A Day at the Super Bowl
by Steve McGill
Some of you may know, and some of you may not know, that I attended the Super Bowl on February 12th to watch my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles, take on the Kansas City Chiefs. My Eagles lost in heartbreaking fashion, and while I’m still getting over the L, I had a great time being in such an electric atmosphere, cheering on my beloved team in the greatest sporting event that this country has to offer. But the real story here is not the fact that I saw the Super Bowl in person; the real story has to do with how I got there to begin with, as I certainly couldn’t afford to go if I were paying out of my own pocket.
A few days after the Eagles won the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, my principal at the school where I teach — Davidson Day School in Davidson, NC — called me into his office to talk, assuring me that it wasn’t about anything bad. Once in his office, he showed me a website on his phone. When I looked, I saw my face. The website was a gofundme page. As I kept reading, I saw that two of my students from my AP Language & Composition class — Grace Mitchell (a junior) and Natalie Munro (a senior) — were raising money to send me to the Super Bowl. Their goal was to raise $7,000 for plane tickets, hotel accommodations, and a ticket to the game.
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My principal informed me that there was no way I could accept the money, as our school has a policy in place stating that faculty members cannot accept gifts of over $25 in order to avoid any conflicts of interest. Familiar with the policy, I was not upset at all that I wouldn’t be able to go, as I had already planned to FaceTime my two older brothers and watch the game with them. My immediate reaction to seeing the gofundme page was to feel an enormous, overwhelming sense of gratitude toward my two students. Over the years, I’ve received plenty of thank-you cards, many heartfelt, heartwarming letters, and many simple but meaningful gifts from my students. But to try to raise money to send me to the Super Bowl? This was above and beyond anything I could even fathom. Though I had a great relationship with both Grace and Natalie, I was still stunned to know they thought that highly of me. And really, that was enough to make me cry.
The girls were trying to keep their machinations a secret, but, as I said above, my principal had already told me of what was going on. But then the next day, things picked up even more. I received two text messages from former students congratulating me on the fact that I was going to the Super Bowl. And even a former athlete who has nothing to do with Davidson Day (Keni Harrison), texted me to ask with excitement, “You’re going to the Super Bowl?” I assured Keni and the alums that I wouldn’t be going because of school policy about accepting excessive gifts, but that I was hoping the money could be used to perhaps serve as seed money for building a new track (since our school doesn’t have one). When I asked Keni how she heard about my students’ efforts to get me to the Super Bowl, she replied that she had heard about it from her sister who had seen a post about it on TikTok.
The TikTok video blew up like a hot-air balloon. Within two days, the girls had raised the $7,000, and ended up raising over $8,000 before shutting down the campaign. My principal called me into his office again at that point, and informed me that administration had brought in an outside consultant to discuss the legal issues involved, and the consultant had advised them that they should let me go to the game. Well holy shiggady, I was actually going to go to the Super Bowl.
The TikTok video ended up getting something like 1.3 million views (and probably more by now), and for the first time in my life I knew what it meant to “go viral.” Through zero efforts of my own, I was becoming a well-known figure. In the comments section of the TikTok video people were making all kinds of encouraging remarks, saying what a wonderful story it was, and what a great teacher I was, and how sweet Natalie and Grace were for starting this campaign.
Then, one day at school, Grace asked me if she could go over the rough draft of an essay with me during lunch. I told her of course, and when lunch rolled around, she came to my classroom to discuss her essay. Turns out she hadn’t started it yet, and was looking for guidance on which of her two topic ideas she should go with. While we were talking, Natalie came by and said that the school secretary wanted to see me. That seemed odd; the school secretary never wanted to see me. I told Natalie I’d be right down, and then continued talking to Grace. About a minute later, Natalie came by again, saying the secretary “needs to talk to you. It’s important.” Annoyed, wondering how important it could be, I said okay and got up to go downstairs (my classroom is on the second floor).
As I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear the Eagles fight song being played loudly on speakers. What the hell is going on? Then when I looked down the stairs, I saw every student in the high school jam packed in the lobby and down the hallway. Green and white balloons lined the banisters. Green and gold confetti was flying through the air. Students were holding up signs: “Steve is Super Bowl Bound!” “Fly Eagles Fly!” And I live in North Carolina. Maybe five of these students are Eagles fans. Yet there they all were, cheering me, celebrating me. I can’t put into words how awesome that was.
I gave a brief speech thanking them, and thanking Grace and Natalie in particular.
After that, local news channels started picking up the story. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, Grace, Natalie, and I became celebrities. Several local channels interviewed us and did segments on our story on their nightly news broadcasts. And then the story went national when people from NBC Nightly News, which comes on every night at 6:30, contacted us so they could feature us as their feel-good story at the end of their broadcast on the Saturday one day before the Super Bowl. The interview went great, and the segment aired on Saturday February 11th.
The Super Bowl itself was a blast, the experience of a lifetime, even though the Eagles lost by a field goal. But again, that’s not even where the real story lies, as far as I’m concerned. The real story lies in this gigantic act of kindness perpetrated by my two students. Since the national news segment aired, I have received random emails from people all over the place telling me what an inspiration I am. Family members are sharing the link with everyone they know. Everybody everywhere is telling me how much I really deserved this. People who’ve followed my career in the classroom and/or on the track are so happy for me. It’s just been overwhelming and incredibly humbling. I’m just doing what I’ve always done, but now I’m famous for it.
Below is the link to the segment from NBC Nightly News.
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