Super Bowl but the frito pie was better
February 10th, 2011
Super Bowl XLV was the event that everybody came to North Texas for, but I think the memory of the tailgate is what I’ll choose to remember. Four friends came to Austin Saturday night to join me en route to Arlington for the Super Bowl. After a night of Guero’s tacos and beer tastings at the Gingerman, we left Austin at 7AM Sunday Morning. It’s an easy three and a half hour drive to Arlington, but we still happened to misplace the maps I printed. We still made our way to Jerry’s house, which looks like Darth Vadar dropped a death star right into the earth. And it turns out the storm troopers are very inefficient about their security screening.
I reserved a tailgate spot in a parking lot across the street from Cowboys stadium. It cost me a kidney and second mortgage, but we got to watch the hustle of people coming and going. One of my favorites was the guy hustling with his $100 a play shell game. He had obviously seen the frisky couple who had made custom black t-shirts that said “Need 2 Tix” on the front and back. Here was a handsome man and attractive woman walking through parking lots advertising that they were obviously carrying at minimum $4500 cash around with them hoping to find 2 tickets to the most expensive Super Bowl ever. I sure hope they found their tickets.
Pitstop for kolaches at the Czech Stop. West, TX
Since I was the Texas-based host, I put together a little tailgate for my friends. Kolaches, pierogies, smoked jalepeño sausage, and frito pie were all on the menu with a side of Shiner Bock and Real Brewery’s Pale ales. Sprinkled in there was the obligatory chips, salsa, and guacamole. We had a good time, met a few new friends, while some old friends stopped by. If you’ve never had it frito pie is a simple layered concoction of frito chips, beef chili (I don’t use bean), cheese, sour cream, jalepeños and onions. At least that’s how I make it. It warms the soul and fills the belly. At one point a television reporter stopped to inspect our pierogies, asking about their origins. I found Ms T’s peiorgies in the frozen section at my neighborhood Randall’s supermarket in Austin, Texas, but my wife’s cousin makes them by from scratch at her Ukrainian church in Pittsburgh.
We closed up shop, packing the car well in advance of game time. We headed across the street to enter at one of the gates at 4 PM. They seemed to be confused and were closing the gate as well as telling people to go to another agte at the other side of the stadium. We jumped through the gate – because it was the closest – and found a mass of people crammed into Disney World style serpentine barricades feeding into security gates. People were already getting agitated. Some people were cutting in the middle of line. Tempers rose and the police were asked to stand at one of the loose barricades so no one would cut in line. It took us 90 minutes to get through the gate. We were running up the ramps while Christina Aguilera was botching the National Anthem, although I didn’t notice. We bought a beer and a water for $16 I think and went up to our seats just in time for kickoff.
I can’t add any commentary about the specifics of the game. I was heart broken after the pick six, but thought they could survive. Even though the Steelers were playing poorly, it was a good game. I thought they stayed in it until the very last drive. I never left my seat the whole game, although I should have for the halftime show. It was much less spectacular than it may have appeared on television. It just didn’t move me at all, and quite frankly was 20 minutes longer than I wanted to wait for the second half of football to start up again. Perhaps I was a little bit in awe of the giant tv screen, but in many ways it distracted from watching a live event on the field. The cuts and widescreen perspective are not as smooth as they might be over the broadcast presentation that all 111 million people were watching. It is now the most watched television event in history. Too bad people saw the Steelers lose this one.
I can’t say that I’m devastated that the Steelers lost. I wished they had won, but maybe since I’ve seen them win two lately, and the fact that they made a lot of mistakes, I just didn’t feel utterly let down. It was a great season. The meat of the Super Bowl was an entertaining football game, even though the package was chaotic and ostentatious. We’ll see if I make the next Steelers Super Bowl, or just watch it at home. Glad I went though.