Undeveloped Disposable Camera Photos From Super Bowl XXXVII
In 2003, my brother, my father and I went to San Diego to watch our favorite team, the Oakland Raiders, take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII.
If you know anything about football, you know that we didn’t have a very good trip. The Raiders were pummeled 21-48, in what is widely considered to be one of the most lopsided and boring Super Bowls of all time. It was a disaster. A complete and total disaster. It was such a disaster that I never even bothered to develop the disposable camera I took to the game, instead throwing in a closet next a stack of comic books and my old Star Wars action figures.
And I completely forgot about that camera, until I discovered it this past week when I was cleaning out my closet, as I am moving to Japan next year. I noticed the expiration date for the camera was sometime in 2003 or 2004, but I figured I’d take it to Rite-Aid anyways and see what developed (literally).
The results are…well, they’re interesting. Far more interesting than the game itself, that’s for sure. Film sure goes funky if you don’t develop it before it expires.
This photo was taken in the parking lot outside the stadium. I’m 99% certain that I took this photo because someone said Kordell Stewart was in the crowd talking to people. I’ve done my best to comb through the neon blue to find him, but to no avail. Maybe you see him? Look for the dude with the biggest forehead. That’ll most likely be him.
I love how the only color that came out other than bright blue is was the bright red of the Buccaneers jerseys. Fucking figures.
The parking lot to the Super Bowl is basically just one giant official tailgate, minus the actual tailgating. You see that big black thing? That’s the roof to a stage. On that stage was Styx, or at least some band that was covering “Come Sail Away.” That was probably the highlight of the day for me. Styx is dope.
We had amazing seats for the game, right behind the Raiders end zone. This picture was taken during the stretches and warm ups I think. I know I one point the Bucaneers came out and did stretches right by the end zone for some reason. I hurled so many insults at Warren Sapp that he gave me a dirty look. That felt great until, y’know, he forced the Rich Gannon to throw a bagillion interceptions.
Fun fact. The “future Super Bowl” being advertised was the Carolina/New England game. If I would have gone to that Super Bowl I would have seen one of the greatest games of all-time. And Janet Jackson’s nipple.
Pre-game idiocy. There’s a reason why you almost never see this shit on TV, it’s horrible. For the most watched event on television, it sure feels like a high school drama production up until kick off. I guess they skimp on costs until the portion of the show that has real ad money starts. I will say one thing though, the Raidettes put on a hell of a show. While the Buccaneers cheerleaders came out to a fight song that sounded older than the team, the Raiderettes strutted out to AC/DC’s “Back In Black’ and delivered a dance that was about one step away from a striptease. It was horrible, but at least it was different.
That was a Santa Claus in silver and black I swear.
Opening kickoff! It was all downhill from there.
It took me a while to figure out what the hell this was, but I think it’s the halftime show. With the sun down, the omnipresent florescent blue is gone. Unfortunately it’s been replaced by drastic film grain. And this was a photo taken with a flash inside a stadium. So it would look like shit no matter what. Also, the halftime show was Gwen Stefani and Sting, as if the night couldn’t get worse.
This almost looks like a real photo! I don’t know what’s happening here though. I’m sure it involves the Raiders sucking. Statistically speaking that’s almost a given.
No, that’s not a pile of Raiders who decided to kill themselves rather than face the embarrassment of playing the second half – that’ s the immediate aftermath of one of the Raiders’ only quality plays of the game, a punt block that ended in a touchdown. By that point though it was pretty apparent that the Raiders were going to be on the losing end of this one, so I put my camera away and just waited for it all to be over.
The moral of the story? Never go to the Super Bowl if your favorite team is playing, it’s a nightmare.
Additional moral: film expiration dates are no joke.
For the purposes of presenting photos that are actually tolerable, here are some of the them touched up in Picasa. I found making most of them black and white actually made them viewable, and oddly apocalyptic looking.
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