Super Bowl Sunday, Santa Clara Style
Beyond the draw of the National Football League’s (NFL) Super Bowl, there’s a lot of passion that goes into students’ yearly gatherings, parties and rituals. In my own life, I always return to my hometown to watch the game with my extended family, because that’s what we do and what I’ve known.
Santa Clara students varied in their approaches to the San Francisco 49ers versus Kansas City Chiefs matchup. From appetizer spreads in the kitchen to watch parties at the Hut to finding other ways to celebrate off campus, there’s no one right way to do Super Bowl Sunday. Fraternity houses made an event of the ordeal, others went to a friend's house and several went home to enjoy a family tradition like myself.
In a game that featured Santa Clara’s local team, excitement was aplenty heading into the showdown for the Lombardi Trophy. Fans of the 49ers were excited to see how their young quarterback Brock Purdy would hold up against the magician Patrick Mahomes, and students at watch parties were hopeful that they could garner interest from those who are usually only attentive to the halftime show (in this case Usher) and rope them into the other celebrations of Super Bowl week.
“I had a lot of friends that went to places like the Hut and other off-campus houses for the game,” said senior Alessio Pugliese. “I went back to my hometown in the Bay and got to see my 49ers fight for the title at a family party at our restaurant.”
In the end, it was heartbreaking for students who were fans of the team from the stadium ten minutes down the road. The 49ers restrained Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce for most of the game, holding them to four field goals and one touchdown that came courtesy of a muffed punt in regulation.
It still wasn’t enough. Super Bowl LVIII required overtime, the second time that the NFL’s championship game ever needed to go to the extra period. San Francisco kicked a field goal on their opening drive and then Kansas City marched right down the field and Mahomes found Mecole Hardman Jr in the endzone to notch the Chiefs’ third ring in five years, and back-to-back titles.
“It was an electric game to watch, and I say that as someone who just started watching football,” said sophomore MJ Kaspura. “The Chiefs are my hometown team, and it was fabulous to wear my Kansas City sweatshirt in San Francisco territory.”
Though it gave the outsiders a chance to celebrate, 49ers fans have to wonder if they’ll ever win the big one this century. But for Santa Clara students, it was another chance to have some fun on a marquee weekend, washed away with one catch in the endzone. There would be no parade in the Bay Area, no festivities, no excitement. It was all deflating in more ways than one.
“At this point, I don’t know if we will ever get it done. We just didn’t finish,” said Pugliese. “I’m still faithful but the emotion hurts, I didn’t go to class for a few days and I’m just now gathering my bearings of what actually took place.”