Can you believe we got to go to Super Bowl LIX!? It’s just passed a year since that once-in-a-liftetime experience, and we still can’t believe it actually happened to us. I had written an article the Fall before, An Open Letter to the Little Girls Who Dream of Playing Football, and had teamed up with the National Football Foundation, Future for Football, and NFL Flag to share one of my favorite stories about my mom in high school (she was the only girl to play on the football team). My only goal had been to share the love of football with a new generation of young girls, but I had no clue it would lead to going to my first ever Super Bowl.
I had just dropped my daughter off for a weekend away and was filling up gas before making the hour drive back home, and I saw a call from New York keep popping up on my phone. I was born in New York and have lots of family there, so if the contact wasn’t saved, it was likely just another spam call. Then, I got a text saying they were a producer for the Sherri Show and wanted to speak to me. I still thought there was no way Sherri Shepherd – THE SHERRI SHEPHERD – would be trying to contact ME. So, I ignored the texts. Then, emails pop in on my Louisville Moms account and another business account. The gas is already done pumping by this time, but I’m sitting in the car by myself super intrigued now. I use all my trusty IT training and look at all the details like the sender’s name and the actual sender’s address. It looks legit. The phone number for the producer is the same one that’s been blowing up my phone the past ten minutes…. so, I call her back.
As soon as she answers the phone, she exclaims, “You are one hard woman to get ahold of!” We have a good laugh, and I told her how thankful I am that she stalked me as well as she did. She says they are working on a female football story to use ahead of the Super Bowl with their “Feeling Good, Sharing Good” campaign that February and found my article I wrote. She asked if I could get my mom, my daughter, and I all on a video call with her and another of their producers that night. My daughter was just getting settled over in Indy, my mom was on the West Coast in the middle of a golf game, and we all just hopped on together!
My mother had no idea what it was even about or that I had written that article about her months ago, but she heard the name Sherri Shepherd and was all in to whatever it was. They fell in love with my mom, just like I knew they would, and then they asked if they could fly the three generations of us girls out to New York City to be live on the show! It was less than a week to prepare, but we jumped at the chance. They took care of our flights, put us up in a hotel in Chelsea with a view of the Empire State Building, let us have a whole day before the show just to ourselves, gave us a stipend for some of our meals, and had a chauffeur bring us to the set and then to the airport after. We felt like royalty.
My mom had gotten married at a bookstore in NYC when my daughter was really little and I couldn’t afford the flights and hotel at the time (she’s still mad at me for not just asking her to pay for it so we could be there!), and we realized the three of us firstborn girls had never take a trip just us before. We went to the bookstore where she got married, we walked everywhere, we ate so much, we shopped, and did all the touristy things on Ady’s list.
Then, we get to the set, meet Sherri in person – even more incredible than she seems on TV!!! – and get our hair and makeup done by her own personal hair and makeup staff. We’ve never felt more fabulous. They made us custom football jerseys to wear on the show, and we had a ball taking ALL the pictures.
The one question we get asked most often is whether we actually knew ahead of time that they were going to send us to the Super Bowl. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d be at a Super Bowl – that surprise you see on our Sherri Show segment is all 100% real and authentic. I was just so honored that Sherri said on air that the NFL was going to donate to over 50,000 youth football programs in our honor. But, then she followed that up with saying the NFL was sending us to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans!!!
While the NFL gifted us our tickets, the Sherri Show took care of our flights and hotel for New Orleans. They were so generous, and we have so much love and gratitude in our hearts for Sherri and all her staff that touched our lives last year. And, this trip was only a week after our NYC trip. Ady was worried that she’d get in trouble for missing even more school, but I promised her that they’d be okay with her going to a Super Bowl and would help her make up any missed work. As soon as I emailed her principal and sent him the link to the Sherri Show episode, he enthusiastically encouraged her to miss a few more days of school and then proceeded to share the episode with her entire high school. By the time she was back in school from NYC, she was the most popular girl in the building.
I hadn’t been to New Orleans since I was 17 years old and have always loved that city. The three of us again did all the walking, all the eating (Cafe Du Monde!!!!), and even more shopping. We still couldn’t believe we’d had not only our first, but also our second, girls’ trips in the span of a week. The whole Super Bowl experience was incredible. My daughter and I were cheering for the Eagles because our beloved Bengals didn’t make it, and we can’t stand the Chiefs. My mother was rooting for Kansas City, and we had a lot of fun with that rivalry. Fun for Ady and me, Philly won and I even jumped in on a live feed of their Channel 5 news (I didn’t even know until later!). My mom and I agreed that even if you can’t afford Super Bowl tickets, if you get a chance to go to a city that’s hosting during one, it’s one of the most incredible experiences for football fans.
So again, thank you Sherri and team for changing our lives as female football fans – you will forever hold a very special place in our hearts. And to the NFL, thank you for the donations you made to the next generation of football players and lovers and for the gift of those tickets. We will treasure those memories and those gigantic tickets for the rest of our lives!
