left Friday evening to go out to LA for the game. We got to our hotel Friday in downtown and just kind of hung out (it was late).

We got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and headed out to the NFL experience at the convention center. They had a bunch of different exhibits and games you could play. They also had a huge NFL merch store where I bought a ton of Super Bowl stuff. I think the highlight of the NFL experience was really the games. Pretty fun to go up against the rest of my family and see how accurate we were throwing footballs and kicking field goals, etc.

Later that night we went to Bengal Jims tailgate. That was a great event at some brewery about a mile from our hotel. There were a TON of Bengals fans there. Coolio came on and had a special performance. He was actually really good.

Sunday came and we hopped on the shuttle to the game around 10 am. Got to the the stadium and...WOW. Incredible venue with an incredible area surrounding it. Just beautiful. Outside there is a huge pond with ducks, birds, ect. The stadium itself looked gorgeous from the outside. I thought it was a dome but it's actually an outdoor stadium with a huge canopy covering the top of it. I've never seen a stadium quit like it.

We tailgated at a special event where they had live music, food, and drinks. Wyclef was actually performing which was super cool. We made our way into the game about two hours before kick off. We were in the lower level and Mixon was casually tossing with Bengals fans as we walked in. He threw someone a pass right next to me. Clark Harris was doing the same thing.

The stadium inside was just as cool as the outside. It's actually mostly underground as the airport is close by and they had to do this because of the sound/vibration emitting from the stadium. It's a huge stadium that has great lighting. We had to walk by the suites to get to our seats and there were a ton of celebrities. We walked past Ellen, Charlize Thereon (sp?), Antonio Brown, Mario Lopez, Tracy Morgan. We sat about 5 rows in front of Joe Burrows Dad and his girlfriend. Antonio Brown was acting a fool the entire game - lifting up his shirt, standing on his suite railing and yelling at people. Security was called at one point because there was a mob of people around him trying to get a selfie. I actually gave him my phone at one point and he tried to get a selfie but completely e'ffed up with pic lol.

The game itself was great and halftime show was a highlight of the entire trip. I like those artists and music so I was loving it. I think they did a great job.

Rams fans after the game were lame as hell. They seemed more interest in talking shit to me than they were in celebrating their Super Bowl. They also didn't seemed super enthused about winning. Not a ton of celebration. I just know when the Bengals beat the Raiders and Titans (I was at those games) we seemed to be on a completely different level of joy/happiness.

All in all it was a great trip and awesome experience. Check out some pics below:

AB trying to take a pic with my phone




Creepily snuck a pic of Joe's Dad



Ellen



Outside the stadium







View from out seats

Nice dude, cool of you to share! Sorry you didn't see a winner in person.

(02-15-2022, 12:12 PM)TecmoBengals Wrote: Nice dude, cool of you to share! Sorry you didn't see a winner in person.

All good. I left the stadium pretty at peace with our season. Disappointed for sure...but it was a great ride. 

Sounds like a great experience. Glad you were able to enjoy it.

Thanks for that share! That's awesome. What a cool experience to have overall, regardless of win/loss. That stadium looks gorgeous. Looks even more impressive seeing your pictures than what I've seen on TV. And the halftime show was the best in years. Glad you had the opportunity and next time hoping you'll be there to see them lift the Lombardi!

Agreed. Great pics and I am glad you had enjoyed yourself.

Glad you had a good time, and those are some great pics. I can't imagine sitting in the very upper deck at that stadium. Getting dizzy just looking at the pic

That looks and sounds like a great experience.

Your experience was similar to mine. We arrived late Thursday night, they screwed up our rental car so extra hour to get it sorted out. Drove from airport to Hollywood to our hotel. Our hotel was awesome. Mist friendly people, service was outstanding. We noticed on drive LA is a bit of a shit hole, not impressive.

We went to the convention center on Friday. It was a great experience, tailored for the younger 50 and under crowd, but we enjoyed it. My wife and I are to old to run obstacle course, but was fun watching others enjoying the moment.

The game was the highlight once we got to to the stadium. We got to our shuttle area at 9:30, but for some reason first shuttle did not depart for stadium until 11 a.m. It took us 1;15 to get to the stadium, so made us late for our V.I.P. party which started at 11;30. BY the time we got through security and did long walk to the area, it was already 1:00. Very poor system of getting people to the stadium.

The game was great, awesome stadium, we had great seats 5 rows up in the endzone, Bates interception was right in front of us. The LA fans was mostly cordial (we had a lot of Bengals fans around us, until the won. Then they got ugly. No class, we congratulated them and left the stadium.

We go to get on our shuttle and we ask the people handling our purple shutter which bus for us? They put us on the wrong bus, then again a mess getting out of stadium and we had a loaded Bengals bus and fans were coming up to the windows yelling and using hand gestures, it was like 200 people and crazy. We finally get to the garage to find out wrong place, option was shuttle back or call Uber. WE called Uber and they cancelled 3 times when they were within minutes. Finally one came and we had an easy drive back to Hollywood, but left stadium around 7, arrived at hotel at 10:30.

The Super Bowl was a great experience, but the city and state they chose ruined it for us. In my opinion a very crappy big city with state mandates that should have been lifted by this game. The biggest issue I ill write to Goodell was why he chose a site with little to no stadium parking. Did he ride one of those shuttles on a game day prior to awarding this city the game.

As for the game, a great game. A huge holding call against Wilson was called, it was in front of us and I did not see it. No call and it is 4th and 10 and who knows. Bengals defense was great, they were sticking people all day. The offense had a bad performance, the OL was horrible in short yardage runs and allowed Burrow to be pressured more than any QB ever in the Super Bowl. Our OL win rate was the worst in Super Bowel history.

Can we get back, it is always a grind, but the Rams went all in and it paid off. WE have to get a quality RG (main priority in my opinion to be able to run up the middle in short yardage and give Joe a clean pocket up the middle, then a proven vet at RT, proven they are a great pass protector.

All in all, great experience and as I have said all along, I enjoyed the journey. I am happy for Whittworth and Stafford.

Wanted you guys to win so bad. It sucks.

Damn, looks like a hell of a time. I’m sure an experience you will
Never forget. We have a 3 month old..: but I told my wife, we are going to the next bengals Super Bowl. Considering my wife HATES New Orleans, and we have been 3x in the last 5 years (cruises (x2), wrestlemania), I fully expect the bengals to be in the super bowl 3 years from
Now.

I’d be happy with next year (Phoenix). A weekend trip to Vegas could also be fun the year after… But I just know how much sydney hates New Orleans. The perfect weekend for me (I love Nola), not so much for her).

I'm not seeing your images. Is it just my computer or are other's not seeing them?

Envious !

(02-15-2022, 12:17 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: All good. I left the stadium pretty at peace with our season. Disappointed for sure...but it was a great ride. 

Great write-up except you lost when you mentioned punk-ass AB as a celebrity.

Sounds like a really great experience despite the end result.   I'm glad you were able to do so and thanks for sharing.  One of these days I'll hopefully be able to attend a Super Bowl no matter who is playing just so I can experience it. 

(02-15-2022, 01:00 PM)BengalRed Wrote: I'm not seeing your images. Is it just my computer or are other's not seeing them?

Yeah I can't see them either in FireFox or Safari even with my ad blockers turned off that sometimes cause such issues.  

(02-15-2022, 01:00 PM)BengalRed Wrote: I'm not seeing your images. Is it just my computer or are other's not seeing them?

I see them, must be on your end. EDIT: Now they appear as broken images.

Sounds like a great time. I'm glad some of our folks got to experience it first hand. I'm super Jelly!

(02-15-2022, 01:47 PM)TecmoBengals Wrote: I see them, must be on your end. EDIT: Now they appear as broken images.

Weird. Can you see them now? 

(02-15-2022, 03:05 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Weird. Can you see them now? 

Yes, I see them again. 

(02-15-2022, 12:53 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: Damn, looks like a hell of a time.  I’m sure an experience you will
Never forget.  We have a 3 month old..: but I told my wife, we are going to the next bengals Super Bowl.  Considering my wife HATES New Orleans, and we have been 3x in the last 5 years (cruises (x2), wrestlemania), I fully expect the bengals to be in the super bowl 3 years from
Now.

I’d be happy with next year (Phoenix).  A weekend trip to Vegas could also be fun the year after…   But I just know how much sydney hates New Orleans.  The perfect weekend for me (I love Nola), not so much for her).

Therein lies the problem.. To truly enjoy NOLA you gotta get there a few days before Mardigras ,start drinking heavy and don't quit till it's over..Preferably it rains the entire time and you get soaking wet despite there being open air bars everywhere.. LOL