Football
Associated Press 18y

Football fans flock to downtown Detroit for Super Bowl

DETROIT -- Fans started filing into Ford Field more than
four hours before the start of the Super Bowl.

Most ticket holders appeared to be Pittsburgh Steelers fans, who
chanted for their team. There may have been fewer Seattle Seahawks
fans in the stands, but they were easy to spot. A number of them
wore large, cloth beaks or flashing eyewear.

A giant screen inside the stadium showed footage from playoff
games to remind fans how the two teams got to the big game.

Outside the stadium, ticketless fans walked the streets trying
to find the best spot to watch the game. Steeler fans filled many
of the downtown restaurants and bars, leaving some Seahawks
supporters out in the cold.

"We're outnumbered," said Ron Rudolph, a 58-year-old insurance
salesman from Gig Harbor, Wash.

Decked out in a Steelers parka, Otha Bailey of Memphis, Tenn.,
was standing in line outside Madisons on Broadway to claim seats
for herself and her husband, Tony Bailey, who owns a used-car
dealership.

The Baileys said they were enjoying themselves, but found
Detroit to be a little colder than what they're used to this time
of year. Temperatures were in the 30s as fans packed downtown.

"When I left home, our high was 67 degrees and sunny," she
said. "But I don't mind the Super Bowl being in a northern city,
as long as Pittsburgh is in it."

Some hearty hopefuls were still searching for tickets.

Real estate manager Brian Doughtery of Pittsburgh, said he has
spent three days looking for a deal. He was willing to pay roughly
$1,200 -- about double face value. Some brokers are selling tickets
for $2,500 and up.

"I can go buy a whole season's worth for $2,000 back home,"
said Doughtery, who wore a red and white sign with the word
"tickets needed" on it.

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^FROZEN OUT:@ While football fans inside Detroit Beer Co.
appeared to be having fun as the Super Bowl got under way, the same
couldn't be said of a half-dozen people left in the cold despite
having paid the $20 cover charge.

They'd been given wrist bands and told they could come and go as
they pleased. But after going outside briefly, they weren't allowed
back inside because the bar was filled to capacity.

Some in the group tried to glimpse the action on a TV through
the bar's windows, while others hurled angry words at the
management.

Suddenly, two uniformed men exited the bar. "Wasn't that the
fire marshal who just left? Can't they let us in now?" someone
pleaded.

Just then, two women squeezed out the door and the bouncer let
in two more lucky fans.

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^TAILGATE SERENADE:@ Super Bowl tailgaters near Detroit's
Eastern Market were serenaded by an unusual trio. Three semi-truck
cabs outfitted with special horns played "The Star-Spangled
Banner" and Motown hits -- in harmony, no less.

The concert, the third this weekend, was the brainchild of
Alexander Pollock, an architect with the city of Detroit.

A former trumpeter with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, Pollock
said he came up with the idea about 15 years ago after witnessing a
convergence of semi-trucks whose drivers were protesting high
diesel prices. Every now and then, their horns would hit a perfect
chord, Pollock recalled.

The trio played "The Star-Spangled Banner," "America the
Beautiful," the Supremes' "Stop in the Name of Love," and the
Motown classic, "Baby I Need Your Loving."

The 62-year-old Pollock said the project was meant to showcase
two of Detroit's best known products: the automotive industry and
Motown music.

"This is a brand-new musical instrument," he said. "We
invented a new piano."

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^COLD-WEATHER TAILGATING:@ Steelers fan Mike Olivieri drove four
hours from Massillon, Ohio, with six friends -- all for the thrill
of sitting in camp chairs in a Detroit parking lot and watching the
Super Bowl on their television.

Olivieri, a 30-year-old plumber, said the atmosphere in the lot
near Eastern Market was unbeatable -- that is, until most of the
other tailgaters packed up to go to the game.

Olivieri was dressed warmly and prepared for near-freezing
temperatures and high winds. His group had a folding table set up
with beer, chips, hot dogs and hamburgers, and planned to grill
steaks.

Nearby, the lone group of Seahawks fans in the parking lot said
they had been made to feel welcome.

"Pittsburgh fans are great," said Casey Goodwin, 25. "They're
going to fall hard."

Goodwin, who lives in Philadelphia, reunited in Detroit with
high school buddies from Puyallup, Wash. They were having a good
time, but had a bit of a problem on their hands: their TV wasn't
working.

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^STREET PREACHERS:@ Not everyone who converged on Ford Field was
attending the game.

Ron Koner, 64, of Swanton, Ohio, was among a group of street
preachers who stood outside, proselytizing fans. Some held signs
quoting Bible verses, or banners depicting Jesus on the cross.
Nearby, a man wearing a Steelers sweatshirt played bongos.

"All these people most likely are going to hell," Koner said,
brandishing a Bible and gesturing toward the line of ticket holders
waiting to go through stadium security.

Why?

"They're not in church. Do they look like they're praying?"

Across the street, Anthony Bunkley, 48, leaned against a
shopping cart loaded with garbage bags holding all his possessions.
The homeless man said he chose that spot for the view it offered of
an outdoor screen broadcasting NFL footage.

Bunkley said he planned to stay as long as he was allowed. "I
like football, but I like a lot of games," he said.

Dozens of fans wore signs proclaiming their desperate need for
tickets. Among them: Seahawks fan Morgan Davidson, 24, of Seattle,
sporting a green, blue and silver Mohawk.

He was willing to pay up to $3,000 for a ticket -- after spurning
offers for as little as $2,000 earlier in the week. He'd hoped
prices would fall, but apparently they didn't. He had no
alternative plans for watching the game.

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^SHARPTON SPEAKS:@ The Rev. Al Sharpton kicked off "Super Soul
Sunday" by criticizing the NFL.

"We talk about what side you're on -- the Seahawks or the
Steelers," Sharpton, a civil-rights activist and former Democratic
presidential candidate, said Sunday at the Historic Little Rock
Missionary Baptist Church. "But I want to know what side you're on
when you talk about what's right and what's wrong."

For the first time, an NFL team traded for a black head coach
this year, but overall, no more diversity has been brought to the
league's coaching ranks. Nine out of 10 openings have been filled,
with no net gain in the current tally of six black head coaches.

"We all talk about who is going to win the game -- the NFL is
going to win the game," he said.

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^HOME OF THE BRAVE:@ Organizers of the Motown Winter Blast, a
four-day, 14-block downtown festival, stayed open an extra 2½-hours
Sunday to handle large crowds.

The event, featuring ice skating, a giant snow slide and lots of
food, drew an estimated 1.2 million people, including nearly
500,000 who attended on Saturday, said producer Jonathan Witz.

"This event was such a tremendous success," said Witz, who
hopes to create partnerships to make it an annual occurrence.

At the Chrysler Group tent at the Winter Blast, a chance to sing
the national anthem was one of the attractions. A group of music
teachers says Americans don't know the lyrics to "The
Star-Spangled Banner" as well as they might think. So they brought
their anthem tour to Detroit as part of the pre-game festivities.

"It's very obvious when you watch the Olympics and things that
people don't know it," Earl Curry, spokesman for the National
Anthem Project, said at the Winter Blast. "There have been so many
cuts in music programs, we wanted to find out if it affected them
knowing the songs of their heritage."

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^FREEBIES:@ Super Bowl tickets cost hundreds of dollars, but
there's free stuff, too.

Each seat at Ford Field came equipped with gifts: a radio with
earphones, a flashlight key chain, Michigan travel postcards and a
seat cushion.

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^OVER THE RAINBOW:@ One welcome center downtown was set up to
greet gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Super Bowl visitors.

The Detroit-based Triangle Foundation advocacy group has been
using the lobby of a progressive, black box theater near Ford Field
as a welcome center since Thursday. Outside hangs a rainbow flag.

"We just thought it would be important to have a presence right
here ... a place to relax a little bit, warm up and find out what's
going on around town," Jeffrey Montgomery, Triangle's executive
director, said Sunday.

Montgomery said the center has greeted a few hundred people this
week, about half from out of town. The foundation, he said, is
hoping to draw attention to the presence of gay and lesbian
football fans.

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Associated Press Writers Mike Householder and Michael J. Feeney
contributed to this report.

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