ON THE CLOCK

The new NFL season is here and that means that South Florida is in the final stages of preparation for hosting its 10th Super Bowl

By Steve Pate

HARD AT WORK: Silverstein and the South Florida staff are working overtime to make sure that Super Bowl XLIV is a resounding suc

As NFL training camps broke out all over the belly of the U.S. these past few days, the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee got struck by another bolt of reality.

The Super Bowl’s 44th rendition is hitting the beaches of South Florida at this season’s end. Helmets are butting across the land and live footballs fill the air because everyone is dreaming of reaching South Florida.

“It seems people’s attentions are really turning toward football season now,” says David Silverstein, Director of Communications for the South Florida Host Committee. “And here, after the Dolphins had such a great season last year, it’s even ramped up even more.”

Those jolts of realization, those electric reminders that the Super Bowl is upon them, wash over the South Florida Host Committee today as they will North Texas a year from now.

That this marks the 10th Super Bowl in South Florida in no way diminishes their thrill. And though North Texas will host the Super Bowl for the very first time, what goes on in South Florida now serves as a Preview of Things To Come.

The opening of NFL camps was only the latest jolt — not the first, or even the strongest. When the final gun sounded on this February’s Super Bowl in Tampa, many from the South Florida Host Committee were present.

“We were at the media center for the entire week,” Silverstein says, “and then we obviously went to the parties and to the game. We watched it as an observer, but it’s always on the back of your mind, ‘Wow, we’re up next.’ That really resonates when you’re there.”

And when that final gun sounded in Tampa, it’s as if the NFL’s proverbial football was sent spiraling down the interstate to South Florida.

“There’s a hand-off that we had from the folks who did a fantastic job in Tampa, to us,” Silverstein says. “And that’s what you’re going to find in North Texas. The minute the final whistle blows on Super Bowl XLIV here in South Florida, the spotlight is going to be on you.

“And that year goes real fast. Before you know it, you’re going to turn around and say, ‘Where’d that whole year go?’”

With that in mind, Silverstein says, “My advice to everybody working on the North Texas Super Bowl — and I’ve seen the job those guys are doing, they really are doing an amazing job of getting the word out — my advice is to enjoy every moment. Because, when it comes down to it, it’s the Super Bowl — it’s the biggest sporting event in the world, and it really unites your community.”

Just as the North Texas game is officially being hosted by four counties (Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant), the South Florida game is far more than a Miami event. The counties of Broward, Miami Dade and Palm Beach will feel the impact of the coming Super Bowl.

“It’s always been a South Florida effort,” Silverstein says. “It stretches from the Keys all the way up north of Palm Beach. We have three international airports that people will be flying into.”

This is Silverstein’s first Super Bowl, but he admits he has the luxury of leaning on many seasoned veterans. Not quite one out of every four Super Bowls has been hosted in Miami and its adjoining counties.

“There are people from communications to political leaders to people on our staff who have hosted many of these Super Bowls,” Silverstein says, “and they are always here to guide us.”

Those veterans of Super Bowls past have already braced Silverstein for the next great jolt.

“They said it really picks up now with the start of camps,” Silverstein notes, “but the minute the World Series is over at the end of October, everybody starts thinking Super Bowl.

“People right now are focused on pennant races, and they’re still talking baseball. The other thing I’ve learned with football is there’s the regular season, and there’s the off-season. There’s always excitement over football. It never ends. People are excited about football 365 days a year.”

In Texas, of course, football is a religion. That’s why Texans love leap years. They get to talk football 366 days.

But it’s not as if the North Texas Host Committee in the coming year will be thrown into some panic. It’s more an awareness that the ball is coming this way.

“Everybody benefits from watching everybody else,” Silverstein says. “We benefited from watching Tampa. North Texas will benefit from watching us.

“Over the last couple of months, the NFL has already had several meetings — production meetings, six to eight months out, to talk about the Super Bowl. The one thing that the NFL does really well, and it’s just amazing to watch, is that they are constantly looking to learn. They sat here in South Florida and said, ‘What did we learn from Tampa, and how can we improve on the game in Tampa?’

“The NFL will do that same thing for North Texas. They’re going to come into North Texas and say, ‘What did we learn from South Florida, and how can we make the Super Bowl here in North Texas that much better?’”

In just over a month, the 2009 NFL regular season will be upon us.

About six months from now, the gun will sound in South Florida. A 44th Super Bowl champion will hoist its trophy high.

And North Texas really will be on the clock.