Is It Really Super Bowl Sunday if I Don't Get To Watch It?

Today will be the first Super Bowl I have not been able to watch live in 27 years. You see, I'm still in Charlotte at the Youth Ministry Conference. My flight home takes off at 6:20 PM Eastern time this evening. Yup, exactly when kickoff happens. I arrive at 8:45 central time which will probably be at about the 2 minute warning.

I bet you are wondering how I know that the last Super Bowl I was not able to watch live in it's entirety was Super Bowl XVII (that's 17 for those of you who have issues with roman numerals). Well, I was 12 and my father had recently purchased a van. Not a mini-van, I'm talking a van with captains chairs, a couch and the whole bit. For reasons i can not explain to you, he decided about an hour before kickoff that he wanted to pack up the family and go for a ride.

You what?

So, we all loaded up and drove to who knows where. The thing you have to understand is that we rarely did this as a family. There was a time or two where we'd pack up and go to Tyler for roses or something and we'd complain the whole time but even those were planned trips. This spur of the moment thing was really insane.

As I'm whining about it, I realize, we have a little 8 or 10 inch black and white tv in the back of the van. I say little but the whole thing was actually pretty sizable, it was just the screen that was little. So, as we drove to nowhere, I'm in the back holding the antennae trying to get a signal.

I remember watching the Dolphins run a kickoff back for a touchdown through the snow and static in the first half and just hollering at my dad, how are we missing this? We did get home in the 2nd half to see the Redskins clobber Miami but I'm willing to bet if my dad was looking for a peaceful drive in the country, he must have contemplated throwing me out the window.

Prior to that game in 1983, my first memories of Super Bowl Sunday begin with Super Bowl XII in 1978 when the Cowboys beat the Broncos. My parents were rooting for the Broncos that day, I don't remember caring very much. The next year the Cowboys lost to the Steelers and I remember being interested in that one a little bit more but most of my memories of that game are from highlights. Catch the ball Jackie!!!!!

Super Bowl XIV is the first one I recall sitting down and watching every second of. It was 1980, I was 9 years old and it was the Rams and Steelers. It wasn't much of a game but I watched it and a monster was born.

If you've paid attention to this site and/or listened to the podcast you know my dad and I had the honor to go to the Super Bowl, #38 in 2004. Ever since then on Super Bowl Sunday I think to myself, it's 9 AM, we were eating breakfast. It's 1 pm, we realized I ran out the battery as we got out of the car.

I'm guessing today I'll be thinking, it's 7 pm, should be the end of the first quarter, wonder what's going on.

It is just a game and I'll be fine missing it, but this time I have no one really to holler at about it. Maybe I'll give my dad a call before we take off and blame him for old times sake.