Friday, February 05, 2010

Super Bowl XLIVL: Zennie in Miami for Leigh Steinberg Party

Miami is hot. Miami is also the city host of Super Bowl XLIVL. That means parties, people, food, and fun, and my second time here. I'm here for The Leigh Steinberg Party Super Bowl Party more than for the Saints and Colts battle. My game plan, if you will, is to fly to Atlanta Sunday to watch the Super Bowl with my Mother. Miami's stadium is, OK, but this is my seventh Super Bowl and I'm not a fan of that facility. Plus, this trip is virtually free for me.

Super Bowls should be played in dome stadiums, under the lights; not outdoors. The last time I was here in 2007, the stadium was hard to get to, it rained like you've never seen before, and I got waterlogged and saw the game from a stadium TV.

But that written, everyone should experience the Super Bowl at least once.  The giant pulse of human energy that's emitted at kickoff is a drug worth the price of admission, and doesn't come through on television.  But I've felt it six times.

As this is being blogged, I'm siting at Miami International Airport's "J" Terminal, totally exhausted having traveled all night long to get here. My flight was crawling with Colts fans. Two flights, three cities - San Francisco, Washington, and Miami - and not enough sleep. I'm wiped.

The Super Bowl is an almost annual pilgrimage for me that started with my work to bring the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland between 1999 and 2001. Seeing - and this is an unfortunate truth - how terrible the City of Oakland treated me as I was working to form the bid, NFL execs I will not name said "If there's anything we can do to help you build your business, we will." That's how the Super Bowl trips and the annual NFL Draft press pool came about.

Ok, an aside: What did Oakland do? Well, everything from then-Mayor Jerry Brown and City Manager Robert Bobb calling the NFL (or having others do so) with questions I'd already given them answers to; or refusing to cooperate with me in preparation for our Super Bowl Bid presentation to the NFL Owners; having meetings behind my back with Oakland business representatives who should have been on our sports commission; Oakland economic development heads who were so angry that I was working on the Super Bowl that they 1) would not cooperate, and 2) worked to deliberately harm my work in some way, either by inaction, lies, or character assassination.

This was the case from Brown, to Oakland Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, and a number of people I could name. When I left Oakland, I silently vowed I'd succeed in a way they'd never forget. I've done that.

The NFL was, and has been, a better friend to me than the City of Oakland. Regardless of what's said and whatever idiot chimes in with some lie, the bottom line is Oakland will stumble all over itself to prevent anyone from succeeding at something large scale that calls for the City's involvement. Why this is, I don't know, but I see it all the time. Oakland can't seem to work together to achieve much.

That's why, even with three sports teams, there's no one major sports event that Oakland has consistently hosted or formed a bid for more than once. That's the culture of Oakland. In Jerry Brown's case, some observers in the media would say "Well, he's an intellectual, so he's not interested in sports", which is about the dumbest comment I've ever heard of. First, he's the Mayor, or was. Second, a Mayor's job is to serve the people, not his own tastes. Third, sports is an export industry that generates job in Oakland.

I pray the Oakland Marathon is the start of the end of that problem of Oakland's working against itself. I think it may be.

But all that's in the past. Now, I'm in Miami and looking forward to seeing my friends and attending Leigh Steinberg's great party. Leigh has been a friend since 1998, when he came to help me with Oakland Athletics issues while I was Elihu Harris' economic advisor.

This is my seventh Leigh Steinberg Super Bowl Party. I've met all kinds of people, from Jacksonville Jaguar Head Coach Jack Del Rio, to Steven Baldwin, Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones, Bay Area Sports Writer Art Spander, former Oakland Raiders Exec (now Washington Redskins GM) Bruce Allen, then-Tampa Bay Bucs Head Coach Jon Gruden and his wife Cindy, ;and a group of people that are still my friends to this day - some of them who helped me on the Super Bowl: Oakland work, and all from the private sector.

For me the Super Bowl is a celebration of people who like to make things happen.  That's why I'm here.  For me, it's more than the game, but that written, Go Colts!

Stay tuned.

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