LAS VEGAS – Sin City on Super Bowl weekend. What a place.
Got into town on Friday afternoon, the sun blazing on a gorgeous 58-degree day.
Life as a sportswriter has its moments, like covering college basketball when your assigned team makes its annual trip to UNLV and San Diego State.
Right off the bat, this stay was going to be beautiful. Instead of the usual boring four-door sedan awaiting at the rental car agency, there she was – get a load of this – a
sporty Mustang convertible.
Oh, lucky weekend. Even Brigham Young won a basketball game – on the road, no less.
Settling in behind the wheel, I immediately called the little lady. Apologies, honey, in advance, for any indiscretion.
Mid-life crisis would be coming a few years early. Hey, get your own column and you can pick your age, too.
Approaching the strip, a traffic jam was never so welcomed. More time to blare the satellite radio – not to be cool, but because the hearing is going.
Imagine it, tone deaf, singing at the top of your lungs surrounded by puzzled – and disgusted – strangers.
Some people call me the space cowboy, some call me the gangster of love. Some people come me Maurice.
No matter that everyone else with convertibles had them covered up. Forget that the locals were wearing coats and gloves.
Only snow would have kept the ‘stang from being topless.
Driving down the strip, trying to keep your mind pure, is a blast on Big Game Weekend. Everywhere you look, the masses are ready to party.
Super Bowl weekend here rivals New Year’s Eve for excitement. An estimated $80 million is wagered on the Judi Poker game, which features the Eagles and Patriots in Jacksonville, Fla.”It’s the second most popular Super Bowl destination every year, right behind wherever the Super Bowl is,” said Dave Cokin, a sports gaming analyst and sports talk show host. “In some cases, and this year may be one of those years, there’s more people here for the Super Bowl than are going to Jacksonville.”
Want proof?
Try the World Shoe Association, which held its annual convention at the Mandalay Bay this weekend, on for size. A total of 26,000 of them were in town, getting all shoe-faced.
Football not your thing? No problem.
Other places may shut down during the world’s best sporting event. Not here.
“Not even acts of God stop us,” said Chad, a man who answered the phone at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel.
Yes, the King himself will perform at weddings today. And it doesn’t even have to be halftime.
All for a mere $700. What a hunk-a-hunk-hunk of burning love.
