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Yeah, I was one of them. I was on of the thousands of Packer fans who had to sit through that heartbraking game they call the Superbowl. I looked just like everybody else, sitting in my seat, just hoping that somehow the PACK would pull it out. Well, it never happened, the Packers lost and the "Win One For John" cheers have echoed ever since. As I walked out of the stadium, I almost burst into tears. The packers had just lost, something they hadn't done in 8 weeks. Even today I can't figure out WHY the Packers had to lose (see Mike Schaller's essay). As I look back, though, I have much more to hold on to than most fans, because, as you've probably figured out, I was at the Superbowl. The day was Thursday January 22, 1998. My mission, get to San Diego. I woke up at 5:00 A.M. Thursday morning and jumped into the shower, I was ready to go. Me and my dad left our house at about 6:00 A.M. for our flight out of Chicago which left at 9:00 A.M. We arrived in chicago wearing all our Packer garb and jumped on the plane. After a few hours we landed in Phoenix Arizona. From Phoenix it was a 6 hour drive into beautiful San Diego California. It's Friday, January 23 and we're ready to roll. Me and my dad took off to explore the greater San Diego area. First we drove down through LaJolla and Mission Bay. Along the way we saw some sea lions lying on the beach, and an Aircraft carrier docked at the navy base. After cruising around a while we decided it was time to go to the NFL EXPERIENCE. The NFL EXPERIENCE is what football is all about. If you love football, you need to experience this. When we got in the place, we started dominating. First we went to the NFL Team Store to check out the latest and greatest name brand NFL apparrel. When we got in we noticed a line forming to get an autograph. We asked one of the guys who was signing and he said, "like, Gale Sayers is the man, Dude". Well, we couldn't pass up a free Gale Sayers autograph. We ended up getting his signature on two footballs. After we got the autograph, we went to a few different displays of this and that and I got my picture taken with a 20 foot tall Gilbert Brown. After hiking around for awhile, we decided to go watch the "Throwbacks Bowl". It was pretty neat, it had Ray Nitschke and Gale Sayers as coaches and even Fred Belitnikof (I just murdered his name) was playing. Overall, I thought the NFL EXPERIENCE was one of the coolest things I have ever participated in. After leaving the NFL EXPERIENCE, me and pops (yes i said pops mrs. becker) cruised back to our hotel to pick up our buddy,Jack, who had just arrived via airplane. We decided to go down to Seau's Restaurant for dinner. When we got there and found out it was a two hour wait, we changed our minds. We did, however, walk around Seau's a bit. We met Bobby Rahal and got his autograph and I got my picture taken with the "Miller Lite" cheerleaders. After leaving Seau's, we went where else, Hooters. Hooters is always a good choice and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. After Hooters we decided to crash and call it a day. Saturday morning we got up and screwed around for a long time. At about noon, we walked out of the Hotel, and walked around downtown LaJolla. On our journey, I got my picture taken with Dan Dierdorf. At about 4 P.M. me and my dad left to go to a local mall. The mall was really neat because it was all outdoors. When we got back from the mall we picked up Jack and headed down to the Gas Lamp District. If you've ever been to New Orleans, down on Bourban Street, that's kind of what the Gas Lamp was like. After hanging out there for a couple hours, we decided to get to bed, because there was a big game the next day. When we got up Sunday, we painted my head, and took off for the stadium. We got caught in a little traffic backup, but eventually we got to the stadium. We walked around the stadium, and I got on television multiple times. It was a great experience. At about 1:00 P.M., we entered the stadium. I think you know what happened after that. On monday morning we had to get up at 5:00 A.M. We had a 6 hour drive back to Phoenix and I wasn't looking forward to it. We ended up getting home all in one piece, but we all felt a little let down. Even though the Packers lost the biggest game of the season, I still had a great experience to look back on. That week out in San Diego will definitally not be forgotten.
Page last updated 4/4/98 by Flight
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