Graphing NFL Players During Super Bowl Week Days 2 and 3

Since I had a great time during day one of the Super Bowl festivities, I made sure I went back for day 2. Thankfully, it wasn't as cold as it was on Tuesday. Wednesday's high temperature was 25 as opposed to 17 the day before. I cannot wait until Spring.

Day 2:

My day started later than the previous day. I learned that Brian Cushing and Mo Wilkerson was signing at Body Armour's exhibit in Grand Cenral Station. It was a football lesson for some kids with Play 90. LaVarr Arrington was the "moderator" of the event and was the main instructor. Arrington needs to get a TV job. He has personality and quick wit.

The Trio discussing football

The autograph signing was scheduled for 12 noon, but as the time got closer, the lessons weren't slowing down. Then around 12:20, someone came by and told one of the workers that Cushing had to leave. Once Cushing left, so did Wilkerson. I thought my chance to get Mo to sign my Jets book had come and gone until I saw Cushing standing around and talking to a few gentlemen, so I hung around and waited. Sure enough, Wilkerson came out and I got him to sign my Jets book.

Wish the book had a picture of Wilkerson

While we were waiting, someone told us that Victor Cruz would be signing at Footlocker, so we headed there after lunch. When we got there, the line was pretty long. Having gone to previous signings at Footlocker, I had a feeling that the line would move quickly once Cruz arrived and we would get to meet him.

As you can see, the line was long. I dig that guy's Vintage Jets winter cap

As I suspected, once Cruz arrived, the line moved pretty quick and within 25 minutes we were inside meeting Cruz. Btw, never let a store employee take your picture while your meeting with an athlete. The picture always comes out wrong. For the sake of my very small ego, I will resist showing you the picture that was taken. I will show off the picture I got signed.

Got a nice signature from Cruz also

 After this signing, we went to get in line for Jim Brown at Macy's and the day went downhill from there. Once we got there, we were told that Brown would only sign merchandise that was bought at Macy's and you had to spend $50.00 to get the signature. OK, I wasn't going to argue it. So, I bought an NFL mini helmet for Brown to sign and a Jets mini for later use.

Then we got on the line and waited... and waited.... and waited. Then we were moved to the other side of the store. And waited... and waited some more. We got our tickets for the signing at 5pm for the 6pm signing. Then, we went back to waiting. Lucky, I once again made use of Macy's free wi-fi and surfed the web on my tablet. Finally, at about 6:15pm, Brown arrived and the line started moving.

Jim Brown greets the masses

As I got to the front of the line, I started getting the mini helmet ready to be signed. As I did this, a Macy's rep came up to me and told me that Brown will not be signing anything other than the pictures that were provided up front. This infuriated me. I spent $60.00 on overpriced mini helmets to get this guys autograph because I was told by Macy's that I had to spend over $50.00 to get the signature. What was worse was when I got upfront Brown didn't even look at me. His representative handed me the photo. That made me even more angry. If your going to tic off the fans who waited 3 and a half hours for you, have the courtesy to look up, say hi and shake a hand or two.

Once I left the signing area, I made a beeline for the register to return the helmets. I wasn't the only one as the lines at the registers grew to amazing proportions. Once I got to the register, a rep from the NFL Team Store told me that it wasn't Macy's nor was it Jim Brown that ixnayed the signing of merchandise. It was his representative that me the signed photo with Macy's all over it. She saw how ticked I was. Couldn't have explained why she wouldn't allow Brown to sign merchandise that was bought specifically for this event? I still blame Macy's for allowing that to happen. He was paid to be there. Macy's should have enforced that rule. They just wanted 100 fans to spend $50.00 and more at their store.

What's worse, even after being lied to, a Macy's representative tried to take back the signed photo. I refused to give it back since three people where in front of me and walked off with their photos after returning their merchandise. The rep let me go, but told the guy at the register I was the last one. Morel of this story, Macy's sucks and I won't go back for another signing again.

And here's the photo we got from Macy's

 Because the Brown debacle took forever, we got to Modell's for the Jamal Charles signing too late. The line was too long and we were told by a Modell's employee that the first 100 were guaranteed an autograph. I was willing to stay to attempt to get the taste of that Brown signing out of my mouth, but my friend wanted to go, so we left and the day ended on a sour note.

Day 3

I started Friday at an early hour. I was going for just 2 autographs. Dee Milner was signing at Modell's at 12 noon and I wanted to add the Jets CB to my Jets collection. But the reason I got to Manhattan so early was because I had heard that Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia was going to be appearing on an ESPN show, so I got to Bryant Park around 10am. CC arrived around 10:15am and was walked in by security pretty far away from where the graphers were standing. I waited around and saw Cam Newton being led out the same way CC was led in; far away from us. CC came out around 11am and when I saw he was walking in the same direction I bolted from my area up front. I ran from one corner to another and slowed down to a brisk walk so that I didn't have a cop jump in front of CC thinking I was a wack job, but also because I left my lung on the sidewalk behind me. I'm too old to be running as fast as I did.

Once I got to where CC was, I saw that there was no graphers around. Just CC, a cop, his entourage and little ole me. I politely asked CC if he could sign my ball and he said sure and took my baseball. As he waited for me to give him a pen and I went into my bag to get one, I realized after fumbling around that I forgot my Bick pen at home. I embarrassingly asked one of his people if they had one and thankfully, someone had one. I shook CC's hand and wished him luck this upcoming season. Thanks to my almost killing myself, I was able to walk off with this gem:

After that, I headed over to Modell's, hoping that the line wasn't too long. When I got there, I saw there was no line. "Lucky Me", I thought. I went inside and asked an employee when the line would start and was told that the Milner signing was cancelled. As disappointed as I was, getting CC to sign the baseball for me was enough for me and decided to end the day.

I did walk along Super Bowl Blvd and took some pictures for you guys to check out.

ESPN temporary studio

Rush Zone for the kiddies

Xbox Station where you can play some Madden

Papa Johns for free samples

Come out of the tunnel like a true NFL player

Put your head on the mannequin and take a picture 

Fox's temporary studio

Kick a field goal? Not me.

The Lombardi Trophy and the crazy line to get in

Where First Take was filmed this morning

Well, I had a great time running around getting some autographs for my collection and experiencing all the hoopla surrounding the week leading up to the Super Bowl. I realize that this might have been a once in a lifetime event here in NYC and I made sure I made the most of it. My only complaint was that this should have been held in doors. I don't understand why it wasn't held at the Javitz Convention Center. With the weather as cold as it was, it should have been held indoors. That said, I'm glad I was able to attend this event and I hope that I can do so again one day. If you have the chance to attend when the Super Bowl is in your town, I urge you to go out and attend it. You won't regret it.

Graphing NFL Players During Super Bowl Week Day 1

One of my New Years resolutions was to go out and graph more this coming year. The fact that the Super Bowl is here in NYC and there would be a ton of appearances by former and current players was the perfect time for me to go back out and hunt some autographs. I was mainly looking to add autographs to my Jets collection and add some players I might not have otherwise had the chance to get any other time. In my first two days, I had some ups and downs, but so far it has been a good time.

Day 1:

On Wednesday, I arrived at Super Bowl Blvd (which in actuality is Broadway between 34th and 47th streets) at about 10:00 am. I initially was tired when I left my apartment, but the excitement of the day's events woke me up pretty quick. That and the 15 degree temperature that morning did the trick.

I waited for my friend to arrive at 11:00 am and we quickly got in line for the autograph stage. That day's scheduled guests really didn't thrill either one of us, but we wanted to see how the autograph lines worked and what to expect for future appearances that week.

While we waited for the first autograph guest, the Jets Flight Crew came out and did a few dance numbers for the crowd. After, we were told that the first guest would be up shortly and to have our items ready. If you didn't have an item, there were autograph cards that the player would sign. I had bought a huge Sports Illustrated Football book with me for players to sign, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to get a signature in it.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Derrick Brooks was the first player to sign that day and I had my book ready. I flipped through the book quickly and couldn't find a picture Brooks was in so I decided to have him sign the inside cover. The pages are grey with Sports Illustrated printed across it, so when I got up front, I asked the handler to ask Mr. Brooks to sign the page in black.

Instead of the black Sharpie I asked for, he used silver. At first I was a little ticked, but now that I look at it I see it looks fine, so I have no problem with it.

After we left the line, we decided to walk up and down the Blvd and I took a couple of pictures.

Here is the very tall toboggan slide. The one that you couldn't get me to go up if Joe Namath was calling for me to slide down with him.

Temporary home of the NFL Network during the festivities.

That is pretty much all the pictures I took of the Blvd as my hands were numb from just taking those pictures. I will be back tomorrow, so I will get some more pictures of the Blvd and post them then.

While walking back up, we noticed a line outside a Duane Reede and asked what it was for. We were told Justin Tuck was doing a signing inside, so we got on the line. We were pretty far back, but the line was moving pretty quickly. A half an hour later, we were inside.

Justin was only signing photographs that were provided by the store.

The photo is not bad. Just seems like it's a very good printed picture rather than an 8x10.  But, it's a free autograph, so I'll take it.

After, we went up to Macy's for the main event of the day (at least for me), Wayne Chrebet. He's my all time favorite Jet, so there was no way I was missing out on him. I was originally going to have him sign his page in my Jets book, but opted to stop at Modell's and use my 20.00 credit on a Jets mini helmet. Unfortunately, Jets mini helmets have been hard to find this particular week, so I grabbed a football instead.

We got to Macy's a couple of hours early, but there was a line starting to form already, so we jumped on the back. I had my tablet, so I helped myself to Macy's free wi-fi and killed some time looking at Facebook and other sites while chatting with my friend.

When Chrebet showed up, the woman who introduced him to the crowd accidentally introduced him as a former member of the New York Giants which got a hearty Bronx cheer from most of the crowd until she corrected herself. When Chrebet got up to the table he posed for pictures and then started signing.

When I got to meet Chrebet, I told him how big a fan I was and about my Chrebet card collection. He seemed genuinely happy to hear about it and thanked me for being such a big fan. As he signed my ball he noticed my Yankees sweatshirt and commented that he knew I was a smart guy. He shook my hand and off I went with my new prize.

I really like how nice the ball came out with the silver Deco paint pen he used. I need to get me a few of them in different colors.

Macy's and NFL Auctions were auctioning off this really sweet full sized Jets helmet signed by Marty Lyons, Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko and Abdul Salaam, otherwise known as the New York Sack Exchange. I really wish I could afford to bid on it. Owning a New York Sack Exchange signed item is on my "Must Have" list.

After, we decided to end the day by hitting Modell's for the Maurice Jones-Drew signing. When we got there, there was a line outside and we got to the back of it and waited. The line started to move in no time and we were inside. This time, I decided to take the picture the store provided instead of buying anything. We were allowed to take pictures, but since my battery was running low, I decided not to take any.

When I met Jones-Drew, I told him how I enjoyed watching him play and then told him I hope he signs with the Jets this off season. He appreciated it the remark, signed my photo and off I went.

When the day ended, I was out hunting autographs for a total of 9 hours. I was tired, my feet hurt and I was hungry. But I was thrilled at the autographs I was able to add to my collection. 1 possible Hall Of Fame Player, A former Super Bowl winner, a really good running back and my all time favorite player. Not a bad way to get back into the autograph hunting game.

Recent Additions To The Sports Room.

To be honest, as of late, my sports pick ups have kind of slowed down. Most of my disposable income has been spent on my pop culture/Spider-Man/Batman/superhero collections. But, that doesn't mean I don't keep my eye open for some sweet deals for my sports collections. The past week, I was able to add a few pieces to my collections. 2 Islander autographs and 1 sports TTM.

The 2 Islander autographs are of players I grew up watching and have wanted to add to my Islanders collection for a long time.

I'm so thrilled to finally have an autograph of the Captain of the Islanders dynasty teams I grew up watching. Denis Potvin was a 3 time James Norris Memorial Trophy winner as the NHL's top defenseman. He won 4 Stanley Cups with the Islanders and was elected into the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1991. He also won the Calder Memorial Trophy as Rookie Of The Year for the 1973-74 season and was the 1st overall pick in the 1973 NHL Draft. When he retired, he was the NHL leader in goals and points by a defenseman, both has been since surpassed. I have fond memories of watching Denis Potvin play, but even fonder memories of watching him hoist the Stanley Cup over his head four straight years.

Pat LaFontaine was the only player to have ever spent his entire career playing for New York based teams, having played for the Islanders, The Buffalo Saberes and The New York Rangers. He was drafted 3rd overall by the Islanders in the 1983 NHL Draft. His 1.17 points per game is the best average for an American born player. Unfortunately, he suffered from concussions, which would end his career a bit too early. I remember when he scored the winning goal in the 4th overtime in Game 7 of the 1987 playoffs against the Washington Capitals which is now known as the Easter Epic as it started Saturday night and ended at 2am Easter morning. LaFontaine was a hard auto to get as he doesn't make apperances or sign TTM. He's only started signing certified cards, so I grabbed this one as soon as I could.

I got my first TTM in the mail in a few months. TTM, for those who don't know means Through The Mail. When I found out that Hall Of Fame QB Y.A. Tittle was signing ttm, I gave it a shot. I had a 5x7 printed out of this Sports Illustrated cover and sent it in along with a book plate for my Sports Illustrated Football book project and he signed both for me in a few months time. Tittle played for the Colts, 49'ers and Giants. He made 7 Pro Bowls, was a 2 Time MVP and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame in 1971. Very happy to add his autograph to my collection.

I still have one more item coming to me. I hope to have it by Wednesday. Keep your eyes peeled for it.