Friday’s Postcard from the Super Bowl

Friday started with a meat hangover, which is arguably worse than the more traditional hangover. A night earlier, a group of Seattle-area media went to Don &Charlie’s, a famous Scottsdale steakhouse/sports memorabilia collector’s dream.

The food was delicious, but also incredibly filling, making Friday morning’s Pete Carroll/Bill Belichick press conference a little uncomfortable. Oh, and on a related note, if you ever find yourself at Don and Charlie’s, consider telling them Larry Stone of the Seattle Times sent you. Stoney is apparently a big deal there, which we found out in the form of free dessert courtesy of Don himself. Then again, dessert after a meal at Don and Charlie’s almost feels like punishment.

After watching Carroll and Belichick spend 30 minutes trying to one-up each other with compliments Friday morning, it was another glamorous day in front of my computer. I say that not as a complaint, but rather just a deception of the days here since I get a lot of questions about what fun things I’m doing, what celebrities I’ve seen, etc.

The reality of covering a Super Bowl is that there’s very little free time until the end of the week. I did carve out a chunk of time for a rainy jog, my penance for those delicious ribs and the twice-baked potato the night before.

As you’ve no doubt heard, Arizona is experiencing some serious Seattle weather, with a steady drizzle falling for most of Friday. But since the vast majority of fans in town are Seahawks fans, they weren’t deterred by the weather, and there was a huge crowd out on the streets of downtown Phoenix Friday night.

Dinner Friday was tacos, as was lunch, so I think I might have inadvertently established a personal record with six tacos (hey, they were small, street-style tacos) in one day.

After dinner we wandered into the “Super Bowl Central” section of downtown, which was packed despite the weather — and yes, Seahawks fans do indeed largely outnumber Patriots fans in Phoenix.

A band called Walk the Moon was playing. And no, I’d never heard of them either before looking that up, which is not a shot at them at all, but rather at how out of touch I am with current music.

Other than finishing up some work for Sunday’s paper, Saturday is the one “off” day of Super Bowl week. A group of reporters is talking about going to hike Camelback Mountain, which inevitably means a lot of out-of-shape people gasping for air.

Wish us luck.

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