A team deemed “Big Blue” by its supporters won the Super Bowl.  But shades of Butler blue colored events leading up to and surrounding the big game.

Butler University officials are claiming victory in a coordinated effort to earn publicity and involve the Butler community in a variety of ways as Indianapolis hosted the National Football League’s championship game for the first time on Feb. 5.

They say the value of Butler’s public relations success is priceless.

“It was March Madness in February,” said Marcia Dowell, executive director of university relations.

The campus hosted a stand-up event starring NBC late-night host Jimmy Fallon, the NFL’s celebration of gospel music, a celebrity basketball game for charity, a comedy show with big personalities, a dinner for public safety planners, free tours of Hinkle Fieldhouse and two Butler men’s basketball home games.

People affiliated with the university participated in Fallon’s live post-Super Bowl special, Madonna’s performance in the halftime show and official NFL social media promotion, among other events.

As usual, mascot Butler Blue II was in the middle of it all.

The English bulldog visited the Super Bowl Village and Radio Row, judged a cooking contest, appeared on a CBS television special, filmed a spot for Fallon’s live show, posed for pictures, added about 400 followers on Twitter and was named one of the Social 46 by the city’s Super Bowl host committee.

“At the end of it, you say, ‘This is all the stuff we did,’” Michael Kaltenmark, director of web marketing and communications, said. “I don’t know how you could look at that as not being successful and not having a good week.”

Courtney Tuell, director of public relations, said she reached out to Super Bowl officials months before the game to find out how Butler could become involved, and she’s happy with how it all turned out.

“It keeps Butler’s name in the national spotlight,” she said.  “The impact will be positive. [Many events] were once-in-a-lifetime experiences for our students that have likely resulted in a lot of great experiences and memories.”

The Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show was among those.

Eric Stark, a professor of music, directed a 200-person choir that sung “Like a Prayer” on stage with Madonna.  Included were 22 members of the Butler chorale.

“That’s incredible,” Kaltenmark said.  “The value comes back in recruitment and enrollment. We can tout that that happened, [that] you’re going to get opportunities just by who we are and where we are.”

Super Bowl week also affected campus visitation.

About six families toured Butler —and about 20 more requested visits—because of the Super Bowl, Beth Petrie, associate director of admission, said.

Petrie said many of those prospective students and their families were from the East Coast, which is home to both the victorious New York Giants and the vanquished New England Patriots.

Teenagers weren’t the only ones setting foot on Butler ground.

Ben Hunter, chief of staff and executive director of public safety, co-chaired the Visiting Public Safety Committee.  The committee hosted several security planners at a dinner Feb. 2 in the Reilly Room.

“They fell in love with our campus,” Hunter said.

Butler also partnered with the Horizon League to make 50 free tickets available to Super Bowl media for both the Feb. 2 game against Wright State and the Feb. 4 matchup with Detroit.

Nearly all were used by members of the press, including Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan, who said he saw something at Hinkle he’d never seen before — a timeout promotion in which fans raced remote control cars.

Butler’s athletics department promoted free tours of the fieldhouse, and 129 people went through in five days.

Matt Harris, manager of fan development for Butler athletics, said the tours were one of the few special events held away from downtown.

“Everybody in Indianapolis was doing something,” said Harris, who led most tours. “That we were a part of that shows where we stand in our community.”

Butler was perhaps showcased most by the opening segment of the live “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” in which Fallon sat on a couch with Blue II, in a room with students in Butler T-shirts, and then ran out of Atherton Union, past the bulldog statue, and tiptoed atop the “Butler University” sign parallel with Hampton Drive. Hink was seen on camera inside the Hilbert Theatre.

“The icing on the cake,” Kaltenmark said of the show that involved more than 100 Butler students and was viewed by 6.166 million people. “To see that exposure, Butler couldn’t buy that. We couldn’t afford it. It’s just priceless any way you cut it.”

Tuell said she agreed that a monetary value on Butler’s PR couldn’t be figured, and Dowell said the positive press about the city in general helps the school, too.

Kaltenmark said his only regret is not succeeding in his effort to book Blue II to appear on “Today” or “Fox and Friends.”

But he said the university’s overall success was stunning.

“It’s the Super Bowl coming to your backyard,” Kaltenmark said. “You’ve got to try to get in on that. Here’s an event that for all intents and purposes has nothing to do with you — it’s professional football — and we came away as one of the city’s major players. I bet people thought, ‘That Butler, they did it again.’”

While Patriots and Giants players are hoping to cash in on touchdown drives this weekend at Super Bowl XLVI, some Butler University students may be hoping to cash in on the drives some fans will make to see the game.

Several students have considered renting out their living spaces to visitors who choose not to stay in a conventional hotel when they travel to Indianapolis.

A quick Travelocity search shows that almost all hotels in or around the city are sold out for the weekend, and any available rooms are sure to come at a high cost. For example, a three-star hotel room twenty minutes from the stadium goes for more than $600 a night, according to http://championshiprooms.com.

One alternative is renting for the weekend.

Senior communication studies major Ashley Sullivan had considered renting the house she and five other students rent on Berkley Road. Sullivan heard about people renting out their properties for the game through her job at Encore Sotheby’s International Realty.

Three of the six roommates discussed the possibility.

“We thought about it,” Sullivan said. “But I’m pretty sure that because we just rent, the landlord would have to be the one to do it.”

Ben Hunter, chief of staff and director of public safety, echoed Sullivan’s concern.

“If you’re going to rent to someone you don’t know and you’re going to sublease on your lease, then does that violate your lease?” Hunter said.

Sullivan also said that a college house might not be the property most fans are looking to rent.

“I feel like most people—at least through the company that I work for—are looking for high-end, huge houses for parties,” she said.

Indianapolis XLVI Rentals is one of the many websites recently created to serve the demand. Its homes near campus rent for more than $3,000 a night. This is good money for college students—as long as their houses have an indoor pool, a gymnasium or a gourmet kitchen, as the houses on the site have.

Should students still consider renting, they should be cautious.

“I would be very careful having anyone come into your home, someone you don’t know,” Hunter said.

Senior pharmacy major Matt Heinsen rents a house on 43rd Street and said he would fear renting to a stranger.

“If it was for a friend, I would probably let them stay at my house,” Heinsen said. “I wouldn’t be able to trust strangers, though, to come into my house.”

Students should be business-like if they choose to rent, Irene Stevens, dean of student life, said.

“Check references, check your housing contract, deal in cash and have some inspection of the facility before and after and some agreement written,” Stevens said. “It should all be in writing—some agreement about damage to the facility, because otherwise your landlord is going to come back on you for any damage.”

Damage is a consequence all renters should consider.

“People are concerned about their house getting trashed,” Sullivan said. “[Fans] are coming to celebrate an event. They’re coming to tailgate. They’re coming to party.

“At the end of the weekend, you have to come back and live in that space.”

Students living on campus also considered the opportunity.

“I saw the signs in the city that said, ‘Rent your home out for $10,000 for the weekend,’” freshman journalism major Marais Jacon-Duffy said. “I wondered if I could rent out my dorm room. I would just sleep in a friend’s room if I could make ten grand.”

However for students living at Butler, the weekend will have to be a time for fun and not for business. Renting out campus housing is against policy, Karla Cunningham, director of residence life, said.

Cunningham pointed to page 66 of the Butler Student Handbook, which says, “Renting or subleasing of residence hall or apartment space is prohibited.”

“It’s a security issue,” Stevens said.

“I would feel kind of bad putting a strange person in the middle of my unit,” Jacon-Duffy said. “It might be kind of dangerous, depending on who I rented to.”

Stevens also said that because on-campus housing is accessed using students’ ID cards, a renter would not be able to enter.

Overall, there are more risks to renting than benefits, Heinsen said.

“I think some Butler students probably want some extra cash,” Heinsen said, “but I wouldn’t be willing to risk my personal safety or my possessions by letting strangers in.”

With Super Bowl festivities taking place in Indianapolis this week, Butler’s athletics department is providing free tours of Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Matt Harris, manager of fan development, said people on the tours will get to see the main floor, main concourse, old pool and possibly the basketball locker rooms, among other areas.

“There are not a lot of arenas like Hinkle,” Harris said. “With so many people coming from out of town, it’s a chance for people to get to see Hinkle.”

The tours have also drawn individuals from nearby cities.

Linda Saft and Gretchen Schassberger, natives of Westfield, have attended events at Hinkle before, including participating in a school-organized sing-along in the fieldhouse as children.

The duo attended the 12 p.m. tour on Monday.

“[The tour] was an opportunity to see what [we] don’t get to see during games,” Saft said.

Neither Saft nor Schassberger had been on such a tour before, but Schassberger said they enjoy going to colleges to view athletic facilities.

“We’ll do this tour now, and then we’ll come back when they remodel,” Schassberger said.

Harris said that the athletics department would consider having future tours during major events in Indianapolis.

The tours will continue today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Photo from Butler Athletics

Once Jimmy Fallon saw Butler University’s flash mob YouTube video, he said he couldn’t wait to visit during his week-long visit to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl. Before delivering a hilarious two-hour show on Sunday, Fallon sat down with The Collegian to discuss bulldogs, Steak ‘n Shake and traveling with his show for the very first time. Unfortunately, he didn’t mention his surprise campus visit to Schwitzer Hall and Atherton Union that he made on Monday night.

Collegian: Did you see the flash mob or any of the Butler tweets? Did that influence you to come?
Jimmy Fallon: I absolutely saw the flash mob. It was amazing. The “Jimmy Back to Butler” campaign was getting some steam. I saw it on Twitter and remember thinking like, that’s awesome, because we’re going out there.

Then I saw the link to the YouTube video, and that was the one that really floored me. I couldn’t believe it. It was one of the coolest things. Everyone doing the Jimmy Fallon dip, and you had the mascot out there. It was so positive and so cool. So much hard work went into that. So it made me call up the school and go, “Hey, how do we set this up?” Literally, this is our only night off while we’re out here in Indianapolis, so I was like, “We’re ready to play, if you guys are ready to play.” We talked to the school, and they were great with setting it up, and now, here we are.

We were running around today; I probably still have makeup on because I was dressed as a woman. The “Real Housewives of Late Night” come to Indy for the Super Bowl: that’s one of the sketches we’re doing. I don’t want to give that many spoilers away, but five or six Colts are doing it as well. They play their wives. It’s really awkward. They’re not good actors, but they’re really funny. It’s very, very good. Some of them are good actors, actually. You’ll see it on Thursday night. It’s definitely something I don’t think Colts fans have ever seen.

This is our first time on the road and first time doing a live show. We’re psyched to come to Indianapolis. We wanted to come with our guns blazing, you know.

On Super Bowl Sunday, we’re doing a live show, our first ever. And so, we’re going to do a spoof of what could have been the the half time show. We’re going to imitate LMFAO, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Bruno Mars. I don’t know who else. There’s so many. I’m blanking out. It’s pretty silly. It’ll be fun. That’s Sunday night.

We’re going to do a musical opening of the show with Butler students too. And we’re getting Blue Two. He’s got a lot of followers on Twitter. He’s a very popular dog. He couldn’t make it tonight. He’s too busy. He’s got a previous engagement.

Collegian: How long have you been here? What have you done so far?

Jimmy Fallon: I’ve been here two days. It’s gorgeous. We’ve been all over the place, shot last night on the streets. We’re redoing the opening of the show. Normally, it’s me running through the streets of New York City. Now, it’s me running through the streets of Indianapolis. We got a lot of great shots of the streets and we saw some kids—gotta have love for IUPUI. They’re people too, so some of them are in the opening. We also got to go to Lucas Oil Stadium last night. We got to go out on the field. It was pretty insane. It’s a gorgeous stadium. It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it. Did a lot of running though there—I think I ran 700 yards. I was hurting last night.

We were also at the Circle and saw the monuments. We tried to squeeze in all we possibly could. We’re going to the race track tomorrow and doing a head swap, which involves switching people’s heads on their bodies. This one’s pretty crazy. It involves kidnapping Bob Costas. Marco Andretti is going to help us out with that, get a real Indy driver.

Collegian: What’s going to be different about the show?

Jimmy Fallon: Well, the opening is a love letter to Indy. The Super Bowl Village is just packed with people. There really is no option but to stay there. That’s where everything is. It’s great, but it was hard getting footage and running around with cameras. But really, it turned out great. Everyone is in great spirits. It feels like you guys have done this before, even though you haven’t.

It’s fun because everyone has really come together [on the show]. It’s like camp, because we’re like strangers here, and we know New York like the back of our hand. Usually, we’ll just meet up, but now we’re like “Hey, where are you going for dinner? Oh, where are you going for breakfast? Are you awake yet? Are you asleep yet?’”

Everyone has been so hospitable and so nice, giving us recommendations for restaurants, bars, for anything we want to see. Mug-n-Bun has come up a couple times. We’ve been to Steak ‘n Shake and St. Elmo’s. We had the shrimp cocktail.

One of my producers was like, “It wasn’t that hot.” I sat there just waiting for him to take a second bite, because clearly he didn’t do it right. Then he started coughing. It was addictive pain. It hurts, but I want one more!

Collegian: Who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?

Jimmy Fallon: I’m from New York, so the Giants. I’m actually a Jets fan, so you go with the Jets as far as they can, then root for the Giants.

Really, this is being nerdy, but I just want a good, close game, because then, people won’t tune out of the Super Bowl. They’ll keep their eyes glued to the TV, and then, we get good ratings.

Collegian: Final question: Who would win in a fight—you, Conan, Stewart or Colbert?

Jimmy Fallon: I’m a lover, not a fighter. But if they asked, I wouldn’t be opposed to a four-way.

Be sure to catch “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” all this week at 12:35 a.m. on NBC for his special Indianapolis episodes.

The show will be taped at the Hilbert Circle Theatre, located downtown.

Indianapolis is about to become the United States’ biggest all-ages playground.

This week and next, expect the city to explode with parties, zip-lining, celebrities, concerts and sheer excitement.

As usual, Butler University students are right in the midst of it all, volunteering for events like the NFL Players’ Party or working at the NFL Experience.

“The week and a half that I’ll be working will be super chaotic but completely worth it to have such a unique experience,” said Taylor Staniszeski, a junior speech pathology major.

Staniszeski will be working at the NFL Experience for A+ Student Staffing, a company that specifically hires college students for big-time athletic events.

Other students are volunteering at specific events such as the NFL Players’ Party. The aunt of Alyssa Vahala, a senior physician assistant major, owns the catering company for the dinner. Extra help was needed, so many of Vahala’s fellow classmates will refill drinks and offer appetizers to some of the biggest names in football.

Erica Grabinski, a senior biology and Spanish major, is one of the lucky ones and said she can’t wait to hopefully meet some NFL players, although she’s mostly just excited to be part of such an awesome experience.

Alex Jennings and Hannah Townsend, both sophomores, will be having awesome experiences of their own, helping out 1iota fill concerts.

1iota is a company that helps fill audiences and events with enthusiastic fans. Jennings and Townsend both heard about the opportunity to receive free concert tickets over their sorority listserv if they would be an upbeat audience member for the cameras.

They’ll be attending the NFL Awards Show with Lenny Kravitz, a Vh1 concert with the All American Rejects, B.o.B. and Gym Class Heroes and more with other sorority sisters.

Townsend said they jumped on the opportunity for free concert tickets and a great way to experience the Super Bowl.

Concerts are not the only major event going on for the next week. The list of events for the Super Bowl is enough to make heads spin.

While the $1,000-ish a ticket Rolling Stone Bacardi party and the invite-only Playboy party sound tempting, the downtown is offering much more for small-budget college students who want to enjoy the fun without severely hurting their wallet.

Thankfully there are many things for students to explore—if they’re willing to sit in traffic with the entire East Coast.

Beside the huge Roman numerals being installed in the circle today—as is typical in every town that holds the Super Bowl—the circle will also contain up to 12 food trucks per day. All trucks will have extended hours for the week.

Right next to the circle, Circle Centre Mall will open a club and entertainment area called The Huddle in what used to be Nordstrom’s.

During the day, admission will be free and the Huddle will host live WISH-TV broadcasts, the Bob & Tom Show live in the morning, the End Zone Beer Garden and more. At night, the Huddle After Hours Club will open within The Huddle for what’s being called an “affordable” price, although the price has yet to be announced.

And, of course, there is the NFL Experience, which starts this Friday. Tickets are $25 per day.

Anyone going downtown now will see the construction being added to the front of the Convention Center for the Experience.

Appearances by famous athletes are practically a given, especially with free autograph sessions. Also expect  games, displays, merchandise and the largest football memorabilia show ever, according to the Experience’s website.

The Super Bowl Village will be its own event as well. Taking up all of Georgia Street, the village will feature the best of having the Super Bowl in town. Making top news is the street-long zip line. Patrons can zoom along at seven stories high, seeing a good portion of downtown in a new way. Tickets were $10, but all pre-sale tickets are now sold out. However, tickets will be available once the village  opens Jan. 27. Access into the village itself is free.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are concerts. And more concerts. And just a few more.

To name a few musicians who will grace the city: Bret Michaels, the Max Allen Band, Indiana native Jon McLaughlin, Fuel, Snoop Dogg, Edwin McCain, Darius Rucker, 50 Cent, Lil’ Jon, Pitbull, LMFAO, Umphrey’s McGee, O.A.R. and The Fray.

While most of them will be performing on Georgia Street in the Super Bowl Village, some will be at various events. For example, 50 Cent, Pitbull and Lil’ Jon will perform at the “Bud Light Hotel,” formerly known as the Hampton Inn on South Meridian Street. That same hotel will also host the Playboy Party and a Tailgate Party with the Barenaked Ladies.

For natives too mainstream for the rest of the events, Sun King Brewing has them covered. Their “Local Underground Tent” will offer food from Chef JJ’s Big Green Bistro, a beer bar, live music and a heated tent.

Also, hometown favorites like the Children’s Museum, White Rabbit Cabaret, Scotty’s Brewhouse and the Indianapolis Museum of Art are kicking up their game for the week, so be sure not to forget.

Confused about where to start? No worries. Indianapolis Downtown’s website (indydt.com) has a full list of events and even a free app for iPhones or Androids to figure out details.

This could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the madness of a Super Bowl in your hometown. Venture out of the bubble with your fellow classmates to enjoy every minute of it.

BRINGING IT TO CAMPUS
Downtown isn’t the only place that gets all the fun though. See below for the special Super Bowl events that will be coming straight to campus.

13th NFL Super Bowl Gospel Celebration
Clowes Memorial Hall
Feb. 13, 7:30 p.m.

Gridiron Celebrity Hoops XIV
Feb. 4, 7 p.m. tipoff
Hinkle Fieldhouse
Headliners this year include Colts players Reggie Wayne and Antoine Bethea and former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens.

Shaquille O’Neal’s All-Star Comedy Jam
Clowes Memorial Hall
Feb. 4, 9 p.m.

Over the past few weeks, Butler University  students’ Twitter and Facebook feeds have been covered with Jimmy Fallon tweets and messages.

Now, the “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” host is making a special visit to campus during his stint here at Hilbert Circle Theatre, but the social media campaign may not have been  the sole
reason.

“I hope it helped,” Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson said. “But in the end, we reached out to [Fallon’s people] and made an offer, and we were very lucky to be selected.”

The Office of Student Affairs, the Student Government Association and Clowes Memorial Hall worked together to bring Fallon and friends to campus.

Along with Fallon’s personal show for the Butler community, Kodi Colip, a senior marketing major, was selected to work as a production assistant for the “Late Night” show while it is at the Hilbert.

All the schools that received discounted tickets were notified about the opportunity. Colip, who helped coordinate the #bringjimmyback campaign, including the flash mob, was what Johnson called an “obvious choice” for the role.

Colip said her resume was sent in by Butler, and she found out the good news three weeks later.

It looks like Fallon might have a soft spot for bulldogs.

Fallon performs at 7 p.m. on Sunday at Clowes.

For tickets, contact the box office at 940-6444.

The season is almost here! Tomorrow the defending champion Green Bay Packers take on the Saints from New Orleans.

This game matches up two contenders to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

Last year the Packers did just that in winning it all while the Saints flamed out and lost to the Seahawks in the wild card round.

I bring this up, not to sour those Saints fans who remain loyal to Drew Brees but to make a point: the results from last year really don’t matter a whole lot anymore.

The Saints offense is considered one of the league’s best, but so is the Packers’ defense. Which of these will prevail?

In the NFL, it is hard to predict such things, but in fantasy football, those people who correctly project which players will excel in a given matchup are the owners of a victorious team come Tuesday.

Here are some players who I think will excel in matchups this week.

I look for Kevin Kolb to target Larry Fitzgerald early and often. The Arizona Cardinals should have the ball on offense quite a bit against the Carolina Panthers. Kolb could post some big numbers in this game.

Brandon Marshall should return more to form this season after posting only three touchdowns last year. He is still one of the most talented wide receivers in the game, and the Dolphins have struggled to generate any form of a rushing attack.

The New England Patriots should jump out to an early lead, forcing the Dolphins to throw the ball to catch up.

Wide receiver Lee Evans seems to have a good connection with Joe Flacco in just a short amount of time. Evans can be hit or miss, but his hits tend to be for explosive results. This is more of a gut-feeling call that Evans will outrun the Pittsburgh Steelers’ secondary on multiple occasions, as they have perennially been prone to the deep ball.

Running back Mike Tolbert has been getting the goal line work for the San Diego Chargers so far in the preseason. That is a promising sign, as the Minnesota Vikings lost some key components along the defensive line. The Chargers could exploit that weakness, especially in the red zone.

If your league starts a team defense, take a flier on the Cleveland Browns’ defense this week versus the lowly “Bungles.” They have looked good so far in the preseason against better offensive lines than the Bengals have. Also, the Bengals are starting a rookie quarterback.

$400 million in one weekend: that’s what the city of Indianapolis will lose out on if the National Football League and the NFL Players’ Association fail to renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement.

While the league’s lockout “millionaire versus billionaire” fight continues into its fifth week, the city of Indianapolis is paying the price.

Though tourism, hospitality and Super Bowl planning leaders say they’re continuing to move forward with “business as usual,” I cannot help but think how greed in sports could ruin this incredible opportunity for Indianapolis.

Beginning with the creation of the Capital Improvement Board in 1965, the city has built itself up as a sports city. Indianapolis leaders wanted their city to become the amateur sports capital of the world.

Today, Indianapolis is the home of the NCAA, the National Federation of State High School Associations, USA Synchronized Swimming, USA Diving, USA Football, USA Track and Field and USA Gymnastics.

The city has spent­—and continues to spend—millions to build and maintain Conseco Fieldhouse for the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, along with the Indianapolis Colts’ $720 million Lucas Oil Stadium.

The city has a deal with the NCAA to host the Men’s Final Four once every five years, according to an Indianapolis Star article from 2004.

“The NCAA not only broke from its conventional bidding process, it also promised the Indiana Sports Corp., an additional event in each of the intervening years between men’s Final Fours,” the article said. “The women’s Final

Four, men’s and women’s early-round tournament games and the NCAA Convention will be included in each five-year cycle.”

It is only natural that, as Indy has grown into its role as a sports city, it hosts a Super Bowl.

But greed could stand in its way.

According to the collective bargaining agreement, a player’s salary is defined as any “compensation in money, property, investments, loans or anything else of value to which an NFL player may be awarded.”

NFL franchise owners currently take $1 billion off the top of the approximately $9 billion total revenue brought in by the league. After that, a little less than 60 percent of the remaining money goes to the NFLPA—which includes player salaries and benefits—while the owners share the rest.

Sure, players are getting more than half of the revenue the NFL generates, but that’s after the 32 owners take the first billion. Their demands for a new collective bargaining agreement include an additional billion off the top.

While the 32 owners share in about 40 percent of the income, the other 60 percent is being spread out among the league’s 1,696 players.

I understand the owners are trying to run a successful business, but they have to make the players happy. With no players, they have no business. It is the players and their likeness that rake in the cash.

Many today argue that players are overpaid.

In reality, they are paid what we have deemed them to be worth.

We are the ones who watch the games, buy the jerseys, play the video games and idolize them. As a society, we look up to the players as though they are demigods

If we expect for them to be paid less, we should not look up to them as superheroes.

In all this, I suppose I am just upset that a city like Indianapolis, which has more than 10,000 volunteers working tirelessly to make sure the city is pristine, could lose out on the Super Bowl because of a few selfish individuals.

They would take away the Super Bowl—though it has never happened before—for a billion more dollars. They would take away that $400 million from Indianapolis so that the billionaires can accumulate another billion.

Indy deserves this Super Bowl. If greed takes it away, we should look to the NFL in shame, not adoration.