Who Dat? Who Dey! And The Who. An Over-the-Rhine Super Bowl Odyssey

By That Guy Named Ed

A few observations about the Super Bowl:

1. Mark Brunell should start a retirement plan called “Riding Coattails”. At age 39, Brunell essentially held a clipboard all season for Drew Brees. Brunell has not thrown a touchdown pass in a regular season game since November 5, 2006. Yet he now has more Super Bowl rings than Dan Marino.

2. This Danica Patrick/GoDaddy.com nonsense is of control. I get it. She’s hot. I figured that out three years ago. But I promise that you will not see her boobs no matter whose hosting service you buy. At least not until she gives up on racing. Danica Patrick drives in circles and loses every time. She is the Anna Kournikova of professional racing.

Some watched. Some didn't. Some, like me, took a lot of pictures.

Some watched. Some didn't. Some, like me, wandered around taking pictures and annoying everyone.

3. When going to a Super Bowl party, it’s okay to take it easy on the hair gel.

About 100 people mingled for a Super Bowl party which could turn into a yearly tradition at Over-the-Rhine’s Venue 222. People watching proved to be almost as much fun as game watching. You had serious football fans glued to every snap, you had chatterboxes who cared more about the commercials, and you had people who were clearly in it for the beer. That’s pretty much what you’ll get at any Super Bowl gathering, except most don’t involve 20-something guys who are far too overdressed for the occasion. If you couldn’t stain it with buffalo sauce and get away with calling it a badge of courage, it’s not football attire.

But let the hipsters be hipsters. The fact that they showed up will help make the city a little better for it.

The Super OTR Bowl Party raised money for the Over-the-Rhine Foundation’s efforts to put on next month’s Bockfest. It feels good knowing that showing up and drinking beer will help perpetuate the drinking of more beer. With 100 or so on hand at $20 a pop, that’s great money for the foundation and a great turnout for a first-time event.

Earlier in the game, while the Colts were winning..

If you haven’t been to Venue 222, you really owe it to yourself to check out their pictures online. It’s a beautiful space and you can see the care that went into restoring what was an abandoned warehouse only about ten years ago. Owner Wade Dent was pretty busy working the crowd during the game, but he told me he was glad to see so many show up for the bash. Those who braved the cold (and the hipsters) found a lot of things to like: projection screens all over the place, donated Christian Moerlein, Hudy, and, for the more adventurous, Little Kings, cornhole, free chances to win money based on the score, and catering by Cafe de Wheels.

One more observation about the Super Bowl: America loves an underdog. While not all eyes were on the game at all times, almost everyone in the building cheered when Peyton Manning threw that fourth quarter interception, and again when he missed on fourth down with time running out. The night accomplished pretty much everything you could hope for: good beer, good food, cool venue, big TV’s, and, with all apologies to the loyal fan wearing the Colts jersey, a Lombardi trophy for a city that really deserves it, with cheers coming from another city that will hopefully get its own some day.