Posted by Every year or two, I try to put together my thoughts on the Super Bowl. This year, I had the privilege of attending. As a die-hard Patriots fan, I could not turn down the opportunity to cheer on my favorite team. I am fortunate to be able to say that this was my 4th time going to a Super Bowl. The first time I tried to go to a Super Bowl was ironically also when the Patriots played the Seahawks back in 2014. This was the year when brokers notoriously shorted the secondhand market, causing ticket prices to skyrocket to record levels. I came with a few thousand dollars in my pocket prepared to scalp a ticket outside the day of the game. In normal years, this tactic would have worked; however, that season, the get-in price was still twice what I had in my hand even at halftime. So I watched the game from a bar in Phoenix across the street from the stadium. It was still a fun time!
In any event, I’ve compiled my list of thoughts related to the Super Bowl experience. Without further ado, let’s roll.
StubHub is the most evil company on the planet
I ended up in a situation where I needed to deal with a major customer service issue with StubHub. The issue was on their end and it was fairly significant in terms of net impact. The problem is, StubHub does not seem to care about the experience of its customers. I ended up in what felt like an endless loop of speaking to different offshore customer service representatives who were going to escalate my issue, only to have the escalation team asking me for the same information I had already provided – ad nauseam. Only when I wreaked havoc looking up the emails of senior executives and becoming very noisy on social media was I able to get a resolution. I am not saying that StubHub is evil because they have an evil business model that rips off both buyers and sellers on their platform; I am saying they are evil because they do that and do not care what happens to either the buyer or the seller. I used to do a lot of business with StubHub. I will never utilize their platform again and I encourage others to do the same. It should absolutely be criminal for them to operate the way that they do.
Immaculate Vibes
Santa Clara was a good venue for the Super Bowl. The weather was great. High 60’s and sunny right around kickoff. It got a little chilly around halftime but coming from Boston, none of this phased me. To be clear, this is not because I am tough, it’s because the weather in Boston is horrific right now. Any change of scenery was welcome.
Everyone seemed to be in a happy mood. There was a cool pregame setup in the parking lot outside the stadium with all sorts of free entertainment and music. I was able to procure souvenirs for my wife and daughter (although the latter needed to be addressed at the airport the next morning). There was great energy all around. They even played one of my favorite songs by Bay Area artist E-40, “Tell Me When To Go.” Which for me was with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, because, you know, we didn’t do well.
Bad Bunny Halftime
As is customary for me at a Super Bowl, I skip the halftime show. It is an optimal time to use the restroom, get a snack, and some drinks for the second half. I am also just kind of sick and tired of the halftime show always being more controversial than anything that happens in the game. Honestly who cares about any of this stuff? No matter who they announce as the halftime show, left-wing people will say right-wing people are upset about it even when most normal right-wing people do not care whatsoever, and then the really right-wing people will have Kid Rock and John Rocker do their own halftime show that nobody watches (but that they will say a lot of people watched).
I think we have come to a point where no one thinks for themself any more. You are either on Team A or Team B and if the person whose politics you agree with tells you to support X, you will support it. Sadly, I actually wrote a lot more about this but decided to delete it because of how sensitive people have become. It’s not worth it to my professional future to put ideas out there that are not completely aligned with one team. So that is a reflection in and of itself. People need to let go and care less. We are all specks of dust in the universe. Enjoy the game and stop calling each other snowflakes and racists.
Not fun to watch as a Patriots fan but hard to be mad
The actual Super Bowl game was not very fun to watch as a Patriots fan. I think there was literally one play the entire game that got me excited enough to cheer and clap, which was the long touchdown pass to Mack Hollins. I didn’t even react after the second touchdown because by then the game was over. The Patriots looked completely flat on offense and it was a far cry from what I had seen all season.
With that being said, I had low hopes for the team prior to the season and so did almost every other Patriots fan. All things considered, Pats fans felt like they were playing with house money just by being in the Super Bowl. This was the first time I’ve been to a Super Bowl and not really been nervous before the game. I think I felt that way because we were underdogs. With a first year head coach and a second year quarterback, the future is bright in New England. While I obviously wish I got to see a more exciting game (or better yet, a win), I got so much more out of this football season than I expected and sometimes you need to keep things in perspective. I have friends who are lifelong Jets fans and at least I’m not them.
Props to Christian Gonzalez
Obviously there are a lot of players on Seattle who deservedly received praise. MVP of the game, Kenneth Walker. Sam Darnold was solid. Cooper Kupp. Pretty much everyone on the defense. Jason Myers made like 10 field goals. A+’s all around for Seattle.
On the Patriots side, Christian Gonzalez really deserved a Super Bowl ring. He was arguably the best player on the field, and yes, I know this feels like a homer take, but he was incredible. He shut down arguably the best receiver in the NFL, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and made several remarkable pass breakups (one of which almost was an interception at the goal line). His performance will go overlooked because he was on the wrong side of the ball, but ball-knowers like me will give respect.
Seahawks fans are nice
But that doesn’t mean I am. I think Seahawks fans are the most self-aggrandizing fanbase in the NFL, and possibly all of sports. They think so highly of themselves that they wear #12 jerseys suggesting that they are the 12th man on the field because they are such good fans. The definition of fan is being a fan of the team, not being a fan of yourself. But when you live in a city that has teams taken from you (Seattle Supersonics) for lack of fan support, I suppose you have to make it up to your fragile ego somehow.
With that being the case, I certainly expected that the Seahawks fans at the Super Bowl might have some choice words for me after their complete and utter domination of my team. But I went through the entire event without anyone saying anything. In fact, the few times I saw Seahawks fans interacting with Patriots fans was to console them or say something nice in the waning moments of the game. I think when you grow up on the east coast and you have met enough people from Philadelphia, you come to expect that other fanbases will be the same way. But I am proud to report that Seahawks fans are nice. They’re full of themselves and think they are bigger fans of their team than you are of your team, but they are nice regardless.
Sad About My Square
As the clock was winding down on this miserable game, I realized hope was still alive for my 9(Seahawks)-5(Patriots) Super Bowl square. This square would have paid me $8,000. With the Seahawks at 29 points and having no incentive to score, all I needed was for the Patriots to get from 7 to 15 points, which they could achieve by scoring a touchdown and a two point conversion. Being down by 22 points, they would absolutely need to go for the two point conversion if they would be able to score a touchdown.
Surely enough, the Patriots marched down the field and converted a touchdown pass to Rhamondre Stevenson. All I needed to win $8,000 and make this miserable trip a little happier was the two point conversion. But I already knew it would fail before the play even happened. It would be too good of a miserable way to end the miserable night for me if I only got my hopes up in the end. Indeed, I think our player actually got concussed on the play trying to make the catch. Alas, no Super Bowl and no $8,000.
Memories
My favorite part of the Super Bowl was FaceTiming my daughter. She’s two years old and she was wearing her Patriots shirt. During the AFC Championship game, I taught her how to do the celebration the Patriots wide receivers do whenever they make a big play. I think it’s called the Stinky. You hold your nose and make a waving motion with your hand. Anyway, we FaceTimed from the stadium and I showed her the field and then she did the stinky at me. I hope someday we will get to go to the game together.
Jeff Kirchick 