As if we weren’t already jealous enough of Niall O’Riordan, the Irish man who was spotted by Sky Sports cameras at this year’s Super Bowl, these latest revelations just made us turn even greener.
Not only did Niall manage to get into the Super Bowl, but the rest of the day that he had is just incredible and has to be heard to be believed!
The proud Cavan supporter spoke to Balls.ie and explained that he had gone to the Super Bowl to celebrate his 40th birthday, thinking that he had a ticket for the game sorted out in advance.
He hopped on the plane to Phoenix and, without accommodation or anything else sorted out, hooked up with the local Irish community.
The manager of the local Irish bar, Seamus McCaffrey’s offered to put him up for the few nights, while another member of the Irish community collected Niall from the airport when he landed.
So far, so good.
That night, Niall headed to the bar where he got chatting to some of the locals and they eventually headed on where they ended up at a Super Bowl party with some very well-known faces.
“Next thing, I’m at a party hosted by Sam Acho, the Arizona Cardinals player, with a balcony overlooking the fanzone, Jordin Sparks was there having sang the national anthem at the pro-bowl the week before,” Niall explained.
Things began to take a turn for the worst though as Niall was later told that the ticket he thought he had secured was no longer available and he thought he’d have to watch the game on TV after flying all that way.
On Sunday morning, feeling a bit down about the whole situation, he donned his Cavan jersey with the number 12 on the back and wrote on a bit of cardboard ‘travelled from Ireland, need 1 ticket please’.
“I’d seen a good few people with similar signs but mine was unique,” he explained to Balls.ie. “And then I had the Cavan jersey on me as well, Tom Brady is meant to have Cavan connections and I had the number 12, Brady wears 12, all the Seattle fans wear 12.”
Niall headed to the local shopping centre which was near the stadium and was also home to a number of bars to see if he could grab himself a ticket. Feeling fed-up, he thought he’d pop into one of the bars for a pint, but the pub had a whopping $200 entry price.
Wondering whether to go in, find a seat and watch the match from there, Niall decided to keep trying his luck outside for another while and walked away from the bar.
“I didn’t walk 50 yards before a fella came over to me and offered me a ticket!”
By chance, an American who didn’t want to go to the game had spotted him and gave him a ticket.
“There was a good few Irish people about on Saturday night and every now and then you’d hear ‘Hey Cavan’!” he said. “Without the jersey I wouldn’t have gotten a ticket for the game, without a doubt.”
A thrilled Niall headed up to the stadium, long before other fans had got there and was taking some pictures of the place when he spotted Neil Reynolds of Sky Sports.
Niall made friends with the presenter, who later passed on his match notes to the Cavan man as a momento.
@ballsdotie sure I was working for Sky #whatagame pic.twitter.com/Zg9HkWyyK9
— Niall O Riordan (@DJBegby) February 2, 2015
Yes, we know. This story is pretty amazing and there’s more to come.
Niall had a seat right up the front as he was chatting to Neil and somehow, managed not to get moved out of one of the best seats in the house for the entire first half.
At half-time, he was watching Katy Perry’s performance when he noticed the row of seats empty beside him – seats which had been occupied by Katy and her friends.
He decided to move over to those seats as they had left them empty and it was then that the Sky cameras swung around and picked him up on TV.
On top of all that, from the vantage point of his new seat, the game ended up being decided right in front of him when Malcolm Butler made that interception.
What an end to an amazing day.
Hat tip and pics: Balls.ie
