In some ways, soccer is the final word “hurry up and wait” recreation — a timed sport the place play isn’t all the time steady, the place there are common prolonged stoppages to verify on whether or not any individual has caught a ball or not (with the definition of a “catch” seemingly all the time altering), and the place two minutes of play can truly take half an hour.
Such can also be the case, it seems, while you’re in a tunnel beneath a stadium of 60,000 rabid soccer followers ready to get on the sector for the primary Rihanna live performance in seven years.
Such is the case, actually, of the complete week main as much as the Tremendous Bowl — there’s quite a lot of ready round for issues to occur, then issues truly taking place in a really brief period of time. It’s the anticipation-payoff corollary: Will the build-up be well worth the occasion itself? Welcome to the day of the Tremendous Bowl showdown between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs — or, extra importantly to many, the day that Rihanna returned to the stage for her first stay efficiency of the last decade.
The morning of Tremendous Bowl LVII began effectively sufficient. By 11:30 I used to be equipped and able to go, sporting Buffalo Payments socks and a Buffalo Payments shirt simply to really feel one thing after one other mind-numbing playoff exit from my favourite workforce weeks earlier. If I used to be going to be on the sector, the Payments had been coming with me, and I bought all the way down to the stadium just a little after midday. After almost being waylaid by Man Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate — extraordinarily tempting, given I hadn’t but eaten, but in addition seeming like a mirage within the desert distance that I may by no means get to even when I actually needed — I discovered the media tent. It had every part I wanted: a free ham and cheese sandwich, free Flamin’ Scorching Cheetos, 4 free carrots in a bag and shelter from the solar. An auspicious starting. I additionally acquired a brilliant orange vest.
There’s quite a lot of anxiousness wrapped up within the Tremendous Bowl, notably in case you’ve by no means been earlier than. The safety appears intimidating, you don’t wish to carry or do the improper factor or wind up within the improper space, and there are quite a lot of guidelines that appear complicated at first. However when you’re there, it’s truly fairly straightforward — and when you’re ready for the sport to truly begin, there’s a lot to fill the time. Just like the Gameday Expertise exterior the stadium, which I wandered to subsequent, the place Eagles followers had been loudly engaged on their spelling and a sea of individuals had been both nervously knocking again beers, idly watching just a few individuals try a dance-off, or attempting to get on TV for the Fox pre-game present, which was being filmed on a raised platform simply inside. I discovered it to be a superb day to be a Payments fan, as no one routinely hates you, and the few individuals who discover you typically take pity on you and are variety. Some issues haven’t modified in 30 years!
However this brilliant orange vest gave me authority to go onto the sector for the pre-game festivities, in order that was the place I headed subsequent, shortly after 3:00 p.m. native time. Typically, with a credential like that, you simply need to type of take a look at the boundaries of the place you may go till you end up in the appropriate place — and after I used to be pointed within the vaguely right course, I discovered the appropriate door from the surface to enter the sector degree. At that time, I walked in after a dude who was carrying a laptop computer in entrance of himself and dealing on it whereas he was strolling, whereas being filmed by a man with a giant video digicam. This turned out to be DJ Snake — a truth I discovered minutes later, when he began DJ’ing for the complete stadium on the large display screen overlooking the sector.
As soon as on the sector itself, the power was insane, like a uninteresting roar within the background that’s truly one of many loudest sounds you’ll ever hear (however weirdly not in an in-your-face method). The gamers had been in all places, kicking and operating drills. Everybody was taking selfies. Paul Rudd was there, sporting an Isiah Pacheco jersey. A Fox Sports activities digicam man on a raised dais was crushing what gave the impression to be an apple juice field. Everybody, for sure, was in championship kind. Jordin Sparks was there, speaking about her new single and what she hoped for from the Rihanna present (or, as she put it, “when the sport pauses and the Rihanna present comes”). Eagles followers had been loudly booing Dak Prescott after which practising their spelling once more. Damar Hamlin was there (Go Payments!). Jay-Z and Blue Ivy had been strolling round. It was an entire scene, to say the least.
However simply because the pre-game music was about to begin, I needed to depart: There have been larger prizes on the horizon. It’s a unusual factor to be bodily on the Tremendous Bowl and to see much less of the particular Tremendous Bowl than you’d have in case you had stayed dwelling, however such was the mission: on the sector for Rihanna. And that meant assembly up with individuals from Apple Music exterior the stadium to be able to be prepared for the primary occasion.
But, in traditional Tremendous Bowl style, that meant ready, and ready, and ready some extra. The music sounded nice from exterior; the fireworks had been enjoyable from exterior; the sport began whereas I used to be exterior, and I watched the start on a telephone display screen that was a minimum of 15 seconds delayed, with the group 50 yards away from me making a gift of what had already occurred earlier than it occurred on the display screen. At one level I walked again inside — it is vitally scorching within the solar in Arizona — to see the Chiefs rating a landing and watch GloRilla stroll previous on the concourse. After which it was time to satisfy.
Or, time to go wait in a unique space. Strolling to satisfy up with the Apple crew, we walked previous round 200 individuals sporting marshmallow-sized white canvas fits with black plastic drape shawls (which had been billowing and blowing away within the wind), who had been standing exterior the stadium awaiting their cue whereas just a few individuals with bullhorns shouted reminders on how you can enter the present. Mainly, we had been alleged to comply with the marshmallow dancers into the stadium and onto the sector. However first we needed to wait some extra.
At 5:39 pm we began to maneuver, heading inside a gate and down a collection of causeways in direction of the sector degree. Each jiffy we might transfer ahead, then cease for one more jiffy, then transfer ahead once more down into the bowels of the stadium. At 5:53 the time lastly appeared to return — it was the two-minute warning of the primary half, they usually shifted us all the way down to the place the postgame interviews had been to be carried out, beneath the stands (assume a way more concrete model of being underneath the bleachers at a highschool soccer recreation). It lastly gave the impression to be time to go — however then, as all of us huddled round a lone small TV mounted on the wall, we realized that solely 10 seconds of the sport had truly passed by. Hurry up, and wait; hurry up, and wait.
Patrick Mahomes damage his ankle. There was one more delay as referees tried to determine what a catch was as soon as once more. The ultimate two minutes of the half took a literal 26 minutes of actual time. And so we waited, milling about behind the marshmallow dancers. Anxiousness abounded, each over what was about to occur in addition to whether or not Mahomes would be capable of cowl everybody’s prop bets.
At 6:18, there was motion once more, and a last instruction from an individual with a bullhorn: “Your ft being on the bottom is extra vital than your video trying good!” Nicely-intentioned, for positive, however there was not going to be a lot that will get in the way in which of many individuals getting their once-in-a-lifetime video of being on the sector on the Tremendous Bowl to see a Rihanna present. After which, lastly, at 6:22, it occurred: flashing credentials alongside the way in which, we had been hustled up a last hall and out onto the sector, by an unbroken line of safety personnel on both facet right into a nook of the Chiefs finish zone. Our marshmallow buddies had been already on the sector in place.
It’s fairly laborious to explain what it was wish to be on the sector for these first few moments of Rihanna’s efficiency, apart from surreal. The platforms that she and the dancers had been on had been impossibly excessive within the air — not an opportunity I’d join that — and, given all of the adrenaline and wall of sound and fireworks and uncooked power, it’s an unimaginable feat to have the ability to carry out like that in such a state of affairs. (A lot much less to take action having been just a few months postpartum, after not being on stage in 5 years, and oh yeah, whereas additionally being at the moment pregnant. Rihanna is one thing else, man.)
The entire expertise of being on the sector for Rihanna was, predictably, a complete blur — hours of construct up and ready, and after 19 minutes we had been again within the tunnel. However for these 19 minutes I forgot there was a soccer recreation being performed, such was the full immersion of the present within the stadium. And that brief time period additionally coincided with the solar fully happening, that means that the by the point she completed, the ultimate fireworks had been towards the evening sky, prefer it had lasted an hour or extra. And but impulsively it was over, and we had been hustled again inside, the place the exhilarated dancers had been in half-marshmallow costume, and obtained a giant ovation from everybody who walked by again up the a number of concourses. (The dancers, it ought to be famous, deservedly had been allowed to take the escalators again up.)
It was laborious to not watch the remainder of the sport in a haze after that — although it was nonetheless fascinating for people-watching functions. By 7:50, when the Eagles had tied the sport, not one of the followers on both facet had been having enjoyable anymore, as the strain began to overwhelm the spectacle. After which, similar to that, a mother in Chiefs regalia was dancing, a father-son duo in Eagles gear began swearing profusely subsequent to me and the inevitability of Patrick Mahomes got here for everybody within the stadium.
Abruptly the sport, and the American nationwide vacation, was over, as if it had taken mere minutes — a two-week construct up for a recreation that was over far too quickly. I’ll spare the main points of the three-hour anticipate a trip share automotive after the sport, besides to say thanks to the sort soul at a Jack within the Field in Glendale who allowed me to cost my telephone from 3% to 11%, thus giving me the cushion I wanted to lastly e-book an Uber at 11:00 p.m. However that’s how it’s with the Tremendous Bowl, proper? Hurry up and wait.
