Since the Patriots went to their second Super Bowl in 1996, I've been tagging along. And with that 1996 trip, I started doing the Kirsch Kronicles. Back then it was sort of a running journal. Now I guess it would be called a blog. Who knew?
The Patriots.com digital team arrived in Indy on Saturday and started prepping for the team's arrival on Sunday. They'll get off the plane and head right into press conferences so we've got to be ready.
We'll be presenting Sunday's access and other days in a unique format on the home page of Patriots.com. You'll be able to see up to five press conferences at the same time and select the one you want to listen to. It should be pretty cool.
Went downtown last night and it was packed. My sense is it was a lot of locals getting their chance to experience what was going on before all the out-of-towners descend. Lots of food and souvenir stands, stages
for live music, and decorations galore. One of the highlights is a huge XLVI monument right in front of Indy's Monument Circle with each letter being a video screen. Traditional NFL music plays through huge speakers while the screen shows adrenaline-pumping NFL video. This scene has 33 Indy race cars in its foreground, one car for each of the 32 NFL teams and one for the league as a whole.
The other highlight would be the NFL experience which takes up the entire Indy Convention Center, a huge building. More food, souvenirs but also tons of interactive skill exhibits. I was tempted to try kicking the 32-yard field goal that Billy Cundiff missed but the line was too long and I was too cool (read, too old) to stand in it. I know I could have made it.
This came across my desk. It's from the largest Arabic newspaper in Bahrain. Even there the Super Bowl gets at least some attention.