Many in Clark County would likely say the right birds weren’t playing, but that didn’t mean houses, couches and bars the county over weren’t glued to the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Main Event Sports Grill had a solid crowd for the big game. Lisa Caddy, the general manager there, said Super Bowl Sundays at sports bars and restaurants has changed over the years.
“It’s definitely different now that everybody at home has a 60 inch TV,” she said. Also, they have to deal with the plain fact that the Northwest isn’t known as an enclave of New England or Philadelphia fans.
So, she said, they add their own touch.
Caddy said they have been planning and organizing since the beginning of the year. Main Event had a raffle for prizes and offered themed meal options, such as a cheese steak dish and chowder.
A Seattle game can draw a lot more fire, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of passion for the game.
“As you could see we almost had a mutiny when the TV blanked out for, what, 15 seconds, and I think just about everybody was ready to attack me,” she said.
An error on NBC’s end caused a brief interruption in the game broadcast, showing viewers a black screen, and no doubt terrifying sports bar owners around the country, for a brief moment.
Who’s playing aside, there’s also the draw of watching a game with others, socially, she said.
“You come out for the fun, too,” she said. “You come out with your friends.”
Chris Perry gathered with fellow Patriots fans at Main Event for the game. He grew up in Maine, which means growing up with the Patriots.
He says he’s learned to play it cool out among the Seattle fans, and pick his shots.
“It just makes it a little bit easier to reserve it, for, like, the Super Bowl,” he said shortly before halftime. “The Seahawks fans have two favorite teams. The Seahawks and anybody else that’s playing the Patriots.”
Joe Schulten sat down the bar from Perry. He typically roots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I’m here tonight because Tom Brady is the Michael Jordan of the NFL,” Schulten said.
Brady, even after Philadelphia’s victory, went into the game with the most Super Bowl wins for a quarterback, along with the record for playoff wins, regular season wins as a starter and division titles.
On the other hand, Schulten is from Venice, Fla., the hometown of Philadelphia tight end Trey Burton.
“Trey Burton, for me, is like a hometown hero,” he said. “And here he is, in the Super Bowl.”
Either way, he said shortly after New England’s Duron Harmon snaked an interception off Alshon Jeffery’s bobble — and hours before the Eagles pulled away in what proved to be a far more competitive game than expected — it was going to be a game for the books.
“It’ll be 100 years from now and nobody will have seen what we got to see tonight. It’s a big deal. It’s a huge deal as far as sports history. I don’ think anybody will ever do this again.”
