For Belanger, this year’s Super Bowl had a different feel

Date: 2/10/2021

TAMPA, FL – Only two things seemed truly routine about Super Bowl LV.

One was the fact that Tom Brady was playing quarterback for one of the participating teams.

The other was that Kyle Belanger was once again spending the week before the game hustling around Radio Row.

For the past seven years, Belanger, a South Hadley resident and faculty instructor for Springfield College’s communications/sports journalism program, has worked the Super Bowl media circuit with Antero Sports, a nationally recognized sports broadcasting production company run by South Hadley native Chris Visser.

But this year’s trip to “the Big Game,” Belanger admitted, was anything but normal.

The NFL and one of the world’s largest sporting spectacles were not immune to the cornonavirus pandemic, and have put a serious damper on the game and the festivities leading up to it. Only 22,000 spectators were allowed in the nearly 66,000-seat Raymond James Stadium. Interviews and appearances took place virtually, including the annual Super Bowl media day, which normally more resembles a circus than a press event. The NFL Super Bowl Experience fan engagement was greatly toned down. Parties throughout the city didn’t take place. One of the teams, the Kansas City Chiefs, were not even permitted to arrive in Tampa for the game until the day before.

“It is the Super Bowl, so it is de facto the ‘special-est’ of special sporting events in the United States and one of the most special events in sports in the world. But when you add in the fact that the Chiefs aren’t here yet and that the Buccaneers are here and [the Tampa Bay Buccaneers] aren’t traveling anywhere special, it has a different feel from a football perspective right off the bat,” Belanger said.

Belanger has become familiar with the Tampa area due to his involvement with the College Board, traveling there annually to work on advanced placement English composition tests, and he feels for the city and its residents who aren’t able to capitalize on the traditional Super Bowl experience.

“From a city perspective, I am really bummed for the city of Tampa … I love this city. It’s beautiful. It is uniquely situated to host an event like this,” he said. “Tampa is not really getting a chance to show that off and I feel sad for the city. I feel sad for the businesses here that would normally be hosting parties and they’re not getting that chance. I recognize that it’s for a good reason; this isn’t a boohoo story, because we’re doing the right thing and in many regards, it’s a success that a Super Bowl is being played at all. With that said, I’m hopeful that the NFL will give Tampa a chance to do this again sooner rather than later because it is such a marvelous city.”

Among the most jarring elements for Belanger was the fact that home away from home for the week, Radio Row, normally packed with 180 tables with radio personalities shoulder to shoulder, was eerily quiet.

“To say that I got a chill when I walked into the room that is Radio Row and I saw it this year would be underselling the sensation that I felt,” Belanger said, explaining NFL personnel told him the expansive convention space had just 42 tables. Of those 42, he added, four were reserved in advance by stations in Buffalo, NY, and Green Bay, WI, whose teams were eliminated in their respective conference championships. An additional five tables were open.

Normally, Belanger said, a large part of his job is to work the room with personalities to arrange on-air appearances on various stations in order to promote products or causes. But this year, he found many stations who had the technological capabilities to avoid going to Tampa did so, adding a challenge.

“The media business is a relationship business and it’s not just the 40 or so stations that are there [on Radio Row] that I am working with,” Belanger said. “I’ve been scheduling [retired NFL linebacker] Demarcus Ware for the past day or so. It’s usually a situation where I’d grab Demarcus Ware, who is there in person, and I’d walk him around, introduce him and get him into his interviews. But now, Demarcus Ware is at his house and all of these stations I’ve gotten to know over the years are literally at their houses and I’m really just playing the role of calling the stations and the people I know and setting up the schedule that way. So, the face-to-face part of it is really gone.”

Belanger’s major project every year is the coordination of the Wounded Warrior Project football game, which features wounded veterans and retired NFL players, but the 10th annual game was also a casualty of COVID-19. Instead, Belanger focused his efforts on Sierra Delta, a nonprofit created by Wounded Warrior team captain Marine Sgt. BJ Ganem that assists fellow veterans with access to service dogs.

“In fact, the majority of our celebrity pitch folks this week are helping us promote Sierra Delta,” Belanger said. “They are our main client this week as we really hone in on that population and the service that Sierra Delta provides for such a special population.”

In addition to raising awareness through guest spots with Ganem and support from former NFL players such as Kevin Mawae and Steve Tasker, Sierra Delta hosted a “salute to service stroll” on the Tampa Riverwalk that featured Miss America and a number of decorated veterans and their service animals.

All the while, Belanger is still a college instructor and in that sense, he said he has had to adjust his approach as well.

“I used to get so much love just for the fact that I was a person who knew how to teach remotely. People were like, ‘Oh my God, how have you figured this out?’ Now they’re like, ‘Oh, really, bro? Yeah, whatever. We’re doing that too.’ So I’ve had to really step my game up because everyone is doing it now,” he joked.

Speaking more seriously, Belanger said the technology aspect becoming second nature has allowed him to become more creative and repurpose the focus of his lessons.

“The neat thing about this year is that the technology is assumed,” he said. “What I think I am trying to put more into focus with the lessons I’m creating this week is the service piece of it because I think what the last year has done is to show all of us how important it is to lead with your humanity. Whether I’m talking about the pandemic or the political front or just in general, the one thing that the last 13 months have taught us is that we could all lead with our humanity a little harder. So that’s what I’m doing.”

He continued, “Yes, I’m at the Super Bowl and yes, it’s this incredible honor to be working in one of the most high-pressure environments, but the one thing I’m really focused on is my work for Sierra Delta with BJ Ganem on behalf of the other veterans who are coming in to be a part of this walk. The students really recognize that. If there’s something that’s signature Springfield College, it’s that we know how to lead with our humanity. I’ve noticed this particular year, this is something that people are really leaning into as well.”

With that said, Belanger was quick to point out the uniqueness of his opportunity in Tampa from a football perspective was not at all lost on him.

“The football part of this is incredibly special. Even though we’re not having in-person press conferences, I can’t believe that I am in a place where Tom Brady’s 10th Super Bowl press conference will be happening. That is absolutely mind-boggling,” he said. “This is my seventh Super Bowl. I believe this is the fifth that Tom Brady has been in. The only one that he hasn’t been in was the Broncos and Panthers [to conclude the 2015 season] and last year [when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers.] Those are the only two that Tom Brady hasn’t been in. That’s crazy talk.”

As in past years, Belanger was not among those who will be in attendance at the Super Bowl, arriving home early Saturday morning.

But unlike years past when he would be able to watch the game in the comfort of his own home with his family, Belanger was self-isolating.

“You know what’s going to be different this time and while I’m thankful and privileged to have the opportunity, it’s going to be rough because when I get home,” he said. “That was actually a large part of the decision I had to make when my wife and I were talking about whether or not I was going to do it this year. Was our family equipped for not just the physical strain of me leaving but also the emotional strain of me not being able to wrestle around or do puzzles on the floor? That was a big part of it and honestly, what pushed me over the edge was remembering that this is a service trip. Seeing BJ today and just reminding myself why I’m here, that was one of the reasons why at the end of the day this was a real no-brainer. It’s really important.”