Unless Mother Nature decides to hit the region with a monster snowstorm, most football fans ”“and those who are married to football fans ”“ will be watching Super Bowl XLV ”“ or at bare minimum, listening to it over the radio.
Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will pit the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Green Bay Packers, winners of the first Super Bowl back in 1967.
The game begins at 6:30 p.m., but you can be sure that revelers will be gathering long before the National Anthem.
“My husband’s a long-time New York Jets fan, so the outcome of the AFC championship on Sunday game changed our plans,” said Ruth Mahoney, incoming president of KeyBank”™s Hudson Valley/Metro New York District. “We’re still going to have a party with food and lots of good Irish beer” ”“ Harp and Smithwick”™s are the family favorites ”“ “but it’s just going to be scaled down a little as our team is not playing. Sadly, as any Jets fan can tell you, ”˜Jets”™ and ”˜winning”™ have historically not been synonymous, so a Super Bowl appearance would have been worthy of a big-time celebration.”
Jerry Kobre, mayor of Chestnut Ridge, expects his entire family for the game: “All my grown sons, their spouses and their children will be at my house. There will be an awful lot of yelling, but it”™s a great time for the kids. I”™ll be exhausted the next day, to be sure. But what would the Super Bowl be without a party?”
TD Bank”™s Anthony Stigliano will be hosting his annual Super Bowl Sunday part at his house with his friends and family. “It used to be about 10 of us,” said Stigliano. “But the friends got married and had kids, so now we”™ve grown to about 30. Everyone brings something to eat, and we have a great time. We”™ll be watching no matter who wins.”
Farmer Chris Pawelski in Pine Island is having friends over to watch the game. “The friends happen to be from Wisconsin, where my wife, Eve, is from, so we”™ll be rooting for the Packers. Normally, we”™re a Jets”™ household, when we are not going crazy on Saturdays for the Iowa Hawkeyes.”
“For the last 20 years, we”™ve been going to a Super Bowl party with about ten other friends,” said Bill Spearman president and CEO of Kingston”™s Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union. “Everyone brings a food or beverage item with them, and this year, we received a formal invitation with the list of the Super Bowl teams who have played for the last 45 years. It”™s simple but fun. And it”™s all about tradition.”
It”™s all good news to caterers, delis with six-foot-long heroes, pizza parlors and supermarkets, who will keep Super Bowl Sunday at fever pitch until the kickoff .
For those who aren”™t watching (and who did not want to be named for fear of football-related retaliation at the cash register), they”™ll be “doing something,” said one. “Anything but watching the Super Bowl.”
