I’ll admit it. I watched Super Bowl XLIII on TV like the majority of you all. I also caught some of the pre-game festivities on NBC today which also included the cameras capturing what the NFL labeled “Tailgate 2009”. As the cameras panned in and out of the band Journey, complete with replacement lead singer, belting out “Don’t Stop Believing”, I noticed that what was going in no way resembled a tailgate. (NFLJuice.com has a screen shot of this pathetic “tailgate”.)
It looked like a beer garden, complete with beers and food at exorbitant prices I am sure, and a band playing on stage. No grills. No pop-up tents. No one was sitting on a pick-up truck tailgate. Yet the NFL still has the balls to call that “Tailgate 2009”? I know I fought this fight last year but come on. Showing a concert in the middle of picnic tables is not tailgating in my opinion. And to try and promote that as tailgating is deplorable to those that actually tailgate.
The only “tailgating” going on in Tampa today was at Super Gate II, which thanks to the NFL, was three miles away from Raymond James Stadium. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jay and Karen DiEugenio who are the ones who primarily organized this thing, but tailgating three miles away from an event is not really tailgating in my book either. Call me a traditionalist but unless you have a grill and are preparing your own food in the same parking lot as the game or concert, it is not “tailgating”. Go ahead and find a new word to describe those other forms of having fun before the game but please do not taint the term tailgating by using it incorrectly. Call it Pre-Partying or something, just not tailgating. Okay, enough venting, how about some links….
- Super Bowl enthusiasts went to Estero, not Tampa, to tailgate Saturday
- A guide on how to touch boobs
- A Brief Look at Tailgating
- 18 Dirtiest Girls In Wing Bowl History
- Super Bowl XLIII Drinking Game!
- Don’t forget about tailgating as a scrapbooking theme
- Five Unhealthy “Healthy” Snacks
- Tailgating in Japan pre-Super Bowl
- BBQ Twitterers You Should Be Following
- Win Supplies for a Great Tailgating Party from Johnsonville
- While you are at it, follow Tailgating Ideas on Twitter too
- Top 10 Super Bowl XLIII Commercials.
- Steelers fans Jeff Roos and Larry Schafer say they’ll take the beach over tailgating
- Add Bacon To Any Website (Seriously, try this)
- American tailgating from a Canadian perspective
- Did you catch the rack on the Iowa cheerleader ESPN cameras caught?
- Is it truly a tailgate party without an actual tailgate and obnoxious keg chuggers?
- Super Bowl 3D Glasses – Marketing Disaster? (Yes, I would agree and it gave me a headache.)
- Pittsburgh fans build “Terrible Tailgate” for big game
- Tailgate Wars
- Have a game plan for Super Bowl weekend tailgating
