Chiefs’ (and fans’) Super Bowl experience gets real Sunday as team, KC Star touch down
If you’re like us, for the last several days you’ve busied yourself in Super Bowl repartee, tales of Patrick Mahomes/Chiefs glory and crazed googling for anything resembling an “in” on Chiefs-Niners tickets. Perhaps made a few party plans or debated where in KC to watch the game.
That can, should and will no doubt continue, perhaps even intensify, but a new spotlight will crackle to life in the week to come. With each passing day, we’ll inch a little closer to kickoff for Super Bowl LIV in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, the object of desire resting a few feet away in the form of a glistening Lombardi Trophy.
The Star’s first deployment of Super Bowl journalists touches down Sunday, Jan. 26 — the same day that the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers arrive. The digs are not palacial for our team, but they’ll do. Chances are most of us won’t spend much time in our respective lodging, anyway.
The Super Bowl Experience, the NFL’s fan show set up in conjunction with the Super Bowl (think Big 12 tournament in the Power & Light, only on a much larger scale), opened Saturday.
The stories, especially starting strong Monday, will be found on the streets, in the media interview rooms and, that evening, inside Marlins Park, site of the Super Bowl’s “Opening Night” — the event formerly known as Media Day.
As it turns out, the term “media day” is quite 2013 when it comes to the ever-modernizing NFL. Like anything else that touches the league nowadays, people much smarter than Your Average Journalist (insert joke here) have turned the first and biggest official press opportunity ahead of the Super Bowl into an ATM — Opening Night is timed for a prime-time national viewing audience. The Chiefs’ hour with reporters begins at 6:10 p.m. Central Time, and the Niners follow.
Some 6,000 members of the media from about 25 countries are credentialed for the week of the Super Bowl and/or the game itself, according to the NFL, a staggering number. (An aside: Clark Hunt and family are bringing 2,000 members of Chiefs Kingdom to the game.)
Sam Mellinger, Herbie Teope, Terez Paylor, the great John McClain and others who’ve attended a fair number of Super Bowls can tell you wild/silly stories about the carnival atmosphere that pervades media day, er, Opening Night. But you’ve seen this stuff too. USA Today’s For The Win compiled a fun photo gallery about all it last year. Former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Buchanan once showed up wearing a dog collar. Hundreds of mics, at least as many whirring cameras and smartphones, anything goes. And will.
From there, the parties begin. Fans can attend some of these; others are for celebs and serious high-rollers only. Some will probably become legend. Shaq, Miami rapper Rick Ross, you name the entertainer associated with Miami and he or she is probably hosting a party or guest-starring at one.
This is South Beach we’re talking about, so tickets aren’t cheap: Gronk’s little soiree will set you back more than $500 just for general admission. No word on whether he’s going to dance, but smart money says YES.
There will be no Star staffers with beachside bottle service, sadly, because we’re there to work and we’re on a tight budget. What I can offer you gentle readers is our best effort in bringing you some of the week’s most informative and fun stories. And who are we to cry, anyway, because the media do have their own party, set for Tuesday evening. I’m sure it will be quite nice, but picture more Natty Light than Veuve. As long as it’s not some sort of Fyre Fest, so be it.
If you, too, plan to be in Miami this week, we have some suggestions, pulled together by sister paper The Miami Herald, for places to eat and things to do. Also have some good insight on trying to find legit tickets to the game, and how/where to watch if you go to Miami and don’t score tickets. Can’t promise to help you locate a bargain in your search, but this Herald rundown might assist you in not getting truly scammed on fakes.
Wrapping it up here, but remember that you can purchase copies of the fun Chiefs papers The Star has published over the last few weeks here, and we’ll soon have other goodies for sale on the site, too. Should the Chiefs win, still more cool items will become available there, so keep checking back as you root for the Chiefs.
And be sure to pick up Sunday’s Star, because we have a killer 20-page special section in there entitled “The Road to The Super Bowl.” It recaps every Chiefs game from this season, including playoffs. Each page is a giant poster dedicated to a particular game. Very cool, if we do say so ourselves.
Oh, almost forgot: The Chiefs’ end zone at Hard Rock Stadium is going to be painted retro gold — how cool is that?
Oh, almost forgot II: A few days ago I said I’d be sharing links to especially insightful stories and columns we’ve written about this team. Some follow. Give them a read, think red thoughts, and we’ll talk to you soon from the sunny shores of South Florida.
- Andy Reid: His future began to take shape as a kid in Los Angeles
- The point of Tyrann Mathieu, the KC Chiefs safety and agent of change extraordinaire
- This version of the Chiefs is good enough to win a Super Bowl. Yes, we’re saying it
- Chiefs’ James Winchester turned to faith to find forgiveness after father’s murder
- Is there a doctor in the house? Chiefs have one on the field in remarkable Duvernay-Tardif
- The Chiefs’ defensive rebirth starts with how Steve Spagnuolo handled a ‘year off’
- He had one offer to play college football. Now, this Chiefs LB is a prime fit in KC
- You knew Patrick Mahomes and the offense would be good. Defense made the difference
- Chiefs’ ability to stop Broncos’ run game allowed defense ‘to go hunt’ Joe Flacco
This story was originally published January 25, 2020 at 6:32 PM.