It's 15 years since this game happened - meaning it's also 15 years since I graduated high school. It's 15 year's since I became an "adult". Not sure why this is hitting me harder than when it was 10 years since all that happened - but maybe it's because 15 years before 2009, I was three years old. I don't remember that time. I'm old man. I write below how my interest/obsession/love with the NFL peaked in the 2008 season and maybe reached it's true apex in that Super Bowl. There's definitely truth to that. What's a weirder question to ponder is did my life in a weird way reach an apex as well. I don't think it did, but I'm also not ashamed to say that at that specific moment in 2009, with school effectively an afterthought, a solid group of friends, and yes the addition of alcohol, things were pretty damn well perfect.
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The Cardinals were the first 9-7 team to make a Super Bowl since 1979, a team that outscored their opponents by one point, a team that lost games by stupid-bad scores in the second half of the season.
I've talked many times about my love for the 2008 season, a year defined by imperfect teams, flawed units, with a few great ones (like the Steelers and Ravens defenses) sprinkled in. What I haven't done much, however, is talk about the playoffs that capped that season. Probably because it didn't feature that many special games before Super Bowl XLIII. There were a few nice ones - be it a fun NFC Title Game between a 6 seed and a 4 seed (neither won ten games), and the defensive bash-fest that was Ravens @ Steelers, Pt. 3.
But that Super Bowl, then. A great capper to a great season of football, a season that would forever change my connection to the game, and a Super Bowl that would be a memorable experience for all different reasons.
I think in my larger piece about the 2008 season, I mentioned that it was my senior season of high school. I had about as serious a case of senioritis as possible, touting my (relative) freedom to drive where I want, flout the system when I want, and do what I want. Ironically, I got better grades that year than my Freshman or Sophomore years, but that's a story for another day.
One of the benefits of being a senior, especially in an era before there were online systems that tracked grades and attendance that parents could watch over, was the concept of Senior Cut Day. For us, it was two days that the senior class would decide to take off. I completely forget when the first day was. The second day, I will never forgot. It was the Monday after the Super Bowl.
I was sick the couple schooldays the week before the Super Bowl. I think it was a regular flu or head clod. It was bad. I was barely recovered when Super Bowl Sunday hit. I probably should ahve just sat at home. I didn't. I enjoyed a great game, great friends and a truly great time. It was the conflience of a great year at school, and a great year of football, both memories that will never leave me.
I won't get into all the details,. but my firends and I all went to one of our friends houses for a party. This wasn't some raging kegger with people getting drunk and passing out and banging and all the rest. It was a relatively tame 10-15 friends get together, have a few beverages, watch football, light fireworks, and all the rest.
I don't truly remember what we drank. I remember fighting with myself if I should, given the sickness I was just coming out of. But I knew the next day was off, a surprisingly great Super Bowl was on, and there was no better time.
The game was wonderful, with so many 'holy god' moments. Be it James Harrison's interceptipon return, something I think we debated the merits of for the entire halftime show. Be it Larry Fitzgerald's amazing second half, especially that catch and run splitting the middle of the field. And then of course that final drive. By the time Santonio Holmes made his tiptoe catch (which I still haven't seen one definitive view of), we were all a bit tipsy, and just spent a long time hoo-ing and hawing at what ridiculousness we just saw.
After the game ended, 10pm EST, the real fun began. Though looking back, my interest, my love, of the NFL might have hit its peak in that single moment.
I probably watched more football, or at least loved watching football, more in 2008 than any other year. Be it the Ravens vs. Steelers regular season games, or the Titans run to 10-0, or the great Week 16 'Win and your #1 seed' Giants vs. Panthers game, or the Colts amazing run from 3-4 to 12-4. The whole season was great, and it ended with a bang. At that moment, my football life was as happy as it would ever be.
In some ways, so was a lot of my personal life. Sure, the luxury of being gainfully employed, continuing friendships, etc., has its spoils, but so too with those things comes their associated challenges. Here we were on a lonely February in winter, a Sunary of all days, as far as lonely as possible, living in our personal dream with no school to wake up to the next day.
We set off fireworks that night. Real fireworks - big ones. Fireworks that definitely woke people up - pity those that did not have senior cut day the day after teh Super Bowl. We ran back to our friends house, staggered, humoured, elated. This was life. Football was a part of it. Maybe too big a part of it, but the greatness of the moment helped fuel an amazing night.
