Super Bowl Sunday at The Alley Cantina
The same clever Tubi Super Bowl ad that had Taoseño households reaching for their remotes had the patrons at the Alley Cantina protesting to owner Aaron Hiemenz, who held a house partystyle Super Bowl party at the Alley Cantina for Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 12).
In the space usually reserved for live music on Saturday nights, an extra television was raised on cinder blocks and locals posted up in front with their dinner trays to watch the Kansas City Chiefs face off, and ultimately emerge victorious, from a nail-bitingly-close game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The two major camps of football fandom in Northern New Mexico are the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos, two teams that had to witness their rivals make it to Super Bowl LVII. As reported on Sunday by James Barron of the New Mexican, a local family whose football allegiances are with the Dallas Cowboys, the Eustices, would never support a divisional rival in the Superbowl.
“Not on your life” is what that Santa Fe Family said.
Fitz Whaley, son of Horse Fly founder and editor Bill Whaley, had a similar sentiment in opposing the
Chiefs.
“I’m rooting for the Eagles. As a Broncos fan, I’ve always hated Kansas City,” he said.
And Jalen Hurts is the better quarterback, he added.
Sporting a “Bullet Bob” Hayes Cowboys jersey, Willie E. Carrero went against the grain and openly rooted for the Eagles. In a stance that could be best paraphrased as “real recognize real,” Carrero honestly believed the Eagles were the better team and deserved to win.
Outnumbered by Chiefs fans, Jerome Pea wore his bright green “Fly Eagles Fly” shirt, along with a retro Eagles cap to round out his gear.
At half-time, before Rihanna’s performance, Pea was feeling confident about the Eagles 24-14 lead.
Catch Kappen, owner of the motorcycle shop Low Brow Garage, still had faith in his Chiefs in the third quarter, when they orchestrated a drive to make it 24-21. In that moment when Isiah Pacheco punched it through the endzone, Kappen added that these were two great teams and that it would be a close game.
That turned out to be the case, as it was another Super Bowl ending that came down to a field goal — with the Chiefs winning 38-35 to secure their second Super Bowl of the decade, the third in the team’s history.