New Rochelle’s Talk of the Sound at Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis

Managing Editor Robert Cox was in Indianapolis over the weekend to cover Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and New England Patriots for Talk of the Sound. Due to some technical issues it became a lot easier to post via Twitter so below are some tweets along with photos taken along the way.

While at the game I was asked to give a report on the game to Red Eye Radio on WABC 770, a show broadcast nationally on a host of 50,000 watt stations, so I was live on coast to coast radio at about 1 a.m. after the game. A clip from the broadcast is linked below.

The entire weekend was a grueling, draining, exhausting, wonderful experience. My fifth Super Bowl and the best ever. Of course, I said that after Super Bowl XLII when the Giants beat the Patriots in 2008 and Super Bowl XXI when the Giants beats the Broncos for their first Super Bowl victory. Worst Super Bowl? Easy. Ravens beat Giants 35-7 in Super Bowl XXXV.

After 10 days of trying to land tickets to the game I had given up when a good friend from Indianapolis texted me on Thursday to say he had been offered two tickets, at face value, and asking if I still wanted to go to the game. Face value for tickets ranged from $800 to $1,200, with scalpers charging anywhere from $3,500 to $14,000 the week before the game, so this was a great deal.

I happily accepted and began to make my plans to get to Indianapolis. I had a place to stay with my friend but getting to Indy would be tough. I was prepared to drive to Indianapolis but could not find anyone willing to drop everything and drive to Indiana with no notice. My brother, Michael, lives in South Bend, IN. After checking if he would be willing to go (he is not a big fan) I was able to get a relatively cheap series of commuter flights to South Bend on Saturday morning, coming back Monday. I bought my plane tickets and packed my bags.

At about 8:00 p.m. on Friday I got a call from my friend in Indianapolis who told me the guy who had offered him the tickets had reneged. My heart sank. Having given up on the idea of going and then gotten a last minute shot to go, this was like a knife in the gut. I felt like a death row inmate who was pardoned by the Governor after the warden had already thrown the switch on the electric chair.

After much agonizing that evening I figured since I had already bought the plane tickets and had a free place to stay I had little to lose in going. More importantly, nothing good could happen in terms of tickets opening up if I was not in Indy. The thought that tickets might become available hours before the game and that I would still be in New York clinched the deal. I had to go and just hope for the best.

The problem was that the cheapest tickets, listed on the NFL web site on Friday night, were $2,600 (plus a 10% fee so really $2,800). I decided I would only go if I could spend $1,200 per ticket. I came up with a theory that the lowest prices would be about 11:00 a.m. Sunday on the premise that the big spenders would have bought their tickets before coming to Indianapolis that weekend, that NFL-connected people and corporate types would be dumping whatever extra tickets they had and that whoever still had tickets to sell on Sunday morning would wake up and start to panic, causing prices to drop. I figure that panic would work the other way shortly before game time as people like me, anxious to go to the game but without tickets would start to worry they would not get in at all and pump up prices.

The next morning, before I left LaGuardia, tickets were at $2,400. I checked again during a layover in Cleveland and they were still at the same price.

I flew into South Bend on a small propeller aircraft. My brother picked me up and we headed south towards Indy, stopping in Kokomo for lunch and coffee.

We got to Indianapolis about 5:30 p.m. where we met up with my friend, Dean Burger. We headed to the downtown area where the NFL had set up most of the Super Bowl weekend events — concerts, bars, nightclubs, the NFL Experience and enough merchandise to choke a herd of horses.

I have been to Super Bowls in Tampa, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles. In Indianapolis it was about 38 degrees, raining and misting and generally cold and damp. No offense to the Hoosier State but I would much rather have been in Florida, California or Arizona.

A popular attraction was an 800-foot zip line suspended above the crowd near the Convention Center. Can you see the blur of a person in the photo?

The Direct TV Pre-Super Bowl Party on Saturday night was hosted by Mark Cuban and Peyton Manning. Katy Perry performed. This was her first show since splitting up with Russell Brand. Celebrities on hand included Tom Cruise son and Madonna’s daughter, Shaquille O’Neal, Neil Patrick Harris David Arquette, Spike Lee, and Jane Krakowski among others.

My brother went to the party and stayed out until about 4:00 a.m. while Dean and I headed over to Nickey Blaine’s, a first-class cigar bar just off the main circle in downtown Indianapolis.

Before I went to sleep, I checked the ticket prices one more time. They had dropped to about $2,000. Still too high.

When I woke up Sunday morning I found prices had dropped to about $1,600 so things were starting to move my way. By 11:00 a.m, there were a couple of tickets at about $1,450 with a lot more at $1,550. My friend Dean had met a ticket broker from Wisconsin on Friday. We decided to head downtown, find him and pitch him on selling two tickets for $1,200. Arriving downtown we stopped into the NFL TicketExchange location where you would actually pick up tickets purchased through the NFL “stub hub” service. When we got there about 12:30 p.m. there was one pair of tickets for $1,362 and others in the $1,400s. With the service fee that was still above what I wanted to pay so headed over to the Hyatt to find the broker.

After a bit of haggling with my new friend Chris from Wisconsin, I got the deal I wanted.

But even then I was nervous thinking that maybe the tickets were counterfeit. The only way we would know for sure is to try and enter the stadium but the game was still hours a way so we went to find a place to have lunch and stay warm which turned out to be a sort of Celtic version of Hooters, a sports bar called the Tilted Kilt which is, apparently, a chain.

I am pretty sure the protestors picketing nearby did not approve of the waitresses at the Tilted Kilt.

I celebrated having legitimate tickets with a cigar outside the stadium, within the security zone.

The excitement inside Lucas Oil Stadium was intense. The crowd was more Giants than Patriots. My seats were with a bunch of loyal Giants fans.

I did not budge from seat for the entire game. I was too nervous. My brother supplied me with a hot dog and soda. I took a nap during Madonna’s half time show.

Since 113 million people in the United States watched the game I do not to explain why I am celebrating here.

Having learned from the last time in Super Bowl XLII, as soon as the game ended I made a beeline to the field level seats near the tunnel leading to the Giants locker room. I got in the second row, right up against the tunnel so I could be part of the group greeting the Giants players and coaches as they walked off the field. Passing by were owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, Eli’s father Archie Manning and his brother, Cooper (no Peyton), Henry Hynoski, Ahmad Bradshow, director Spike Lee, former Giant and Fox Sports host Michael Strahan, Kevin Boothe, Dave Diehl, Jake Ballard (on crutches), Chris Canty, Mitch Petrus, and finally Eli Manning. Eli filmed his “I’m going to Disney World” spot as he was trying to leave the field about a 100 feet in front of me and then ran into the tunnel.

There was one odd incident where Domenick Hixon (Injured Reserve) was attempting to go onto the field with his family when he was stopped by security which refused to let him on the field. When fans (including me) began shouting “he’s on the team” to the guard, Hixon pointed up at me and said “see…they know me”. It worked. The guard finally relented and let Hixon onto the field (but without his family).

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After the game, I got my Super Bowl Champion Giants hat, whooped it up with other Giants fans and then headed back to my friend’s house to do my national radio interview which aired on WABC 770 and 150 other stations across the United States.

Robert Cox Interview on Red Eye Radio from Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis

After another night of almost no sleep, I said goodbye to my friend Dean and Jane, his wife. They were great hosts providing food, shelter and optimism that I would be able to land tickets at a reasonable price. They did not go to the game but for his trouble Dean got a Super Bowl Champions hat made just a few feet outside of the stadium minutes after the game ended. Someday he will be able to say that the NFL Super Bowl came to Indianapolis and all I got was this hat.

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