Memories of Super Sunday

The Super Bowl.

It’s one last time for tailgates with friends and family and meaningful football that’s wrapped around endless hours of pregame filler programming, a battle of commercials, and, if you’re fortunate enough to have your team in the big game, a chance to witness immortality.

Yeah, it’s not called “Super Sunday” for nothing. And I’ve been fortunate enough to attend five Super Bowls in my lifetime, there as a member of the media, and two as a spectator. (One of the Super Bowls did not involve the Giants, by the way.)

In honor of today’s big game, I thought I’d share some of my memories from each. I hope you enjoy my little trip down memory lane before the Chiefs and 49ers take the field.

Super Bowl XXI

At the time of this game, I was in my first year of college --grown up, yet not quite as grown-up as I thought myself to be at the time. My father had been a Giants season ticket holder for more than 40 years, and Super Bowl XXI was the only time out of the five Super Bowl appearances the Giants made that he was selected in the lottery for tickets.

Now before I became a football fan, I had long been a devout baseball fan. However, the 1985 strike pretty much dulled my interest in the game (until that point, I had aspired to be a baseball writer).

Meanwhile, my interest in football was picking up, primarily due to the countless Sunday afternoons I'd spend with my dad watching the games (not just Giants games, but whatever was one). When the chance was there to see the Giants in the Super Bowl, I desperately wanted to go to Pasadena to see the game. There were just a few things that stood in my way. First, I had no money to afford the trip.

Second, I had classes the next day, and I made a pact with my parents to not skip classes unless I was sick. Third, even though this was a special occasion, my dad didn’t want me making a cross-country trip alone since I was the very definition of a “young adult” at the time.

But we made a deal. Since I was home from school that weekend, he agreed to let me stay home to watch the Super Bowl if I agreed to be ready to drive back to school just as soon as it was over.

Okay, no problem. Together we sat and watched one of the greatest games at the time—the big Giants defensive stand down by the goal line and Phil Simms’ record-setting passing performance. In particular, I was glad to see Simms have the day he had—who doesn’t love a good underdog story, right?

All that week leading up to the game, all the talk was about John Elway and what he and the Broncos were going to do to the Giants.

Too bad no one bothered to tell the Giants defense about how Elway and the Broncos were going to roll over them.

Super Bowl XXV

By the time this Super Bowl rolled around, I was out of college and had a job, so being able to afford a trip down to Tampa wasn’t a problem.

Except for one thing: I didn’t have a ticket.

A little back story. I desperately wanted to see the Giants in a Super Bowl in person before I checked out of the world, so when the Giants made it back to the big game, I was determined to go.

It also didn’t hurt that the game was being played in Tampa, Florida, which wasn’t too far from Orlando, site of Disney World.

A friend and I decided to make the trip, but while we had flight and hotel reservations, we didn’t have tickets until literally two days before we were supposed to leave.

Okay, so with the tickets in hand, crisis, averted, right?

Wrong.

Our flight was originally supposed to stop in Miami, where we would connect to Tampa. From there, we would drive to our hotel in Orlando.

Ah, but so much for the best-laid plans. Our flight out of Newark Airport was delayed three hours, which meant we missed our connecting flight.

And when we did make it down to Miami, we had to be rerouted to Sarasota, where, from there, the airlines (PanAm, remember them?) because we had missed the last flight to Tampa where we had the rental car waiting.

The joys of travel, right?

On game day, we had to park in a shopping lot mall, right in front of a Sears department store because, as is the case on Super Bowl Sunday, parking is a madhouse. As we were walking to the stadium, we ran into these folks from Buffalo who had a tailgate part going and who invited us to join them even though it was clear from our attire we weren’t rooting for the Bills.

I have two other favorite memories from that day. The first is the unforgettable performance of the National Anthem by Whitney Houston.

I’ve long scoffed at “artists” who take creative liberties with performing the song because I believe it’s beautiful enough as written. But Whitney’s version--well there will never be another like it—ever.

To this day, I still get those pregame chills and memories of the patriotism that was on full display and how everyone, regardless of their football rooting interest, came together as one big family at a time of uncertainty.

The other memory I have is Scott Norwood’s “wide right.” Years later, I can sit here and say I feel bad for Norwood and that despite the amazing career he had, he’ll always be best known for the missed field goal in Super Bowl XXV.

But let’s be real. Without that miss, the Giants don’t win Super Bowl XXV, so I don’t feel THAT bad.

We had bleacher seats for the game and that I was at the end of the row. When the Bills lined up for that field goal, I remember standing up and moving to the aisle where I crouched down in prayer. I just couldn’t watch the kick and decided to watch the reactions of the crowd—at that point, I knew what sections had Giants fans and which had Bills fans.

After Norwood struck the ball, I looked up at the crowd, and I was confused because some of the Bills fans were throwing up their hands as if to signify that the kick was good. Meanwhile, I saw Giants fans who looked stunned beyond belief. So I asked my friend, who watched the kick if it had been good. When told Norwood had missed it, I just stood there in disbelief, watching the replay on the scoreboard.

The ride back to Orlando that night was a fun one. Our travel group had a post-Super Bowl party in the courtyard of the hotel, and it was a feeling of euphoria that just lasted for months after.

P.S. The flight home went off without a hitch.

Super Bowl XXXIII (Denver vs. Atlanta)

Believe it or not, my first Super Bowl as a member of the media did not include the Giants. It was the clash between the Broncos and Falcons, played in Miami, the site of Super Bowl LIV.

Some background on that one: Inside Football, the publication where I got my start, had just changed ownership. We were looking to cover as many of the Giants-related stories as possible.

Now I’m not going to lie; I don’t remember the game itself. All of my work that week was about the Giants players in town for their various promotions and such.

What I do remember most about game day is the pregame show, headlined by KISS.

KISS has been around for over 40 years, and while I have always had a song or two in my music catalog, I didn't start to appreciate them until a few years ago. I also had never seen them in concert until they launched their current End of the Road tour and I've since seen two shows.

Although it was just one abbreviated song--their anthem Rock and Roll All Night--that was the only time I got to see the original lineup perform.

I just wish I had gone to their press conference leading up to the performance (all entertainment acts have a presser at some point leading up to the big game).

Super Bowl XXXV

This was my first Giants Super Bowl as a member of the media, but it’s one of two Super Bowls I’d love to forget, and in this case, not because it was the Giants' only loss in five tries.

In the days leading up to this Super Bowl, my husband came down with a 24-hour stomach virus. And then a couple of days later, I came down with an upper respiratory infection.

By game day, I still was feeling awful and probably should have stayed in my room to rest, but when you have a job to do, you suck it up, and you push through it.

Given how the game played out, yes, I should have stayed behind. But when you have a job to do, you find a way to get it done, and when I went back weeks later to look at my work covering that game, it was probably some of the best stuff I had done up until that point, even though the game was a heartbreaker.

Super Bowl XLII

This is my favorite Giants Super Bowl, and it’s not even close. I still say that the Giants' 2007 season is my all-time favorite and that playoff run was sheer magic.

Having done a couple of Super Bowls before, I had learned the tricks of the trade, so I decided to limit my media sessions to the Giants. I ran running a weeklong series How they Became Super, which told the stories of the various Giants players matured through pee-wee football and to Super Bowl contenders.

I remember the Tyree catch, which happened closest to the end zone in which I was seated. And I remember that final sack of Tom Brady and thinking, "holy smokes, they're really going to win this game!"

When the confetti started raining down after the Giants were crowned champions and the Lombardi trophy made its way through the crowd, that was just a special moment to witness.

The day after the game, I was sitting in the crowded airport on the floor working on Inside Football’s Super Bowl issue and watching the Giants—no make that the World Champion Giants—board their charter flight home. It was a surreal moment.

Super Bowl XLVI

If Super Bowl XLII was my favorite involving the Giants, Super Bowl XLVI was my least favorite—and yes, I include XXXV on that list.

For one, I wasn't happy that it was a Giants-Patriots rematch. I had hoped it would be a different team, but hey, give the Patriots their props because they earned the trip.

But the main reason why this Super Bowl was my least favorite was because of my health.

In 2011, I had been diagnosed with and treated for cancer. Determined not to put my life on hold, I worked through the treatments as best as I could, but that was a challenge as no matter how much rest I go, I always was tired and couldn’t think clearly, and I believe my work suffered.

My treatments ended in early October 2011, and my tests showed I was in remission, so happy times, right?

Of course.

But I still had a long way to go before I was fully recovered. Before I had left for Indianapolis, my doctor warned me to take it easy because my immune system was weakened, and if I wasn’t careful, I could get very sick.

So off I went to Indianapolis, which by the way, is a fantastic city. But did I listen to my doctor?

Nope.

Super Bowl week is a crazy week. There’s just so much to do, and no matter how you manage your time, you can end up working 24 hours because there are so many stories to write and put together and so many events to attend.

Thinking I was stronger than I was, I pushed myself. And I paid for it.

The Friday night before the game, my husband had arrived in town, and we were trying to find a place to eat. We ended up walking around in the rain, and I remember being in and out of crowds.

That next morning, I work up with a sore throat, and by the afternoon, I had a low-grade fever.

Miss the game? Nope. I went because I had media commitments that I wasn't going to turn my back on. But it pained me to say that I don't think I did my best work for that game just as it pains me to say I don't remember the events from having been at that game in person like I do the other games I attended.

It got worse.

That Monday, my husband and I had to drive to the Cincinnati Airport, which is in northern Kentucky for our flight home, a flight that would stop in Chicago before going back to Newark.

I joke about that trip now, but I was so sick by that point that had my husband not been there, I probably would have tried to board the wrong flight.

I recovered after that virus hit me—it took almost two months before I was entirely over it, and I came close to needing to be hospitalized. I also ended up missing the celebration at the Meadowlands.

Not all my memories of that Super Bowl were sour. For one, I love the city of Indianapolis, and I always enjoy going back for the Combine and visiting all the spots where the Super Bowl events were held. It's as if you can hear the echos and relive some of the scenes of the happy faces, the stories told, and all that good stuff.

My fondest memory though, was on Media Day when I saw the Giants filling in for their session. That's when it hit me that they were there, and that's when I just had a feeling they were going to take care of business.

Super Bowl XLVIII

This was the Super Bowl played at MetLife Stadium, but I didn't do much with coverage of this particular Super Bowl other than for a few media week events, and I didn't attend the game (hence I don't count in the list of games I've covered.)

While I did have the chance to go to the game, I'm glad I didn't because that was the game in which New Jersey Transit, which would have been my choice of transportation, had that big fiasco with getting passengers home from the game.

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