Dispach from a Super City

While the Phelps home is filled with avid football fans (Go Illini! Go Bears! Go Colts!), the Phelleher home...not so much. I used to make efforts to bond with my dad and brothers over football and used it as fodder to connect with the guys at the office. And then I met Brian, realized he didn't give a crap, so we spent the next five years enjoying the brain space and no-traffic Colts Sundays to do anything else but watch football. Fast forward this fall when I accepted a job as associate general counsel at USA Football just months before our home city hosted the Super Bowl. Why hello, Football, we have some catching up to do.

Football and I first got reacquainted over a game of flag football...also known as the USA Football office holiday party...on December 19th. My tactic on this game was to set expectations low...really low, and then anything I did contribute during the tournament would suprise and delight. Phase 1 went as planned. At the first team meeting when discussing how small, but quick, our team was (note, other teams included two Big Ten football alums), I informed our team that I was "quick as molasses." I asked honest questions, like "so is rushing when the defense tries to get the QB?" Phase 2...who could have predicted how miraculously well Phase 2 would go? Game 1 was good, we won. Game 2, it was tied and we were in sudden death overtime. My team has the ball and I'm thrown a short pass, I catch it wearing my awesome Cutters gloves which made my hands sticky like a frog, pivot and run 3/4 the length of the field to score and win the game! Games 3 and 4, we won (note we were undefeated and the office champions). Suprise and delight, baby, suprise and delight.

Jen surprising and delighting at USA Football Holiday Party Flag Football Tournament

Fast forward to this week, Super Bowl week and we were Ground Zero. I have never seen Indianapolis so alive and so proud. We ate up all the positive energy and press and shone it back to those who were still scratching their heads as to how Indianapolis won a Super Bowl bid. Monday evening, Brian met me downtown after work to check out the sights. We knew it was going to be a good night when a street parking spot fell into our laps as we were about to pull into a $20 lot (expensive for Indianapolis standards when I normally park all day for $4) and paid a total of $2 to park just blocks from Super Bowl Village. As we turned onto Georgia Street in front of Conseco Field House (now renamed something without any meaning that I can't remember), the energy pulsed. We enjoyed the huge ice sculptures, the multiple stages pumping out live music - including Big Sam's Funky Nation, a band my younger brother Ben used to play with when he lived in New Orleans - the snazzed up city and the all the people. We popped into "The Huddle" - an after hours club in the old Nordstrom's spot. I had read a review for a restaurant in there that sounded good and not too astronomical for price. Brian and I decided to split a ham sandwich at the carving station on a pretzel bun with pasta salad and cole slaw. At $16, it didn't seem like a bargain, but when Brian's and my eyes met after our first bite of the sandwich, we realized we had just scored THE BEST HAM SANDWICH OF OUR ENTIRE LIVES. Seriously, it was phenomenal. And it kept me full all night. No other snacks, nothing to nosh when we got home. It was phenomenal.

All-Star Brian at the NFL Experience.

After our quick bite, we continued our way down Georgia Street towards the Convention Center and the NFL Experience. As we reached our destination, we looked up and careening across the sky were two people on the famous zipline. Each trip down set a roar from the crowd. Just under it was a small field where some of my USA Football colleagues were running a FUNdamentals football clinic for little kids. After standing utterly mesmorized as person after person zipped their way down Capital Avenue, we made our way into the NFL Experience. My company was taking care of my admission (benefits of being funded by the NFL) so we thought we would check it out. A virtual playground of opportunities to try your hand at passing the football down the field, kicking a field goal, running an obstacle course, and playing Flag (also run by USA Football). Throw in some NFL History, the signing day stage, the Lombardi trophy and it was a football fan's dream. Even Brian and I had fun...although we just couldn't make ourselves stand in the long lines to do things, as Brian noted, we could do in our own back yard.

The real thing courtesy of the Colts, ca. October 2007.

We worked our way back to our cars, this time via the Circle to see the ginormous XLVI and hoping to check out the 33 Indy Cars painted for NFL teams. The former was awesome - lit up and showing football clips from games past. The latter was already gone - apparently only an artifact of the weekend before.

The week continued, the global warming continued to give us some gorgeous, unseasonably warm days. Wednesday night the Phellehers gathered at Grammy and Papa's to take advantage of their expanded cable offerings to watch the USA Football International Bowl where Team USA (the U19 national team) took on the U19 World Team comprised of players from 19 countries (although the Canadians saw the vast majority of the playing time). I had been working on this game and the myriad of contracts accompanying the event since my first day at USA Football. Fun to watch on TV and see the great product put together by all my colleages. Also great to watch the historic moment when the World Team beat Team USA for the first time.

Girls enjoying some "Super" weather to go for a walk.

Which brings us to tonight...Superbowl Sunday. The Phellehers snuggled in at home and did something rarely done in thes parts...we turned on the TV to watch the game. We spread a picnic blanket, lit the fireplace, had pizza on the family room floor. Overheard during the game:

Sage: "That was NOT a gentle touch."

Jen (when Brian reported to her that Patriots received a penalty for having 12 players on the field): "So...they're only supposed to have 11 players?"

Brian: "Apparently."

Lucy: "I want to watch something ELSE!"

After the girls' first exposure to Madonna (they were mesmerized), it was time for bed. The game may be over, but there's currently 9:15 on the clock at the Phellehers thanks to TiVo. Patriots are up by 2 and I'm still hoping the Saints will win. Brian, my native New Englander, feels pretty confident about his odds on that one.