Super Bowl LII Diary, Day 1–Moo If You’re With the Media
Joe Oberle
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It’s Super Bowl week, and this is the first installment of my “SB-LII Diary.” It was sure going to be a lot more fun doing this if the Vikings had made it, but we know what happened there and have discussed that and will let reality rule the day from here on in. The Super Bowl only comes here every quarter century (and I am not sure I will be around here for the next one, so let’s not allow this one to slide by without taking advantage of it.
So here goes.
This morning, I made my way out to the Mall of America, which appears to be Super Bowl LII headquarters south. Back in 1992, all of the action was downtown Minneapolis (as the MOA wasn’t initially opened until August of that year) and a lot Winter Carnival activities in St. Paul. But this year, we had to traipse down to the Mall and to get our media credential for the week—not the game credential itself, mind you—but for all media events leading up to the game.
That includes the opening media session on Monday, which will be held at the Xcel Energy center, and then the team press conferences throughout the week, which will take place at MOA. In 1992, they were held on the field of the Metrodome, which was nice since it was a big open area where you could go find whatever player you wanted to interview. Not yet sure how the setup will be this time.
I remember waiting to be let into the interview session, cordoned off in a little area, packed like sardines, as they say, with Joe Theismann behind me talking just a little bit too much about himself. We were let onto the field and I had run into Patrick Reusse, who like me, was hustling around for some quotes, and it being my first time at one of these, I said, “They sure treat you like cattle around here, huh.” Reusse quickly retorted in his gravelly growl, “Yeah, but it all pays the same, doesn’t it.”
My first thought was that I am sure they were paying him a bit more than me for the treatment (I had gotten the credential through “Skyway News,” which had created a Super Bowl downtown guide I edited). But I knew he was right. The media is not the show.
There was another line today at the MOA, where we waiting in line to get credentials. I wisely got to the MOA at 12:10 am, just after it opened and beat the rush of local media types who were snaked out into the Mall behind me in line. I was chatting with Joe Schmidt from KSTP and Ray Richardson from the Pioneer Press about all the different ways the Vikings have found to lose the NFC Championship games. Pretty sad, really.
After getting my credentials and talking with some of those folks stuck in line behind me, I went to check out the “Radio Row” setup they have for the game this week. There are quite a few different setups for the countless number of outlets broadcasting from the site—it was just workers setting things up on Friday, but it should be a zoo as the week goes on.
I will have to return to the MOA at the end of the week to actually get the credential for the game, as security for this thing is amazingly tight. All we did in 1992 was mosey up to the rope line and moo like Theismann and the rest of the media glitterati. Today, I had to have my photo retaken for my credential because the one I originally supplied was rejected since I was wearing a hat in that photo. I am planning on bringing my first born along to anywhere else I have to go this week just to have something to bargain with to gain entrance.
No complaints about the security, however. Nothing (yet) like the cattle comment in ’92. I will be pleased if no one decides this place will be a great place for a terrorist attack. I do believe that the NFL and Super Bowl committee have this thing under control and buttoned up pretty tight.
That’s it for today—it should get a little more interesting as the week goes on. Please check back as the week continues to see what else is happening. And please chime in with any kind of Super Bowl related stuff that you experience this week. Once again, it might not be the Vikings, but it is a once (or twice) in a lifetime deal. Enjoy the week. Go, Patriots!