer. They were giving free food to all who parked there. They has Sausage on a Stick, Ribs, and some other BBQ items. The trailers was huge with several smokers and grills. Across the street was a tiny dive bar called Why Not II. They were offering $2 beers and drinks and some free food all day. We figured we better take advantage of it since the drinks and food at the stadium would be slightly more expensive
At about 1, we headed for the stadium (gates opened at 1). When we got there, the nothing was marked. There was nobody to ask questions to. It was surprisingly unorganized. We waited in line for 2 HOURS!!! People around us had been a numerous Super Bowls and never waited more than 20 minutes before. A few places in front of us in line was Terry Fator (ventriloquist who won America's Got Talent and Vegas headliner. He had his very young girlfriend with him... pretty funny. The worst part of waiting in line was this. Several times while we were in the line turns, they started letting people who walked up the sides in. They didn't even have to wait and it would bring our line to a complete standstill. Here were thousands of people who had been waiting for at least an hour, and they would just let some people right it. They weren't VIPs or anything, the gate attendents just didn't have clear control of the secured areas. When were finally got in, there were even more people in line. I assume they barely got in before kickoff.
After getting in, we all hit the restrooms. They were filthy. No more soap or paper towels and empty bottles everywhere. The trash cans were overflowing. I was shocked. I have never seen it that bad at any sporting event and the thing just started. I would have thought they would have had so much extra staff to make sure they were perfect for this showcase of the stadium. We snapped a couple pics in front of the stadium and then we all split up and headed to our seats. While walking to our seats, Evander Holyfield walked right by us. I said "Hey Champ" but he didn't even acknowledge us. Our seats were great. Section 243. The only downfall was we were around almost all Steeler fans. There were only about 6 Packer fans in our section. I think most the cooperate people picked the Steelers as there team for the day. We saw so many people with tags still on their Jerseys!
All the pregame stuff was fine. It was fun seeing the players checking out the field and warming up. Masthay was booming punts in warmup. I think he could have easily hit the screen. The singers sounded better in person than on TV (I watched it last night when I got home). The crowd rumbled when Christina messed up the anthem, but didn't boo or anything. The first half was a blast. The Steeler fans around us kept commenting on how amazing Rodgers looked in person. Even though the Steeler fans way outnumbered the Packer fans, the Packer fans were much louder in the first half. When we saw Woodson land hard on his shoulder (especially the replay on the gigantic screen) we were worried. We didn't notice yet that Shields got knocked out too. Even though they scored, I think everyone still felt like the Packers had this game won (Packer and Steeler fans alike).
The fans were all nice in our section. There was a 70 year old woman next to my friend who adopted the Packers as her team since she though "we were nice young men." She even bought a cheesehead for her grandson at half time! There was good banter between everyone throughout the game. I watched the half-time show on TV and it sounded terrible. In person, it was amazing. Fergie sounded amazing (especially during the Guns and Roses part). I was impressed. The whole light show was pretty cool in person. Everyone around us thought it was a great show. I don't think it translated well to TV unfortunately.
At the beginning of the second half, they announced that Woodson and Shields were questionable, and we just said uh oh. The 3rd quarter was painful. Packer fans were silent... just scared. We all remember what teams could do to our secondary last year and without Shields and Woodson, it looked like more of the same. You have to hand it to Bush, Lee, and the whole team. The played okay despite so much of the secondary. They gave up a lot of points but made huge plays when needed. The Packer fans came alive again after the fumble recovery and were lively the rest of the game.
The last drive was agonizing, but when it was over, Packer fans erupted. It was like we could all finally breath. People were hugging, jumping, crying, screaming... you name it. It was one of those moments I know I will never forget. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to be at a Super Bowl to see my favorite team win!
After watching the ceremonies and celebrating and talking to a bunch of fans, we headed back to our car. We hung out at the Why Not II for awhile and let the traffic dissipate. It was packed with Pack fans not all celebrating and cheering. Good times! One of our freinds commented that this was the first time he wasn't on edge since their journey began (with the scary drive and close game). The last thing we did was head back to Sundance Square in Ft. Worth. ESPN was live. The analysts were Trey Wingo, Trent Dilfer, Keyshawn Johnson and Cris Carter. Keyshawn drives me crazy. He is so outspoken and quite frankly was never that good. He had been dogging the Packers for weeks, so I thought this was my chance. I yelled at him "How does your pick look now?" He made some crack about cheeseheads and how Rodgers is not as good as we think. I went after him. I asked Chris Carter was laughing so hard. I told Carter that I hated him as a player, but that I have no idea how he isn't in the Hall of Fame yet. After they were done, Chris Carter came over and shook my hand. He told me that having a Packer fan hate him is a true compliment and told me how impressed he is with our team. Dilfer shook my hand and said Rodgers is better than we realize. Trey shook my hand and said thanks for livening up the end of their night. Keyshawn just ran by (ha ha ha).
We went out until bar time. Celebrated with fans. Talked with Steeler fans about the game. Just had a good time. After that, we went back to our hotel and left the next day.
It was a great trip. I don't blame Dallas for the weather issues. It's the worst weather in 25 years there. There is not much they could have done other than salt a bit better. As for the stadium... if you are trying to show off, I think they should have been way more organized. Just have signs with clear directions and controlling lines would have helped so much. Communicating better when things were not going as planned so we knew what to expect would have helped too. I wish things would have been cleaner and I wish the staff would not have been scavengering around the seats for souvenirs during the celebration at the end. They should have left the seat cushions people left and other things for the fans who traveled so far for the game. It was a great weekend, and the few complaints I had were not bad enough to diminish the experience! There is probably so much more I could have written about. I hope those of you who could not make it to the game enjoy reading about my experience. Go Pack Go!
