After Kickoff, the Deluge

Feb. 5, 2007 - All you football fans at home who seethed with envy at those gloating grandstanders who somehow scored Super Bowl tickets, time to revel in a little schadenfreude. Not only did you get to watch the game from a comfy couch, cackle at all the ads and avoid the eruptions of bad 1980s rock between each play, you managed to stay dry. Your peers at Dolphin Stadium, on the other hand, endured a four-hour lashing from the elements. What began on Game Day as a fine mist grew into a steady drizzle and eventually an all-out downpour. The result was a sodden, sloppy, miserable mess.

Fans in the stadium started the game off valiantly. No way would their spirits be dampened by a little rain. They were at the Super Bowl! They guzzled beer and scarfed down chili dogs. They cheered and jeered, jumped out of their seats and pumped their fists. But as the game wore on and they became more and more waterlogged, things got quiet. When either team scored, their fans barely rustled. Eventually, people sank into their seats, crouching silently beneath their ponchos.

To get a closer look, I wandered down from the press box to the first-floor concourse. It looked like a refugee camp. People were pouring in from the stands to seek shelter. Powerful drafts whipped through the halls. Rainwater mixed with beer collected in huge puddles. “I just cannot do this,” said one Colts fan to his buddy. “I cannot sit out there.” Then he struggled to remove his raincoat, a task complicated by the fact that he’d apparently downed a few too many Coors Lights. “I can’t even get this off,” he said, wrestling himself.

Adding to the aggravation, the temperature took a dive. Some hardy souls dressed in shorts and flip-flops were shivering violently. One guy coughed with what sounded like the early stages of pneumonia. Some frigid fans huddled together like penguins braving winter in Antarctica. Temporarily safe from the deluge, people did what they could to dry off. They headed to the bathroom and mopped themselves dry with paper towels. They wrung out their raincoats or tried to concoct new ones. One Bears fan was squeezing into what appeared to be a dry-cleaner bag. Some folks seemed to be content to stay right where they were. What’s a $3,000 soggy seat compared to a nice 19-inch TV above the concession stand?

That’s where I found Eric and Cindy Land. They were fed up. Their various layers of clothing were drenched, their store of spare plastic bags was exhausted, and their fingers were waterlogged and wrinkled. “It’s ugly out there,” said Cindy. Maybe, just maybe, they’d head back to their seats for the last five minutes, but they were tempted to call it quits. As members of the host committee for the 2009 Super Bowl, to be held in Tampa, part of their mission today was to observe what worked and what didn’t in this year’s event. “It won’t rain in Tampa,” Eric assured me.

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