Super Bowl 50 scene: Observers share their stories
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — How badly did Mark Jennings want to bartend at Super Bowl 50? The 53-year-old woke up at 4 a.m. Sunday morning in Sacramento, gave himself a haircut before the sun rose, and then hit the road for the two-hour drive to Levi’s Stadium.
Jennings, a bartender for the past 28 years who says he won Yelp’s Bartender Olympics a few years ago in Sacramento, is bartending at his first NFL game at the in-stadium bar near Section 118. And it’s not a bad first NFL game to work – the 50th Super Bowl.
He says he excels in three areas: speed, accuracy and flair. He also has several drinks that he says he has invented, including one called Cactus Ball, which consists of amaretto, Captain Morgan, some pineapple juice and grenadine and lime juice.
On Sunday, he’s in charge of recruiting customers, so he’s acting as a quasi-carnival barker around the concourse near his section.
Despite his bartending experience, Jennings said he was told when he got to Levi’s Stadium that he was going to be stationed to sell hot dogs.
“I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’” he said. “That’s what happened. Then they did put me behind the bar. This is fun, but a little disappointed because I was expecting to work in one of the suites.”
The good news is that the haircut Jennings gave himself in the wee hours of the morning in Sacramento was not an utter disaster.
“Doesn’t look so bad, right?” he said.
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Joey Celio, one of the stadium employees in charge of safety stationed on the 200 level of Levi’s Stadium, knows he will spend almost the entire game with his back to the football field. That’s his job.
He watches for unruly behavior. He also watches for fans who try to stop to watch the game on the stairs or in the aisle.
On a rare occasion, if everyone is in order in his section and if he hears the crowd roar, Celio may turn around to give himself a quick - very quick - glimpse of the game. But for Celio and fellow employees, he knows those moments will be few and far between.
“I made sure to DVR the game at home,” Celio said. “I’ll have to watch the whole thing because I won’t see much today.”