10 719-14 – Superbowl® 48

Please note: the wordmark Superbowl® is a registered trademark of the National Football League. I am referencing via fair use, in that this is not commercial use of the term. Comments which follow are not about the game or the NFL, but rather the planning and other aspects around the event, which I personally participated in. 

We actually got a DRO number for this event – something somewhat unprecedented at the time. Usually, the Red Cross does not issue DRO numbers for events and only does that for incidents where there were costs over $10,000 expended by the organization. We (our disaster leadership in New Jersey) successfully argued that we needed to be prepared for such an occurrence on a consequence management basis. More of a ‘what if’ scenario. We got the DRO – and I believe all future big games (as well as other events of national significance) where the Red Cross is a partner, have received DRO numbers as well. This is important for two reasons, it helps consolidate the costs – for potential assistance beyond a single chapter or region’s budget, and it gets the attention of the Red Cross’ National Headquarters. Both are valuable for providing the best service possible.

Also, all of the resources we would need to pre-position could only be ‘activated/mobilized’ during a DRO – including visiting staff support. Also, it helped quite a bit to have this National Security Special Event or NSSE (which was SERE rating 1) be considered by our national headquarters in the same way as they treated the Presidential Inauguration (an event the Red Cross participates in each time it happens).

While the Red Cross was not involved from the ‘get-go’ on the planning for this big game, we were part of the team before the event occurred. This was primarily due to the relationships we have with the state’s office of emergency management and its leaders. The months leading up to the game itself were filled with meetings, traded e-mails, and quite a bit of ‘knowledge’ shared by us as to what the Red Cross does – and more importantly what we do not do. I had one state-level planner think we ran fleets of ambulances in the U.S. That was corrected quite quickly. We did however help those officials understand the capabilities of statewide resources in disparate organizations – some public, some private – which could be called into service, should consequence management plans need to be implemented. That’s a fancy way of saying we had a plan to house a lot of people away from an impacted site, should it need to happen. Now getting them all there, was another thing. That is no different for a major sporting event with nearly 60,000 people in attendance (not counting all the support folks around the stadium), than it is for a major hurricane.

We practiced with county officials, we exercised with FEMA, and we prepped our own Red Cross teams to be ready for just about anything (we usually are!). On the day of the big game, I was at the SEOC watching the game from a safe distance away, and on the biggest tv screen possible.

I would not say ‘luckily’, but more like ‘purposely’ there were no major incidents at the game. After the game, there were challenges with the number of people who tried to catch trains into NYC, but none which extended into sheltering or any other Red Cross missions. I had the shift the next day at the stadium’s emergency management site for demobilization, but that was a quick morning -even with a snowstorm which followed the game. I got there and everyone was already packed up. By the way, no event hotwash, after-action report (which I was involved in), or any other improvement planning. I really hope something was documented, because as of this book’s publication, that same stadium – and most likely many of the same planners and organizers at the state – will be the host for a number of FIFA World Cup® games in 2026. Will I be working those games in the same way I did for this one? I seriously doubt it. Like I mentioned in the Sandy Lessons Applied, sometimes it is better to lead from the middle or the rear.

Lessons Learned

From a leadership perspective, one big lesson was to train others on how all this planning works, in practice. Lots of people think the planners are not ‘responders’ or in the ‘Response’ phase. They absolutely are deeply involved. Emergency Services – like police, fire, rescue, public works, etc. – are all part of Operations. Planning is its own beast, and spans all of the phases or time frames around an incident or event:

I learned that building personal relationships on a disaster response (or in this case an event response) are fleeting – they rarely last beyond the incident or event itself. As a leader you are representing the organization, not yourself – so sometimes it is best just to help get the job done. I already knew those personal relationships for professional cooperation, coordination, collaboration and communication come from months and years of working together, training together, and exercising together. That is the only way.