Sportsnet.ca lead columnist Mark Spector is at the Super Bowl in Tampa and is filing regular updates throughout the day and game.
SATURDAY
4:15 p.m. - Meet a couple of sports writers in their hotel bar. Usually we'd meet about seven, but Super Bowl Saturday isn't a usual night.
4:45 p.m. - Arrive at Carmines, a Cuban restaurant in Ybor City that is over run with Steelers fans. Did anyone come here from Arizona?
5:20 p.m. - First pitcher of San Gria comes to the table. It is fantastic, and the place is crawling with partiers already. Could be tough to hold line on original plan here.
5:45 p.m. - Second pitcher of San Gria arrives.
7:50 p.m. - Escape Carmine's. Walk 7th ave., wading through the masses. The street has been shut down to traffic. Right now the crowd is still pretty happy, and mostly tourists wearing jerseys and team colours.
8:05 p.m. - Duck into a pool bar called Elmer's. Cam Cole (Vancouver Sun) and I dispatch a Baltimore maiden and her boyfriend from table, and begin a decent run.
8:35 p.m. - Cole scratches on 8-ball. Nice, Cammy.
915 p.m. - All week long, Super Bowl parties have featured Cuban cigar rollers. Dave Perkins offers one up and we fire up. You can still smoke in bars here, and stogies are prevalent. Yecch. Why do I do this?
9:55 p.m. - After holding our own against ageing Canadian sports writers, two Steelers fans kick our butts. Our run is over. Everyone out of the pool (hall).
10:02. p.m. - Walk out on to 7th ave. and it has ramped up considerably in our short absence. Louder, drunker, more locals with business intent, from hookers, sidewalk preachers, to the usual quotient of pick-pockets and rip-off artists.
"Well, it's still in hand," Cole says, assessing the mob. "Not out of control yet."
10:25 p.m. - Pass up a chance to see a band called Not Tonight Josephine. Hope they don't turn out to be the next Killers.
10:45 p.m. - Street preachers are in their element, surrounded by alcohol-consuming heathens. "You're on your way to. Hell!" one sign warns. I thought I was on my way towards Coyote Ugly, a bar up the strip.
"Jesus Saves. Drinkers Repent!"
11:00 p.m. - Stop for a slab of pizza. Meet Crystal, a player in the Lingerie Football League. "Hi!" she says, wearing eye black and a skimpy outfit. She looks small. Must be a DB.
11:26 p.m. - Walking 7th ave. now, with head on a swivel and wallet in my front pocket. For every sign reading, "I need tix," there is a zealot with his own placard: "Let me tell you why you're going to hell." I'm thinking, "No, let me tell you why I'm getting the heck out of here."
11:45 p.m. - Hop on our ride out of here. This place is absolutely vibrating, man. But the element has changed. It's getting drunker, the weird element is getting thicker, and the cops are out - with horses. It's a good rule to live by: When you're at a party, and the cops start showing up with horses, it's probably a good idea to go home. Call me old.
SUNDAY
9:50 a.m. - Hannah Storm interviews Faith Hill on ESPN. We've come to this: With the actual football people now sequestered away, the performers get excruciatingly long live interviews. As if Faith Hill, as fine a singer as she is, can add anything to the day with her football insight. "What would Faith Hill ask an NFL referee?" Storm asked. "I always wonder, when the football players are coming at them and they know they're going to get clobbered, what's going through their minds?" Hill bubbles. Yeesh.
10:08 a.m. - At breakfast, colleague says he tried two strip clubs on Saturday night. It's a Super Bowl tradition, he says. Problem: Cover charge was $50 at one place, $30 at the next. Tradition not worth keeping up, he reports.
10:20 a.m. - Hit a Denny's for breakfast. It's packed. A good 25-minute walk from Stadium, the restaurant offers $50 game day parking.
Kick off is scheduled for 6:28 p.m. tonight. But the people who came here for the party, they've been kickin' for some time now.
In fact, for the thousands who come to a Super Bowl city just to party - many of them with no intent on spending the money to attend the game - their game-face is long gone by the time you read this. A couple of hard nights on 7th ave. in Ybor City, Tampa's party strip, will do that to a guy.
We went out early on Saturday night, with the stated intent of starting early and shuttin' 'er down early, hoping to get some sleep before a busy Sunday. Here's a look at how we did, and what we saw, on a Saturday night and Sunday morning at the Super Bowl.
2:56 p.m. - Passing George Steimbrenner Field, across the road from Raymond James Stadium, the Yankees spring training home. Two helicopters - one military - are parked on the infield. Plus, a Brinks truck. Hmmmm...
3:50 p.m. - Find my assigned seat inside stadium - just barely. Section 307, row BB. Three rows from the top.
4:07 p.m. - Chatting up an old sports writer sitting next to me named Huel Washington, out of San Francisco. He's been to 38 Super Bowls.
"What was your first Super Bowl?" I ask.
"The first Super Bowl."
Me - "Yeah, which one?"
Him - "THE FIRST SUPER BOWL."
4:30 p.m. - Much hustling and bustling in Media Tent as hotdogs are served. It's a long night ahead, and sports writers are notoriously hot after free grub, so coveage of Super Bowl XLIII ceases as everyone lines up for a hoof 'n' snout burger.
4:59 p.m. - Bob Costas interviews Kurt Warner on NBC. He tells Costas everything he has been telling the media here since Tuesday. Costas does a wonderful job of looking surprised, giving the viewer the impression that Warner's thoughts are new. They are not.
5:02 p.m. - Players have been on the field a while now, and are peeling off one by one to the dressing rooms. My Gawd, is the game finally here after a two-week wait?
5:48 p.m. - riding escalator with Steelers fan, who let's out a sigh. "Tough night last night?" I ask. "Nope - just nervous. Didn't drink last night for that reason. Gotta be on my toes tonight." Wow - didn't think they had guys like that in Pittsburgh.
5:55 p.m. - Beer here is $10 for a bottle. Yikes - that's worse than the ACC
6:02 p.m. - the band's off the field, the players are in the tunnel. Crack me a Black Label and rip open those Salt 'n' Vinegars Mabel, it's game time!