John Delach

Part V: The Option

The Giants 2008 Improbable Playoff Season

As soon as the Cowboys game ended, I turned to Dave and said: “If the Giants beat the Packers, I’m going to take my son to the Super Bowl. I have no faith that I’ll get tickets through the Giant season ticket lottery and I’m not looking to sell the options that I bought. What are you going to do with your options?”

“I’m not going to try to sell mine either. I’m going to take my son, Tim.”

“Great.” I replied. I was not happy with the alternative airline options that I had secretly checked out on line and Dave had a good travel agent. So, I said, “Call your travel agent tomorrow and ask her to check out flights into Tucson, Las Vegas and even San Diego. Tucson should be our first choice. Don’t try US Air / America West as all their flights go through Phoenix and are sold out. Don’t forget Southwest, they have several flights out of Islip via connecting point like Chicago and Baltimore. We’ll need a hotel and a rental car. Make it a minivan as they’re the roomiest and tell her to use someone like Enterprise where they don’t kill you for extra drivers.” (They don’t call me Control for nothing)

I know this is all confusing, what options, what are you talking about? Okay, time out, here’s the story:

Late last January, a few days before Super Bowl XLI  was played, I saw an article in the Sports Section of The New York Times about some chap who had enough imagination to create a facility for fans to buy options for tickets to major sporting events. The site was called TicketRESERVE.com. They guaranteed that if your team got into the Super Bowl you, the option holder, would be able to purchase tickets to the game at face value. What a great idea. They must make a ton of money since only two teams go to the Super Bowl. Any fan who buys options for any of the other thirty teams is out of luck.

I Googled TicketRESERVE and found that the asking price for the Giants was $148.00. The opening asking price is based on the odds Vegas sets for each team to get to the Super Bowl. “What the hell,” I said to myself and bought two options. Total cost $316.72 including a transaction fee of $20.72. I told Dave Brackett about the site and he also purchased two options.

Dave’s agent, Debbie did well. She found the single daily Jet Blue flight, but when she realized that the outbound flight didn’t leave until 7:10 p.m. arriving in Tucson at 11:04 and the return was a red eye, she suggested American via Dallas. We could fly out on Saturday at 8:15 a.m., arrive in Tucson at 2:30 p.m., return on Monday leaving at 3:00 p.m. and return to LaGuardia at around midnight. She pre-booked the flight and also booked us into a Best Western in Marana, Arizona, 30 miles north of Tucson and about 100 miles south of Phoenix. A good distance to travel back from a Super Bowl, but it shouldn’t be a problem with four of us.

Our improbable journey continued. Adios to Tampa Bay, the NFC’s 4^th Seed, adios to Dallas, the 1^st Seed. Next up, the 2^nd Seed, the Packers in Green Bay.

The cold, the cold, the cold; that is what filled the endless space of the scribes and talking heads. Can Eli play in the cold? Can the Giants play in the cold? Should they wear gloves? The longer the week went on the colder the forecast became for the game on Sunday. The Patriots game was the so-called early game. Since it didn’t begin until 3:00 p.m. the Giants – Packers game wasn’t scheduled to start until 6:42 p.m. The prediction was for 2 or 3 degrees at the start with a wind chill factor of -20 to -25 degrees.

My feeling about the Giants lottery was confirmed on Saturday when I received the following message:

Dear Season Ticket Holder:

Thank you for purchasing 2007 season tickets and for your continued support of our team.

The allotment of Super Bowl tickets to participating teams is very limited. In order to distribute the tickets as fairly as possible, we have held a computer-generated lottery, weighed by seniority. We are sorry to inform you that your name WAS NOT SELECTED in this random drawing.

We wish we could have all of our fans with us in Arizona but unfortunately that is not possible.

Sincerely,

New York Football Giants

The irony not being selected didn’t happen until four years later on the Thursday morning before Super Bowl XLVI was to be played. My phone rang with a call from the Football Giants. The agent confirmed my identity then said, “I am happy to tell you that you won the lottery and you have two tickets waiting for you at the team’s office in East Rutherford, NJ. You will need to bring cash or a bank check for $700 for each ticket and you have to pick them up by 5 pm tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” I replied,  “but tomorrow I am scheduled to receive a new hip at Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.”

“I see, well good luck.” And he hung up.

I was certain he was already speaking to another lucky fan who would be gleefully going to the game.

On the Outside Looking In will not publish on October 21,but should return for October 28.