FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Police escorts are really the way to travel.

A big part of covering a Super Bowl is shuttling to news conferences – it comes with the territory in every host city. But it had escaped my memory that these media shuttles get police escorts along the way. In a leapfrog technique, the motorcycle officers clear an intersection, the coach buses pass through, and they race ahead of us again.

As the police escort led us through the South Florida rain to meet with the Saints Monday, I couldn’t help but notice that on the outside of their neon-green rain suits they were locked and loaded on the hip. They’re not messing around.

Of course, being on the inside of a police escort is much better than being on the outside. If you’ve been in Fort Lauderdale over the past week, chances are you’ve had to wait for a Pro Bowl or Super Bowl police escort.

In one way, this is already my favorite Super Bowl. Photographer Ben Liebenberg and I have observed that it’s impossible to get lost. In the 100 yards between the Super Bowl media center and the media shuttles, three different people were standing in the rain with signs pointing us in the right direction. You’d be hard-pressed to wander off-track in that scenario.  

– Frank Tadych

Posted in: Super Bowl  |