Super Bowl LV

Let’s face it, it’s been a bad year. Between the pandemic and moving and health problems, it’s been rough. The bright spot in the middle of it all was that the Buccaneers, after 18 long years, made it to the Super Bowl and would be playing at Raymond James Stadium right here in Tampa! Then things got even more incredible – we got tickets!

There was some concern about the weather forecast for Sunday due to timing of a cold front, and on the morning of the big game, we woke up at 5 AM to thunder and pelting rain. But the front pushed south and by afternoon, it was sunny and breezy, perfect football weather. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve! Ron must have felt the same way because he was antsy to get going and get to the stadium. We didn’t have any problems with traffic or finding our reserved parking spot, but the lot turned out to be a bit farther from the stadium than I was expecting. We weaved our way through the line of football fans and bootleg merchandise stands, and finally made it. At the check in and security area, they scanned our electronic tickets and we were given individual welcome packets that included a KN95 mask, a small bottle of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes. Souvenirs for COVID times.

Once we were inside the stadium, we did a little gift shopping for hats and t-shirts and then found our seats. We were in Section 237, above the 30-yard line with great views of the Buccaneer’s pirate ship and both ends of the field. To keep people socially distant, the NFL had filled 30,000 of the seats with cardboard cutouts. Fans unable to attend the game could pay $100 to have their picture on a cutout, but other cutouts honored veterans, health care workers or cancer survivors. Several of our cardboard seatmates were labeled “Crucial Catch. Intercept Cancer".

Just as the sun was going down and the sky started to darken, the teams took to the field, first the Chiefs to the chanting of the Tomahawk Chop from the Chiefs fans, then the Bucs. Go Bucs!! After the players were introduced, the Joint Services Color Guard marched out and stood in formation while H.E.R. performed “American the Beautiful”. Then it was time for the national anthem. The singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” has always been one of my favorite parts of the Super Bowl. I love to watch the players’ faces because they are so full of emotion. It’s like the game becomes real to them in that moment. But seeing it live brought it to a whole new level for me. The anthem was sung by Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan. Church has said that he has always avoided singing the National Anthem because it is so difficult, but when he was invited to sing at the Super Bowl with Sullivan, he changed his mind. After the Capitol riots, he felt the country needed a moment of unity. Jazmine Sullivan also spoke of unity in an interview with CBS This Morning. “We just wanted to bridge the two worlds. He’s a country artist, I’m an R&B singer, and we wanted to show that you can come together and bring some unity within song.” Their different styles blended together beautifully, Church starting softly with his guitar while Sullivan easily handled the high, soaring notes. Just as Sullivan sang the words “and the rockets’ red glare”, fireworks shot into the air over the jumbotron at the far end of the field. The anthem ended with a flyover by three Air Force bombers, a B-1, a B-2 and a B52. Wow, just wow! (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)

Now we were ready for some football! The Chiefs won the coin toss and deferred to the Bucs, but the first quarter started off very slowly with both teams punting back and forth a couple of times before the Chiefs finally put some points on the board with a field goal. After that, the Bucs seemed to find their momentum. They marched back down the field and ended the drive with a touchdown by Rob Gronkowski. Yay, Gronk! After a second touchdown by Gronkowski, the announcers started calling the game “the Brady and Gronkowski show”, but before the end of the half Antonio Brown scored the Bucs’ third touchdown while the lightning-fast defense held the Chiefs to a second field goal.

Since I’ve only been to one live concert (many, many years ago), I’d been especially looking forward to the halftime show with R&B artist The Weeknd. I wasn’t disappointed. In the cup holders of our seats, there were LED wristbands which we were instructed to put on before the show started. As the lights of the stadium came down and the music started, our wristbands lit up. Even the cardboard cutouts got into the act because they each had an LED light affixed to the front, filling the stadium with thousands of tiny lights. The Weeknd sang a medley of his biggest hits, including “I Feel It Coming”, “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Save Your Tears”. Unlike other Super Bowl halftime shows, most of the music was performed from a lighted city-scape set up in the stadium stands, but for the finale, the singer came down onto the field for “Blinding Lights”. You can’t help but dance to that song. :-)

After halftime, the Chiefs seemed to struggle, and I felt kind of sorry for Patrick Mahomes because he spent so much time running from the onslaught of the Buc’s defensive line. The Chiefs did score one more field goal, but it was answered by a touchdown by Leonard Fournette and a fantastic 52-yard field goal by Ryan Succop. Finally, the Bucs had their first good kicker since Martin Gramatica!

The longest run of the second half wasn’t even by a player at all but by a streaker who hopped onto the field with five minutes left in the game. I saw a flash of hot pink and bare chest as he ran the entire length of the field before being taken down in the end zone by security. I’m surprised he got as far as he did, but everyone around him just stood looking at him in disbelief. Immediately, Ron started getting texts from friends asking if that was him on the field. :-)  Sadly, the camera on my cell phone chose that moment to stop cooperating, so I didn’t get a picture of the streaker.

At that point in the game, the score was so lopsided that there wasn’t much to do but run down the clock. The last minute ticked away and then suddenly it was over. The pirate ship cannons began to fire again and again as the players and staff came out onto the field to hug and congratulate each other. Fireworks lit up the sky. The air was filled with smoke and confetti and the shouts of “Tampa! Bay! Tampa! Bay!” from the crowd. Ron and I jumped up and down. They’d done it! The Bucs had won the Super Bowl!

We decided not to stay for the presentation of the Lombardi Trophy so we wouldn’t get stuck in traffic. The line of people filing out of the stadium seemed oddly sedate, but I guess a lot of the people who go to a Super Bowl aren’t necessarily fans of a particular team. Ron, who was on Cloud 9, kept saying “Why is everyone so quiet? We just won the Super Bowl!!” Once we got down to the street, it was a different story. All the way home, there were thousands of cars driving up and down the roads with people hanging out of the windows waving banners, yelling and honking. The whole city was celebrating.

The day had been so exciting and surreal that it was hard to process. It felt almost like a dream. Fortunately, Ron had remembered to record the game, so on Monday we spent a pajama day watching it all over again on TV to relive our favorite moments. And to catch up on the commercials, of course. My votes for the best commercials go to M&Ms (“Sorry I called you Karen.” “That’s my name.” “Sorry your name is Karen.”) and the one for Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade where a plague of lemons destroys travel plans, haircuts, sporting events and weddings. It’s funny because it’s true. :-)  

After a year that rained lemons, the Buccaneers had brought Tampa Bay some much-needed lemonade. There were so many special moments – the Bucs playing in their home stadium, Sarah Thomas becoming the first female official in a Super Bowl, our own John Lynch getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, the spectacular flyover, the perfect weather. Making it to the Super Bowl is a big deal. Playing at home and then winning is even bigger. And we were there to see it! What a night!