Okay, Last One For Real

I cannot and will not pretend I was at any point in my life friends with this kid. Senior year in college, having taken a punch to the face on my buddy Joe's behalf (he's the star of the YouTuble clip in the previous post), my only interaction with the following story's protagonist was almost getting into a fight with him in the aftermath. Long, stupid story. Regardless, eventually, this week after a long chain of forwarded emails, his story and pictures reached my inbox.  It's amazing.  Really amazing.  Kudos to this kid for having the "gumption" to follow through with this.  There are about 10 occasions along the way where a lesser fan would have bailed out.  

Hello everyone, I know many of you have heard about my story so far but for those of you that haven't......Take the time to read below (it's long but worth it) and look at the pictures and watch the videos. I had the best day of my life yesterday and it is one of the funniest stories you will ever hear.

So I got home from Arizona late Monday night after seeing the Giants win an amazing Super Bowl. I had an unbelievable weekend and I didn't think it could ever be topped....until yesterday.

Around 11:30 yesterday morning I decided to go and checkout the Giants ticker-tape parade. I figured I would just go for an hour or so and then head back home to get some work done. Little did I know it would turn into an 8 hour affair.

I received a pass to get onto the City Hall grounds which got me relatively near the action. Once I realized that my designated section was actually pretty far away from the stage, I decided to move a little closer. I then snuck into the press section directly in front of the stage. I was sporting my Eli Manning Super Bowl jersey with a Giants hat and around my neck I had my lanyard and ticket stub from the Super Bowl. That is what saved me all day. The lanyard looked very "professional" so I was able to sneak into the press area.

Once the ceremony was over and the Giants started to move off of the stage, I creeped up to the stage. I then looked behind me and John Mara was there with his wife (the majority owner of the team). I then kind of blended in with his family as they were walking out and next thing I knew I got through the first security checkpoint. There were three more security checkpoints and with each one I got more and more nervous. I simply just walked aside Mr. Mara and his family (which was about 20 people deep) so it wasn't hard for me to blend in really. Next thing I know, they are guiding us to the other side of City Hall where there are four luxury buses waiting. I just kept walking along and next thing I know I had two of the four buses to choose from. I wanted to find the players bus but I didn't want to press my luck so I stayed with what worked. I just kept following Mr. Mara. I actually got on the bus directly in between him and his wife. I then sat down on the bus and just kept my head down. I didn't make eye contact with anyone or speak to anyone, I was so nervous. Sitting next to me was David Tyree's mother (he was two rows back with his son) and one row in front of me to my right was John Mara and his daughter (who happens to be gorgeous)

As we are pulling away from City Hall, the streets are lined with Giants fans cheering for "us" and we had a police escort the entire way to Giants Stadium. That's where things got interesting. We got off the bus and were escorted directly into the Stadium tunnel. This is where I thought I was going to get caught. I had no idea what to do next. All of the players went in the locker room and all the Mara's said they were going up to the owner's box for the ceremony. I had to make a decision. I then saw David Tyree walking in with his little son and decided I would act like I was with them. I walked right behind him and got right into the locker room. So now the real fun starts. I'm hanging out as if I'm a player while all the guys in the locker room are just getting each other's autographs on the game balls and on their jerseys. This was my time to shine. I walked around and took some pictures of some of the lockers and then I got to Eli's. I asked Eli if he could sign my ticket stub from the Super Bowl, which he did. I then asked him to sign my Super Bowl jersey, which he did. I was then ecstatic and didn't know what to do. I even had people coming up to me asking me for my autograph. They must have thought I was Lawrence Tynes (the kicker) or something.

I stopped getting autographs at that point other than Brandon Jacobs signing my hat. By then all of the players were being called onto the field for the ceremony. So I figured...why not go with them. I walked right out into the tunnel with them and as they announced the players coming out, I just stood there shaking, thinking I was bound to get caught. I look to my left and Tom Coughlin is literally about 6 inches from me holding the Lombardi trophy (see great picture). Then I just went for it....I walked out there like I was on the team. I came out and there were probably 20-30,000 fans at the stadium all screaming and going crazy. I tried to take as much video as I could but I was so nervous/scared/excited at the same time. My favorite picture of the whole event can be found at www.nj.com/giants/ where I am directly behind Tom Coughlin running around the field. I watched the whole ceremony from literally right in front of the stage.

After the ceremony, I had to try to sneak back in to the locker room. I then saw a couple people of the Mara family (there were so many of them) that must not have gone up to the luxury box and once again I just acted like I was a family member. Next thing I know, I make it through two more security checkpoints and I'm right back in the locker room. This is where it was awesome. All the players were just dancing around and having a good time. Many of them were cleaning out their lockers and throwing things away. This is where I took all the pictures with the players. I could care less if I got caught at this point. I was just a lucky Giant fan that happened to sneak his way into the press section, then on to the owners bus, onto the field and into the locker room, all while going unnoticed. I then walked around the locker room and got every single player to sign my hat and I even got Gibril Wilson's game sweatshirt from him that he signed for me.

So I walked away with an Eli Manning signed Super Bowl ticket, an Eli signed Super Bowl jersey, a hat signed by the whole team, my City Hall access pass signed by Strahan and Gibril Wilson's signed game sweatshirt.