If it seems like we're a little obsessed with the story of the fans who were displaced from their seats at the Super Bowl because the temporary seating wasn't deemed safe for use, well, it's only because we're trying to imagine what it would be like to attend an event like that as a true fan ... and to have the experience become as stressful as it did for Steve Nordness and his 80-year-old father, Oradell. We wrote about Steve and his dad, "Inky," for today's paper. They are pictured front and center in Packers gear -- and despite their affiliation, we feel their pain. Steve told me the story yesterday of arriving inside Cowboys Stadium at 2 p.m., only to begin a three-hour process of being shuffled from place to place by an unprepared crew. They were eventually given access to a suite-type area behind the Steelers bench, where they couldn't see the field because it was blocked by enormous football players. They made the best of the situation, but Steve summed up the day by calling it "stressful."
In the story, we wrote this:
There is a class-action lawsuit representing those displaced, but Nordness said he isn't interested. He has been told by the NFL that he has the option of choosing between a refund of $2,400 per ticket (triple face value) plus tickets to next year's Super Bowl or tickets, travel and accommodations for any future Super Bowl. Is either of those enough?
"That's the question," Nordness said Monday. "It's not so much for me, but for the emotions they put my father through. It's not quite enough. I'm not thinking of anything extravagant, but there's something missing."
Our questions for the comments are, "What is enough?" Is there a tangible offer the NFL can extend that seems fair for what these fans had to go through? Is the NFL already doing enough? More than enough? Or is it the kind of mistake that can't be bought away, so no matter what the offer is, it will never be truly "equal" to the offense?
