Prologue: I'd known about the legendary NFL Experience for years. Every time the Super Bowl rolls into town, it is accompanied by this traveling show for the fans. In short, it allows you to try your skills in standard NFL scenarios. It looked to be a fan's dream.

For only the second time in NFL history, the Super Bowl was coming to Detroit. And, of course, the NFL Experience followed along. Mind you, this is only the second time in history that the Super Bowl has been held within a thousand miles of the midwest. Truly, it was an opportunity not to be missed. Unfortunately, my job required me to work Friday from 9-4 and Sunday, midnight to 10 a.m. That meant I had 32 hours to make it to Detroit, sleep, take in the NFL Experience, drive back and go directly into work. I had to make it work, otherwise I'd be in my 50's by the time the Super Bowl ever came my way again. Driving like a bat out of hell (which is odd, because bats are not known for their automotive prowess), I made it to Detroit late Friday. I spent the night at my brother's apartment.

Saturday morning: My brother and I wound our way to downtown Detroit. It was teeming with football fans, despite the cold rain that fell steadily. Intersections were packed. Parking structures were overflowing. Traffic cops seemed only mildly interested in stopping the flow of humanity to allow cars to move. After some confusion, we finally found a place to park.

Decision time: Would we wear our coats over our jerseys as we made our way to Cobo Hall? Or would we just wear the jerseys and pray the rain wouldn't totally ruin them and cause us to freeze? Teetering on the brink of indecision, we found an excellent compromise - "emergency" ponchos. (Side note: For the last decade or so, we'd always received emergency ponchos in our Christmas stockings, but we'd never had a use for them. Truly, this counted as an emergency.) Clad in our unbecoming plastic tarps, we ventured into the rain. After a few blocks, we pop into...

The Renaissance Center: All week, ESPN and the NFL Network had been broadcasting from this location, so we thought it was worth a look. The tall, cylindrical building held nearly all the national media - radio stations, TV networks, magazines. Earlier in the week, I'd seen Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson reporting from the floor there. Sadly, most of the media hubs were empty. However, we did stumble upon...

The ESPN Set: Linda Cohn, Mike Golic and Darren Woodson were doing a broadcast for ESPNEWS. As we were on the second level, we could look down to see the set, the anchors and the camera setups. Behind the desk was a long "demo" field with the ESPN logo and barriers, behind which fans would wait their chance to cheer and be seen on the air. After a few minutes, we went downstairs for a closer look. After satisfying our curiosity, it was on to...

The Line: Arriving at Cobo Hall, there was a massive line of people standing in the rain to get in. We'd already purchased our tickets ahead of time, yet the entry points were moving quite slowly. We spent at least 30 minutes waiting to get in. During this time, we learned that plastic is actually pretty effective in keeping in your body heat. We also noted that Steeler fans outnumbered Seahawk fans 9-to-1. This made me happy, as I was also rooting for Pittsburgh. After an interminable wait, we finally made it in.