A few of us attended the Super Bowl Media Party at the House of Blues. As Glenn mentioned, it cost $30 to park. But to avoid having to walk across any more ice than was necessary, I was more than willing to pay. By the time I got there at 9:15, the place was already busy. The people handing out programs at the door said they were getting quite the rush and the constant opening and closing of doors was causing the entrance to be freezing.
Petty Theft was playing in the Cambridge Room and Emerald City was playing in the Music Hall. Multiple stations serving chicken and waffles, cornbread, ribs the size of your actual rib, and banana pudding were situated throughout. I talked to one of the guys at Man Up Texas BBQ (the people who selected the vendors), and he said that things turned out a lot better than he had expected earlier that day. Eight out of the 10 vendors showed, one coming from as far away as Lockhart.
The Blackie Sherrod awards were an interesting touch to the evening. The host committee is hoping that these awards will be used in following Super Bowls to honor sportswriters and sportscasters. The three recipients were Dan Jenkins, Frank Luksa, and Pat Summerall. It’s hard to break up a concert for an hour to have awards, even if those awards are being presented by Michael Johnson and Daryl Johnston. Â Regardless, I was pretty disappointed in the crowd during this portion of the evening. People would not stop talking. And the honorees were left with jokes hanging in the air and received little applause. I feel like a lot of people missed Summerall’s story of the first simulcast football game. He went down to the sidelines for the second half. Both NBC and ABC were showing the game, and NBC was interviewing Bob Hope when the kick off happened. So the network missed it. They asked Summerall to go ask Vince Lombardi if he would mind kicking off again. Summerall refused. Someone else asked. The kick off happened a second time. Summerall was sure that was the end of his career. As the awards wrapped up, the Old 97’s came on stage. They brought a lot of energy and got most people out onto the dance floor.
While some of us were iced in yesterday, it appears most of the media were able to make it to the party. I talked to Tony Fay with the Host Committee this morning, and he said they had about 4,000 people throughout the night, which is what they were expecting. Four thousand times $30 — not bad for the valet operator.
