Page 54 - Flathead Beacon // 2.10.16

The Blue Angels y over Levi’s Stadium before the start of the game. The Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
SCONTINUED FROM BACK PAGE
ANTA CLARA, Calif. — Four hours before Super Bowl 50, a sea of bright-colored jer- seys, mostly orange and blue,
owed north along Great America Park- way to Levi’s Stadium.
An estimated 1 million people — about as many residents as there are in all of Montana — converged on this edge of the continent for the festivities surround- ing one of the premier sporting events in the world. The game between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers drew 75,000 people who packed into the NFL’s newest stadium, a cutting-edge coliseum that would be the second largest city in Montana on any game day, including this sunburst Super Bowl Sunday.
Under the high blue sky, the crowds pressed toward the high-rise stadium in the skyline of the San Francisco Bay Area, past police o cers and soldiers in combat gear, past one of the wildest wooden roller coasters in the world.
“Are you Brock Osweiler’s parents?” a man wearing a bright Broncos jersey said, pulling out his phone to take a sel e.
John and Kathy Osweiler paused, smiling but slightly caught o guard.
“Sure,” John said, huddling with the stranger for a moment alongside Kathy.
The Osweilers, both Great Falls natives who raised their family in Kalis- pell before moving to Arizona in recent years, have grown more accustomed to this sort of thing in the last three months. Anonymity quickly vanishes once your son becomes the starting quarterback for a prominent NFL franchise.
“He’s de nitely gotten some
recognition this year,” John said of Brock. Walking the route to Levi’s Stadium from the exclusive hotel where play- ers and family members with the Den- ver Broncos were staying, the Oswei- lers re ected on the journey from Mon- tana to the Super Bowl. The family was all together for the rst time in years — Brock and his new wife, Erin, John and
Kathy and their oldest son, Tanner, and his wife, and other extended family. In this bustling California cityscape, the group from Montana cherished it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, even though it’s their second trip to The Big Game in three years.
“It’s surreal,” Kathy recalled. “The other day at the team walkthrough, we were inside (Levi’s Stadium) and Brock looks around and says, ‘It’s a little dif- ferent than Legends Field (in Kalispell), isn’t it?’ I laughed and said, ‘Yeah, just a little bit.’”
On his Instagram feed, Brock posted photos of his family together inside the stadium, writing, “What an amazing road it’s been ... to bring us all here today. I couldn’t have done it without these spe- cial people.”
It has been a wild, unpredictable ride for Brock and his family this season.
It’s about to get even more action-packed.
The former Flathead Brave is at a turn- ing point. He is a Super Bowl champion, only the second high school product from Montana to earn that distinction.
Although the 6-foot-7quarterback remained on the sidelines during Sun- day’s game as Denver held o Carolina 24-10, he played a key role in this team’s ultimate success.
John Osweiler shows the 2014 AFC Championship ring he received as a Father’s Day gift from his son Brock.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
54
FEBRUARY 10, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
THE GOLDEN AGE