NEW YORK — So this Broncomaniac walked into a midtown Manhattan bar and told me what sounded like a joke.
“I’m not spending $1,500 for a nosebleed seat to the Super Bowl,” said Ron Katz of Denver. “But I’m hoping to get in the game for free by winning a contest.”
After a long sip of beer to drown my smirk, I turned to Katz and said, “Well, good luck with that, my friend.”
Katz has a crazy obsession with going to the Super Bowl, which this rabid 50-year-old fan has done eight of the last 13 years. The crazy part? Katz never attends the actual game.
Let him explain. In Katz’s estimation, hanging out in an excited host city during the days prior to kickoff easily beats getting a tan in the Caribbean during the dead of winter, even if a big digital thermometer in Times Square reads a chilling 15 degrees.
“I’m a football purist. I’m having a blast,” Katz said Wednesday, while nursing a soda.
He’s an expert at doing the Super Bowl experience on a dime, boasting he was perfectly happy walking around the Big Apple wearing an orange-and-blue jester hat, while spending no more than $150 per day, including lodging and airfare.
Just this one time, with his beloved Broncos in the Super Bowl, didn’t he think it was worth it to splurge on a ticket to the game?
“My backup plan is to watch it in a bar. But I might win a contest and go for free,” Katz insisted.
I asked for the check. They’re called Broncomaniacs for a reason. This guy was nuts.
During the unrelenting hype of Super Bowl week, a journalist’s cellphone blows up 24/7 with silly prop bets from oddsmakers, marijuana advocates begging for attention and the news of how quarterback Peyton Manning responded to his spirals being dissed as “ducks” by Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman.
But 24 hours after watching Katz disappear into the night on Seventh Avenue, I noticed a text message weirder than most. It read: “I’ve been in a catatonic state for the last five hours or so. You were the first person I messaged or called. No way in my dreams did I expect …”
The text was from Katz. On Thursday, he had gone to a department store that flashed a giant electronic sign of soccer sex symbol David Beckham prancing around in his underwear. The attraction for Katz wasn’t Beckham, but a contest for Super Bowl tickets that required nothing more than playing a video game to receive a scratch-off lottery ticket for the (slim and none) chance to win the grand prize.
Katz scratched. He did a double-take. Went into shock.
Yes, he won two tickets to Broncos vs. Seahawks. Upper-deck seats. Value: $1,000 each.
“This,” Katz thought, “cannot be happening to me.”
But it did.