Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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February 7, 2010

Snow dampens crowd but fun still flows at bowl party

By BILL ARCHER

BLUEFIELD — The weekend snow took some of the whoop out of The Ramsey School Bar’s inaugural Super Bowl party Sunday evening, but a loyal crowd of patrons braved the snow-coated downtown for the annual AFC-NFC showdown.

“We’ve only had one weekend of good weather since we opened on New Year’s Eve,” Tony Szabo, owner of the Ramsey School Bar Inc., said. “We’re committed to making this work. The people here are going to enjoy a lot of good food tonight.”

It was obvious from the crowd reaction that the New Orleans Saints were the sentimental favorites in the game, but fans appeared to react more to the early success the Indianapolis Colts were having in the game.

“I’m not a fan of either one of these teams,” John Flinchum, a dyed-in-the-wool Oakland Raiders fan said. “I’m a Peyton Manning fan though.

“The weeks before the Super Bowl are analyzed over and over, but I respected one thing I heard in an interview I heard with Peyton Manning’s father, Archie Manning,” Flinchum said. “Archie Manning was the face of the New Orleans Saints and was for many years. Saints fans love him. But when someone asked him if he would be rooting for the Saints or the Colts in the Super Bowl, he said: ‘I love the Saints, but I’m always rooting for my son.’ That meant a lot to me.”

Like all Super Bowls, the commercials draw a lot of response and reaction. Kim Shaw paused after watching an elaborate Budweiser commercial depicting people in a town forming a human bridge so the Budweiser truck could make it into town.

“That was good,” Shaw said. The crowd appeared to agree.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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