Their experience was super
Deepa Bharath
Ken Slosser and Mark Morrissey had been to the party of their lives.
It was, after all, the Super Bowl.
But the important thing was Slosser and Morrissey partied in
Houston with the people who had all the right connections: Paul
Salata, a former NFL player and creator of Irrelevant Week; his
daughter Melanie Fitch; and her husband Ed Fitch.
Slosser, a 40-year-old investment banker from Orange, bought the
ticket from the Fitches during a silent auction at a fundraiser for
Pegasus, a private school in Huntington Beach.
Morrissey, who lives in Huntington Beach, had egged him on to go
to the fundraiser because his daughter attends that school.
Slosser initially bought the tickets for himself and his business
partner, who couldn’t go because of a prior commitment.
“So he calls me three weeks before the Super Bowl and asks me if I
want to go,” said Morrissey, with a big smile. “And I was like,
‘Yeah! It’s the Super Bowl!’”
The pair spent the whole weekend with Salata and the Fitches, who
knew almost everyone at the event, from NFL Commissioner Paul
Tagliabue down to the event organizers.
Slosser and Morrissey, who are friends because their daughters are
part of the same swim team, said they ended up getting more than what
they expected.
“We were sitting at the 50-yard line with this fantastic view of
the game,” Slosser said.
It was their first-ever Super Bowl. They got their share of fun,
excitement and a giant piece of scandal as well.
“I saw [when] Jason Timberlake went rip and I saw it and I thought
it was all a fake act,” Slosser said. “It wasn’t until the next day
that I realized it was pretty real and serious.”
Salata had planned activities throughout the weekend, said
Morrissey.
“We didn’t get a moment’s rest,” he said. “We got about two hours
of sleep a night.”
Downtown Houston was like one, giant block party, Slosser said.
“We went there every night without fail,” he said. “And the crowd
got bigger and bigger by the day. The last night there were about
170,000 people packed into those 10 blocks. It was amazing.”
Salata also gave the two press passes, which got them into
players’ brunches, parties and press conferences, Morrissey said.
They met players, former players and hall-of-famers.
“I wouldn’t say I was star-struck,” he said. “But it was really
great to meet them in such a comfortable environment.”
It’s hard to put a value on that, Slosser said.
“We got a view of all the behind-the-scenes action and access to
events only a select group of people get,” he said.
Salata said he had never had anyone other than family or friends
accompany him to the Super Bowl, until now.
“But these guys were a lot of fun to hang out with,” he said.
“They were game for anything. They were happy to be led and didn’t
have any agenda of their own.”
Both Slosser and Morrissey said they felt lucky to get such
guidance.
“We got a lot more than we paid for,” Slosser said. “You can’t put
a dollar amount on that experience.”
* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be
reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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