John Niland was a Second Team All American in 1964, First Team All American in 1965 at the University of Iowa. Then in 1989 he was named First Team All Century Iowa Football team as an offensive guard. In 1966 John was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the first round as the fifth over all pick in the NFL draft. John was a 6 time All Pro from 1968 -1973.
I met John in 1993 as a vendor of Redi Mix selling chemicals that we used to our clean concrete trucks. He was a very personable and likeable guy. He had an unconventional approach to sales and he is very successful. I became fast friends with John, partly because of his personality plus I was a huge fan during his career with the Tom Landry era Cowboys. As the years went by John became more than a vendor, he was a personal friend of mine. He attended my son's high school graduation and even came to speak at my church about his faith and love for God.
He said for years that he wanted to treat me to a Super Bowl experience and hopefully with the Cowboys playing for the championship. The years slipped by and the Cowboys were no longer a championship caliber team in the early 2000s, so they were out of that picture. Redi Mix had sold to US Concrete in 2006 and things were not going well and he said 2007 was the year for us to go to a Super Bowl together. That year it was the Colts and Bears playing in Miami. He took five guests for a week long event. Two of his customers from another industry, Carl Bell, a mutual friend for many years who worked at another concrete company, another guy named John Hoelscher that I work with as a VP and me and then we worked together at another company a few years later.
The picture below is Carl, Marianne Staubach, me, John and John Niland in back at an event sponsored by her husband Roger (more of that story in a bit). The second picture is the only one of just the four of us and it's at the stadium before the Super Bowl kick off.
We flew to Florida together and met up with John and his other guests with a big week plan. Needless to say that area of Miami was a crazy cauldron of activity with all the media, the event visitors plus the regular population of locals and regular visitors. The list of Who's Who that were there was no doubt lengthy and there were parties and events every night. As we walked around that South Beach area we did see a few folks we recognize from ESPN and the NFL like Kirk Herbstreit, Reggie Bush, Archie Manning, Isaiah Robertson and others, and we did not spend time seeking out any celebrities. John was a very gracious host, fed us well everyday and made sure we saw all the sights we wanted to see while we were there.
One evening John asked what would we like to do that we have never done before. I quickly spoke up and said that I would love to take an air boat ride through the Everglades. Nobody else had done it before so that was our plan for the next day. It was fun, interesting and educational. Here are a couple of pictures from that excursion.
Before we left Dallas, John asked us to bring along a sports jacket. He was working to get us into an event where jackets are required dress, but didn't say what it was. When that day came he said let's swing by your hotel and get your sports jackets, we are going to a party of the Staubach Company. Remember John played on Cowboys with Roger for many years.
Wow, what a treat that was! There were a couple of event speakers there to address the directors of his company, but all we wanted to hear was from the man himself, Roger the dodger. We sat at the table with his wife, Marianne. She was such an elegant woman and so very easy to talk to and she was very engaging. It was a great event to be a part of for sure, but before it was over number 12 himself came to our table and chatted with us for quite some time. He was an amazing guy to visit with, and you could tell that he loved John Niland. When he walked up, he came up behind John and put his hands on his shoulders and said "hello Johnny it is good to see you tonight". During that visit he told John that he prays for him regularly. It was a very memorable visit with such a nice guy.
The image below is the badge that allowed us to get in the Super Bowl Party which I kept as a souvenir
Then it was game day. We drove to Hollywood Florida and took a taxi from the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens which was only about a 10 mile trip. The idea here was we wouldn't have to pay parking, get dropped off at the entrance gate and not have to walk for who knows how far, and a cab would pick us up near the entrance when it was over and take us back. The ride cost was $40, this is an important point to remember.
Yeah that's right, I have a flip phone here, but remember it is early 2007 and is was a Razor which I loved until I got my first smart phone which was a Blackberry and I really loved that phone. Below is a photo of the official Super Bowl 41 game program.
About an hour before kickoff and the seats are just beginning to fill up, there were a few rabid Colts fans a few rows behind us and a few mouthy Bears fans a few rows ahead of us and they were talking some trash back and forth. After a little bit of this Carl turns and looks at John and says "that's enough, here hold my drink" (and when I say drink, I do not mean beer, they were selling liquor and Carl had a couple). John says, "Carl just be careful, we are a long way from home". Carl stands up and proudly yells as loud as he can - "how 'bout them Cowboys?!!" and sits back down. It was hilarious and fortunately they all laughed!
Billy Joel sings the National Anthem and does a really great job and I enjoyed it much more than the halftime show by Prince. I just never was a fan of Prince
When half time arrived is was raining and I don't mean a little, it was raining pretty hard which made for a long evening even though we each had a rain poncho. When the game was over and time to leave, it was a mad house just to get out of the stadium to the parking lot. When we finally got to where the cab dropped us off there were none to be seen. Nobody seemed to know where they were so we walked around the parking lot looking for the staging area. We finally see a cab stopped at a stop light. His 'available' light on the roof of the cab is not on so we suspect he has a fare in the cab but he does not. We ask where can we get a cab. He says, where to? We say Hollywood. He says he can take us. We said great, but as we start to get in, he says the fare will be $250. Carl said something pretty nasty about him and his heritage so he speeds away and we keep walking in the rain. We finally see another cab and it is getting late by now, but we we're not going to pay $250 for a $40 fare... yet. This guy says he will do it for $100 and we bail in before he changes his mind. We found out later that somehow this is an acceptable practice after major events at this stadium. They turn off their availability light as well as their meter like they are off duty and charge what they want and somehow get by with it. We finally make it back to the hotel around 1:00 am and thoroughly wore out.
Epilog-
After sitting in the rain at the game for an hour and half then walking in the rain another hour or so I wake up the next morning with a cold. I call Carol just before we head to the airport to confirm flight time and arrival time in Dallas and I tell her how bad I feel with this cold and you won't believe what she says next - " You have been playing all week and been to the Super Bowl. I don't feel sorry for you."
The woman is right, I cannot argue with her logic.
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