Quick Kicks

Sleepless and beer-soaked in Green Bay

It was cold outside, but Packer fever had temperatures soaring for fans hooting and hollering their beloved team to its first Super Bowl victory in nearly 30 years.

George Fuller rang his cowbell madly in the final seconds of the game he watched on the two 18-by-24-foot screens set up at Brown County Arena, where 3,500 fans paid $5 each to watch the game at “Titletown’s Ultimate Super Bowl Celebration.”

“I feel positively euphoric,” the machine shop foreman from Little Suamico, Wis., said. “The birth of my kids and my marriage to my wife are at the top of my list but this is fantastic.

“It’s going to be a long sleepless night!”

Jane Harper burst into tears - “The Pack is back,” she said - at Mel’s in downtown Milwaukee, which announced an hour of free beer after the win.

“We’re going to tear this place down,” manager Ben Bauer said. “That’s why I got lawyers and insurance.”

The steady snowfall that dumped several inches across the state had some people worried about hyped-up and possibly beer-soaked fans.

Patriotism fades as loss becomes apparent

There was more red, white and blue in New England on Sunday than on the Fourth of July.

Fans donned the colors of the New England Patriots and gathered in bars and private parties to watch the Pats play in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, the Patriotism waned as the outcome predicted by the oddsmakers came true for the 14-point underdogs as the Patriots lost to the Green Bay Packers, 35-21.

The outcome was not a surprise to many fans.

Valerie Gabriel, 25, of Somerville, was pleased that the game wasn’t a complete blowout.

“I sort of figured that Green Bay was going to win, so I’m glad that Green Bay is not slaughtering them,” she said. Enver Softic, 49, of Orange, was satisfied as he watched the game at home in Athol. “I think overall, it’s been a big surprise because they weren’t picked to be in the playoffs, so this is gravy or frosting on the cake,” he said.

After the first half, he predicted the Patriots would not overcome the Packers.

“They won’t be successful tonight because Drew Bledsoe could have any one of three roles in the movie ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ One, he could be the lion with no courage, the Tin Man with no heart or the scarecrow with no brain,” he said.

“Tonight is an example of how he hasn’t had an individual good performance in a big game for the team. I don’t think he is the quarterback of the future if we are ever going to win a Super Bowl in the future.”

Beebe finally experiences thrill of victory

Packers WR Don Beebe finally won a Super Bowl after going 0-4 as a member of the Buffalo Bills. “I wish those (former) teammates could feel what I feel right now,” Beebe said. “I’ve been wanting to hold this thing (the Vince Lombardi Trophy) for a long time. And yes, I am taking this thing home. These guys don’t know that yet, but it’s going to sit on my mantel.”

The only Packer who had won a Super Bowl previously was backup QB Jim McMahon, whose Chicago Bears beat the New England Patriots, 46-10, on the same field 11 years ago.

New Orleans loves a party

New Orleans is a city that loves to throw a party - Sunday’s was its eighth Super Bowl - but this was livelier, noisier and more expensive than the previous seven.

Indeed, if you were at that first Super Bowl (IV) in New Orleans in 1970, you saw a minimal number of helmeted Vikings fans or tomahawk-wielding Chiefs followers. They could not get here because they could not get tickets - only 10,000 of Tulane Stadium’s 80,000 seats were earmarked for fans from the teams’ cities. Instead, Saints ticket-holders were allowed to buy a Super Bowl seat for every season ticket they had - and they gobbled up 55,000.

Even the lucky Packers and Vikings followers who came here did not quite come here. Some were shoehorned into hotels 100 miles away, and many made the daily 200-mile round trip to hang out at the hotels and do the Quarter.

Since then, New Orleans has built nine hotels, and a Superdome, changing the skyline and the noise level for the Super Bowl.

This and that

Green Bay joined San Francisco as the only teams with three Super Bowl victories without a loss. The 49ers are 5-0… . The Packers’ victory extended the NFC’s winning streak in the Super Bowl to 13. In those games, the average score is NFC 37, AFC 17… . Some Packers said they were fatigued because of heat inside the dome, but building executives disputed a Fox-TV report that the stadium air conditioning was covered up by banners. They said the on-field temperature was 69 degrees, and the humidity level was below 50 percent.