Each one was Super Fun, even the one that the boys in the Burgundy and Gold lost. I am grateful to have had the good fortune to attend four Super Bowls and welcome this opportunity to relate my experiences at those events. Upfront, though, I want to say that I am not like a Trumpster Republican rewriting history, and thus meaning no personal offense and with all due respect to my Cherokee, Comanche, Sioux, and other tribal friends, I am going to refer to the Washington Football Team in this report as the Redskins (or the “Skins”) because that’s who they were when they played in these Super Bowls and captured the hearts of their loving fans. So, Hail to the Redskins, political correctness be damned.

Super Bowl XVII, January 30, 1983, Pasadena, CA:

On the Monday after the Skins beat the hated Dallas Cowboys to win the National Football Conference championship and earned the right to play in the Super Bowl, my good client and friend, Dr. Norman Scott, who had contacts in the professional sports world and who knew I was a rabid Redskins fan, called me and asked if I would like tickets to the Super Bowl game against Miami at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. I was overjoyed with excitement. I pleaded with my wife to not only allow me to go but also to come with me. She had been wanting to visit her friend, Sue Michel, who lived in the Los Angeles area. When Nonny readily agreed to watch our 8-year old and 5-year old sons for a few days the decision was a “go” for both of us. I asked Dr. Scott if he could get me three tickets so Sue could attend the game with us and he came through. I don’t know whether the tickets were gratis to him, but he never ask me to pay for them. How great was that!

As I recall we flew to Los Angeles on Friday night and returned to Dulles on Monday morning. We stayed at Sue’s apartment. She took us on a brief tour of the LA area on Saturday, with a stopover in Beverly Hills so Claudia and her could browse the fancy shops on Rodeo Drive. What I best recall of that rather boring segment of the day was that several of those shops offered comfortable seating and a free glass of wine to the husbands and male friends while their ladies shopped. As a Saturday night surprise for Claudia and me Sue had tickets to a Johnny Mathis concert at the Hollywood Bowl. We were both Johnny Mathis fans so it was going to be exciting to see and hear him in person. Unfortunately our seats were up in the crow’s nest and so I neither saw nor heard him very well. But I know my wife enjoyed the concert, and on the drive back to the apartment Sue and her were singing “Chances Are”, probably Johnny’s greatest hit. All the while I was riding in the backseat wondering what are the chances that the Skins would win the next day.

We arrived at the Rose Bowl about 3 hours before game time because Sue knew that parking would be at a premium. It was a good decision because all that pre-game time allowed us to experience the full flavor of a Super Bowl event. The place was alive with cheering and music and dancing and football tossing and concession booths. While taking all that end I noticed one of my law partners, Don Mooers, and his wife walking towards me. I had no idea Don was going to be there, although he had heard that I would be. It was amazing not only that we would bump into each other amidst 90,000 people but also that our stadium seats were only four rows apart!

The seats were great on the Redskins side of the 35 yard line, a perfect viewpoint for John Riggins’ 42-yard run to glory. The game was thrilling and the final score of Super Bowl XVII happily was Redskins XXVII, Miami Football Team XVII. After the game we joined Don and his wife and two of their friends at an Italian restaurant for a celebratory dinner. Our flight home the next day was especially pleasant as it seemed that most of the passengers were also fans of the Super Bowl Champion and at several times during the flight they delivered a joyful rendition of the team’s song. It was a relief when we got to Silver Spring to learn that Christopher and Patrick, aside from being a bit more spoiled, were none the worse for our absence.

Super Bowl XVIII, January 22, 1984, Tampa, FL:

I thought for sure that the Redskins, as dominant as they were in the regular season and the playoffs, would easily beat the Los Angeles Raiders in this Super Bowl and I wanted to see them become repeat champs. This time my wife could not accompany me because she was 11 months pregnant, but she graciously gave me permission for me to go to the game in Tampa. This time I called Dr. Scott. This time he put me in touch with his ticket agent (scalper) who he used for getting best seats at Broadway shows. This time I paid for two tickets and my traveling companion was Ralph Polachek. He was not much of a football fan, but his family home was near Orlando and he was planning to fly there around the time of the Super Bowl to pick up a car from his parents which he would drive back to his home in the D.C. area. I suggested to him that we fly together to Orlando and then attend the Super Bowl in Tampa. He liked the notion of having company on the long drive back to D.C.

We left on Thursday of Super Bowl week and I hung out with Ralph and his parents at their Kissimmee home until Saturday afternoon. It was an enjoyable visit and I especially remember going to what was advertised as an authentic Western saloon in Orlando on Friday night. It was a huge establishment with stand-at bars, gaming card tables, cowboy music, square dance floor, and well-endowed scantily clad waitresses. It was a scene to behold. Even Ralph’s father, a man of a reserved nature, was excited!

I was still with the Ash, Bauersfeld law firm in 1984 and Mr. Ash’s daughter, Fan Oleson, and I were the Co-Trustees of Mr. Ash’s trust which owned a house in Sarasota, sixty miles south of Tampa. I couldn’t get a hotel room in Tampa and when Fan heard I was going to the Super Bowl she said that I could stay at the Sarasota house. So early Saturday afternoon Ralph and I drove from Kissimmee to Sarasota, stopping in Tampa on the way to see if we could locate a Redskins pep rally. We couldn’t, so we proceeded on to Sarasota. We were met there by my brother-in-law, Gary, and as I recall one if not two of his friends. I had told Gary he could stay with us that Saturday night at the house in Sarasota. We patronized several of the bars located on the ritzy St. Armands Key in Sarasota that night. With the exception of Gary’s friend tripping the security alarm around midnight, the overnight stay of company at the house was without incident.

Ralph and I headed up to Tampa early on Sunday morning so we could observe and participate in the pre-game going-ons and hoopla. I was not disappointed with that. I was, however, very disappointed in the outcome of the game, as the final score was the Los Angeles Football Team XXXVIII, Redskins IX. The only redeeming part of attendance at the game itself was that again the seats were great. The Raiders fans, though, were pretty nasty towards the Skins fans, not showing good sportsmanship at all. It was a long 60 mile trip back to the Sarasota house after the game.

We started our drive back to D.C. late on Monday morning. While we had intended to drive straight through it rained almost all day and the trip was very tiring. So we decided to spend the night at a motel on the South Carolina/North Carolina border. I called home to inform my wife of the change in plans and she told me that she went to the hospital earlier that evening because she thought she was experiencing contractions, but that it turned out to be false labor. That was all I had to hear to tell Ralph the next morning to please drive as fast as you can to Maryland because I don’t want to miss the birth of my first daughter.

Super Bowl XXII, January 31, 1988, San Diego, CA:

This one was the most fun. A good client, Joe Mattos, invited me to attend this Super Bowl with he and his cousin, John Mattos, as their guest. The Mattos family conducted an automotive paint business with stores throughout the D.C. area and I had performed legal services for the family and the business for 15 years. They were good customers of Dupont and I’m pretty certain that they got free tickets to the game in San Diego from Dupont. Joe told me, though, that if I wanted to go with them, I would have to fly first to Las Vegas for a two night stay. That sounded appealing enough and so I readily accepted (but only after conferring with my better half, of course).

We flew into Vegas in the early afternoon of the Thursday before the game. Joe had warned me that John loved to gamble and that once we got to Vegas we were unlikely to see him until we were to leave Vegas on Saturday morning. Within 30 minutes of the time we checked into our hotel rooms I got a call from John. He said that he was going down to the casino to place a $1,000 bet in about 15 minutes and he thought he should let Joe and me know in case we wanted to watch. Naturally we did, so we hustled to the casino. He was at a blackjack table and he placed his bet – and won. He kept betting big and occasionally winning, and after 20 minutes are so a casino manager came over and introduced himself and asked if we would like upgraded accommodations for our stay at that hotel. We all got nicer, more spacious rooms because John was a welcomed big-time gambler. I know that he moved on to the craps and roulette tables later that day, and Joe was right, we didn’t see him again until he boarded the flight to California on Saturday morning. We asked him how things went and he said he spent time at several casinos, slept little in 48 hours, and at the end of the day he was up about $700. While that was his Vegas experience Joe and I enjoyed some good meals, saw some of the sights on the famous strip, including a cab ride down to the original strip in old Las Vegas, and attended the popular Wayne Newton show. We also did a little gambling, me at the blackjack tables and Joe at blackjack and craps, but with modest wagers. I think I lost about $50.

Joe could not get a hotel room near San Diego since we would be late arrivals due to the Vegas stay, so we wound up in a motel in Anaheim, about three or four blocks from Disneyland. We arrived there on Saturday afternoon and immediately (and painfully) saw that the exterior and the lobby of the motel were decorated with Denver Broncos banners, pennants, colors, and other disgusting paraphernalia. The joint was packed with Broncos fans. They could see we were wearing our Redskins hats as we checked in and one group told us that they were having a pep rally at the motel that evening and I believe they sarcastically told us that we were welcome to attend. Not having anything else to do or any other place to go without wheels we decided to accept that invitation, thinking we would at least get free beer and food. I don’t think the Denver fans expected the three of us to crash their party, but after we all imbibed a bit they were very hospitable and all of us actually had a fun night. We were joining in their Broncos cheers and they were singing along on the Hail to the Redskins song. I thought these are good folks, damn those Raider fans.

We traveled by bus Sunday morning from Anaheim down to Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The ride was boisterous to say the least, and of course full of beer-drinking and Broncos cheering. We were the only Redskins fans on the bus, but we didn’t mind the rowdiness because these were our new friends. As for the game itself it was historic. After being scoreless in the first quarter and falling behind by 10 points, the Skins put 35 points on the board in the second quarter. The final score was Redskins XLII, the Denver Football Team X. There was hardly any noise on the bus ride back to Anaheim, and actually I think that was mostly because everyone was wasted. When we got back to the motel, however, Joe and I went into the small lounge for a nightcap and a good number of Broncos fans stopped by to congratulate us on our team’s victory.

One final bit of trivia on the exciting Super Bowl adventure in San Diego is this: It turned out that the Mattos family also got tickets for Charlie Burton of the Ash, Bauersfeld firm. He brought his daughter along with him. She had been recently divorced. Her seat at the game was next to Joe, John and me, while Mr. Burton sat in a different part of the stadium with another client of his. She had a few drinks which loosened her up quite a bit, and combined with being ecstatic about the Redskins lopsided victory, she kept asking us to go with her after the game to party with her at the Coronado guesthouse where she, and she alone, was staying. Being happily married men Joe and I wouldn’t consider that, but John, good old gambling John, himself recently divorced, seemed willing to do that. Joe and I were able to talk him out of it, and I don’t think he ever forgave us.

No matter, the good guys were Super Bowl Champs for the second time!

Super Bowl XXVI, January 26, 1992, Minneapolis, MN:

I am grateful that I resisted any temptation to accompany Mr. Burton’s horny daughter to Coronado after Super Bowl XXII because if I had, among other probable bad ramifications, Mr. Burton would not have invited me to attend Super Bowl XXVI with him. The tickets for that game were obtained by a client of Mr. Burton in Phoenix, and I did have to reimburse him for the cost of my ticket. The game was played in Minneapolis and the contrast was striking for sure between being in Minnesota in the dead of winter and being in California and Florida for the previous January Super Bowls which I attended. While it was indeed frigid the game itself was played in the indoor Metrodome and downtown Minneapolis had many overhead walkways that allowed you to go from one store, restaurant, or office to another without exposure to the below-freezing temperature. Also, the people of Minneapolis who greeted you at seemingly every corner and location were very warm and friendly. At least the game wasn’t being played on the snowy home field of our opponent, the Buffalo Bills.

The one place where I did experience the severity of the weather was in neighboring St. Paul where we visited the city’s famous ice sculptures the night before the Super Bowl. It was worth it, though. Those sculptures were spectacular. Other than that visit, though, and dining at a renowned steak restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, I didn’t do or see much on this Super Bowl trip. Part of the reason for that is that I didn’t get to Minneapolis until late Friday night so I had only Saturday to explore before the game, and at the site of the game itself on Sunday we (Mr. Burton, his client and me) arrived a lot closer to game time than I had in Pasadena, Tampa, and San Diego, so I missed out on most of the pre-game activities (not that I know whether there were many considering the weather). A pleasant surprise when I was seated in the Metrodome was that my brother-in-law Mark stopped by with two of his friends. 

The other part of the Minneapolis Super Bowl weekend is that for the two days and three nights I was there I was hanging out with two men in their 70’s. Everyone knows that can’t be any fun. Even worse, I had to share a room with two beds at a Holiday Inn with Mr. Burton. Oh, if only John Mattos were there to get me an upgrade. You don’t ever want to sleep in a room with someone in their 70’s or older. As bad as they look at bedtime they look worse when they get up (and get up they do, sometimes often, to pee). Bedtime with Mr. Burton was at 9:30, and the Holiday Inn had no bar. What was a cool guy like me doing there?

The good news, though, is the final score: Redskins XXXVII, Buffalo XXIV. I have zero recollection of how I celebrated that victory. I must not have for lack of anyplace to go or anybody to celebrate with. Where were Mark and his friends celebrating? How long will it take me to get to Coronado?

Super Bowl XXVI, 29 years ago, was the last Redskins Super Bowl. While I apparently live in California now, I remain an ardent fan of the team that is now simply and inoffensively named the Washington Football Team, and I hope it will soon return to Super Bowl glory (and by soon, I mean it can’t be soon enough considering my age and health issues) so that I can once again celebrate victory, this time with my sons and their families. And if the Washington Football Team can’t do that, a Yankees World Series championship would be equally welcomed and deserving of celebration.

A Super Bowl weekend in a major city is an extravaganza second to none, except perhaps a Notre Dame football weekend at South Bend, IN, but that would and should be a story for another day.