‘I’d have taken bullet to streak Super Bowl – I would not have lived with myself’
No one had ever dared streak on the Super Bowl – till Mark Roberts got here alongside.
The ultimate sport of the NFL season is without doubt one of the most anticipated spectacles on the sporting calendar and thousands and thousands of {dollars} are spent to make sure it runs easily. Serial streaker Mark, nevertheless, breached that system in 2004.
The now 59-year-old briefly turned the star of the present and upstaged the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots at Super Bowl XXXVIII – and he informed Daily Star Sport precisely how he pulled it off.
READ MORE: ‘I used to be drunk through the Super Bowl – however I nonetheless led my crew to victory’
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He set his sights on the spectacle when his sponsors mentioned that they had two tickets for the “biggest event in America” – which they felt was the Oscars.
“What do you mean,” requested Mark, who insisted: “That’s not the biggest thing in America. The Super Bowl is the biggest thing in America!”
He was swiftly informed no as a result of “security’s too tight” – however he is by no means taken that for a solution. “I tell you what, You get me a ticket and I’ll prove you wrong,” he declared. And boy did he.
Do you keep in mind Mark’s streak? Let us know within the feedback part.
(Image: Getty Images)
While he was assured of getting the job executed, he was majorly involved about what penalties it may carry. “I’ve never been so scared in my life,” Mark admitted.
Recalling the ideas that have been racing by way of his thoughts, he continued: “If I go on, one of the players might clothesline me, break my neck. It was not long after 9/11, so there’s gonna be snipers on the roofs.
“I believed, they are going to see me. They’ll look, they’re gonna know I’m not holding something. I’m gonna be bare. So they may shoot me within the leg to take me down.
“I thought, OK, I can handle that. And I was prepared to take a bullet in the leg to do Super Bowl.” It beggars perception, however that wasn’t even Mark’s major concern.
(Image: AFP by way of Getty Images)
“I thought the worst scenario would be if I get knocked to the floor and they all jump on top of me and do a pile-y on. I’d have suffocated.”
But he “wouldn’t have lived with himself” had he not given it a go, so he set about placing the wheels in movement. He’d acquired a method into the stadium, however what about onto the pitch?
Having been streaking for over a decade by this level, Mark had all of the tips of the commerce up his sleeve. “I’ve wrote to the NFL, told them I’ve started an American football team here in the UK but I can’t get any referees uniforms,” he defined.
They duly despatched him two throughout the Atlantic, and he took them to an area seamstress who had them velcroed from high to backside. Mark was then able to set off on his personal journey.
(Image: Getty Images)
“I hugged my kids so much before I left the door to go to the airport,” he mentioned. “I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, when I was going to be home. Might go to prison. No idea.”
As was with each different streak try he pulled off, Mark may management what occurred earlier than, however the after was out of his fingers. He made certain he was as ready as might be, bringing a pal together with him to behave as a distraction if wanted.
His present of the gab additionally went an extended method to getting him out of a sticky spot. Exhibit A, when safety on the entrance questioned his velcro apparel. “I’ve got a skin disorder,” he replied. “I need to be able to get to my skin to put the cream on.”
And the referee’s outfit tucked beneath his personal garments? “I said it’s my lucky uniform, I wear it to every game,” Mark informed us.
(Image: Getty Images)
All that was left between him and getting on the pitch was one safety guard who had stood regimented on his spot for the primary 4 hours. And for all one of the best laid plans, generally you want simply that little little bit of luck.
Just after the notorious Janet Jackson half-time present had completed and the third quarter was about to get underway, mentioned safety guard broke rank to speak with a colleague.
With his referee’s uniform on present, Mark dropped down the wall in entrance of him and legged it to the center of the pitch in a matter of seconds.
“What’s up ref,” requested one of many gamers who was simply as baffled as everybody else contained in the stadium when the person subsequent to him ripped off his garments and replied: “F*** all!”
(Image: AFP by way of Getty Images)
His costume had labored a deal with, with no one clocking onto the disguise as Mark started river dancing on the centre spot. “All the players thought the referee’s lost his mind,” he chuckled.
“And I’m looking at all the police around the stadium. There was hundreds of them. They were looking at each other as if to say, ‘What’s going on?’
“They have been confused. Didn’t have a clue what was occurring. And they left me there for almost a complete minute dancing in the course of the stadium.”
The chase was eventually on, with Matt Chatman from the Patriots flattening Mark with a brutal tackle that sent him flying up into the air and onto the turf.
For Mark, though, that was the “good ending” to his greatest-ever streak. “I’ve acquired 20 folks on high of me placing my face within the grass, I’m getting handcuffed behind my again, and all I may consider was, ‘I did it. I’ve simply executed the f***ing Super Bowl, man’.”
He quickly became the talk of America, saying even the police officers at jail he was taken to were asking for an autograph on his mug shot.
His sponsors flew him first class to Hollywood where he did the rounds on chat shows, walked the red carpet at the Palladium and even got invited to a party hosted by Puff Daddy. But all Mark was thinking was: “I must be in my native.”
One one that did not see the humorous aspect of it was NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who’d simply that 12 months taken cost of safety for the season’s showpiece for the primary time as an alternative of the stadium and wished the e-book thrown at him.
Despite opposite reviews, Mark wasn’t paid $1million for finishing the streak – saying he would’ve spent that himself to have executed it after escaping with a $1k advantageous. And any cash he did get went to charity, content material sufficient with having achieved his objective.
