By Frank Pingue
SAN JOSE, California, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks kicked off Super Bowl festivities on Monday with an Opening Night that swapped spectacle for a surprisingly more sedate affair – proving even the NFL's most notorious media circus can have an off night.
Gone were the wedding gowns and superhero costumes that typically transform the annual media blitz into a carnival of chaos.
Instead of the usual packed house atmosphere that draws thousands of rabid
fans, this year's toned-down event unfolded in the decidedly unglamorous confines of a room inside the San Jose Convention Center – a far cry from last year's grand stage inside New Orleans' Superdome.
But quirky still managed to creep through the cracks.
A man dressed as Pokemon character Charizard roamed the floor attempting to school NFL stars in the finer points of the game, while a Nickelodeon crew armed players with dry-erase boards for impromptu SpongeBob SquarePants drawing contests and challenged them to catch slime packets between two fingers.
The surreal parade continued with Ms. Illinois Corporate America 2025 working the room in full crown-and-sash regalia, and Patriots receiver Mack Hollins padding around barefoot as part of his holistic approach to exercise rehabilitation.
The evening's peak absurdity arrived when Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold donned a ham-shaped hat courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel show comedian Guillermo Rodriguez, sparking an impromptu "Ham for Sam" chant.
Darnold, who enjoys birdwatching and even has an app on his phone at the ready to identify different bird calls, was even asked if he could mimic some of the sounds for everyone.
The 28-year-old Darnold would not play along, opting instead to do his best to keep this week as normal as possible ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl clash.
"We're sticking to our process," said Darnold. "We're just doing everything that we can to keep it very similar, obviously, understanding the distractions that happen throughout the week."
For Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, the subdued circus represented a career coming full circle – from three-time Super Bowl champion linebacker to first-year coach fine-tuning his masterpiece.
"I never thought when I came up here in 2001 that any of that would happen," said Vrabel, who spent eight of his 14 NFL seasons with the Patriots.
"And I certainly didn't think when I was starting coaching that this would be the end result.
"But sometimes things are meant to be and if you are in the right position at the right time and do things the right way they come to you."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Additional reporting by Angelica Medina, Max A. Cherney and Michael Perry)
