A Super Bowl experience

If you ever want to see the full range of human emotion, just find the nearest Seattle Seahawks fan and ask them to relive the last minute of the Super Bowl. It won’t be pretty, and you might get punched in the face, but it’s a truly enlightening experience. I was fortunate enough to go to this year’s Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, and, in the middle of the Seahawks' fan section, I saw firsthand thousands of fans’ hopes and dreams shattered in just a few seconds. Men, women and children cried to each other, sat broken and lowered their heads in disbelief. It was incredible in a slightly sadistic way, but as a lifelong Patriots fan I really don’t feel any remorse for the immense joy I took in seeing them suffer.

The most remarkable part about the Super Bowl is the raw emotion in the air. Blessed as I am to have grown up in the great city of Boston, I’ve been to the World Series, the Stanley Cup, and the NBA Finals, but none have the same buildup and hype as the Super Bowl. Maybe it’s because those championships are series and not a single game, or maybe it’s the size of the crowd and the stadium, but from the minute you start tailgating you can feel the buzz in the air. The Super Bowl is a production on the biggest stage, and a daylong affair, with every form of entertainment imaginable. Marching bands, rock climbing, day drinking, food and more food. It feels more like a festival than a game until you enter the stadium.

Once inside, the tensions begin to rise, and the crowds become large. “Sea… Hawks!” and “Go Pats” chants can be all over the place as fans start building the energy. As the seats fill in, different fans start trash-talking depending on how drunk they are off $12 beers (cheaper than the $14 beers last year, still outrageously expensive). The stage had been set perfectly, with so much meaning for each team. For the Patriots, a win would validate Tom Brady as the greatest man on earth and the leader of a dynasty that had overcome heartbreaking losses and scandals to earn their fourth Vince Lombardi Trophy in this century. For the Seahawks, a win would vault them to the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in a decade, and certify everything Richard Sherman has ever said and everything Marshawn Lynch hasn’t. Trust me, the fans energy reflected perfectly just how much this game meant.

However, it is often overlooked just quite how long a football game is, especially in person. As the teams entered and the crowd went wild, adrenaline was pumping. As the second quarter came along, some fans started to tire a bit, now only cheering on big plays. After Katy Perry rode around on a lion and then a star for half an hour, performing for the cameras and not the audience, the stands became a war of attrition, with energy fading through the third quarter.

But this game had it all, and in the final quarter the fans put their hearts on display. As Tom Brady drove down the field for his first touchdown to Danny Amendola, Pats fans regained life and hope, roaring their approval. After a quick three-and-out by the Seahawks, the Patriots drove again, with the crowd growing rowdier and rowdier after each of Brady’s eight completions, culminating in a madhouse as Julian Edelman torched Tharold Simon on a whirl route and saluted the crowd. But then came Jermaine Kearse’s miracle catch, which from the crowd’s perspective appeared incomplete until the replay showed, and then as Beast Mode pounded the ball to the one, all seemed lost for the Patriots.

It was all so fast that the euphoria of the comeback hadn’t worn off, and most Pats fans seemed to be in a state of confusion and shock as the Seahawks stood poised to win the title. And then from nowhere, Malcolm Butler made the perfect play on the perfect read, and the building erupted. As John Madden said, “That’s the biggest gap in sports, the difference between the winner and loser of the Super Bowl,” and this year that was proved true in the most dramatic of ways. You go to the Super Bowl for the emotion, to experience the game firsthand and really feel it in your soul, and this year certainly did not disappoint.