Multi-decade Colts fan Julio Lozano speaks with TSF reporter Jonah Decker (right) during Super Bowl week in San Francisco. Although Lozano is from Monterrey, Mexico, he said he hopes to make to Indiana someday to watch the Colts play.
“I’ve never been to Indiana, but that’s a dream,” said Lozano. “I want to go to Indiana.”
Photo by Scott McDaniel, TheStatehouseFile.com.
Almost 2,000 miles away from Indianapolis is the city of San Francisco, the home of Super Bowl LX. With the Indianapolis Colts not even making the playoffs, it’s hard to believe any fans of the shoe made the trip out west.
TheStatehouseFile.com did not find any Hoosier Colts fans that made the trip, but we did find some locals and even an international fan.
Logo by Sydney Byerly, TheStatehouseFile.com.
“One of our best friends growing up was a huge Colts fan,” said Parth Patil of San Jose. “It was when I started watching football I said, ‘Who’s the smartest player in the game?’ and they said, ‘Peyton Manning.’ I said, ‘You seem biased,’ so then I went around, and everyone else said, ‘Peyton Manning is probably the smartest player in the game.’
“So that’s my guy.”
Parth Patil of San Jose, California, speaks with TSF reporter Jonah Decker at the Super Bowl LX Experience at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco about Peyton Manning and his journey to becoming an Indianapolis Colts fan.
Photo by Scott McDaniel, TheStatehouseFile.com.
Parth was visiting the Super Bowl LX Experience, a week-long event with games, food and Super Bowl merchandise at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, with his family, including his brother, Shone Patil.
“I was 6 years old, and I did everything my family friend said. He pointed to all of us and said, ‘You’re all Colts fans,’” Shone said.
The brothers grew up watching Andrew Luck play at Stanford University. When Luck was drafted by the Colts, it was a dream come true.
“Luck against the Chiefs when he came back down 28 points,” said Shone. “The most iconic play was when (Donald Brown) drops the ball and Andrew Luck picks it up and dunks it into the endzone.”
In the Colts’ first-round playoff game in 2014, the team trailed 38-10 in the third quarter. The Colts completed the comeback, the second largest in postseason history, and won 45-44.
Shone Patil, who was at the Super Bowl LX Experience at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco with his brother Parth Patil, tells TSF reporter Jonah Decker about his favorite Indianapolis Colts player, Andrew Luck, and the greatest football game he’s ever seen.
“I was in college, and all my roommates said, ‘It’s over,’… And then they turned it around, and I was like, ‘This is the greatest guy of all time, greatest football player of all time,” Patel said, referencing the Colts’ first-round playoff game in 2014 and Andrew Luck.
Photo by Scott McDaniel, TheStatehouseFile.com.
“That was the greatest game I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Parth. “I was in college, and all my roommates said, ‘It’s over,’… And then they turned it around, and I was like, ‘This is the greatest guy of all time, greatest football player of all time.”
Christian Shaw and his 8-year-old daughter, Chaelyn, from Sacramento, California represented the blue and white with their Colts gear at the experience.
“My favorite thing was me and my dad raced the obstacle course,” said Chaelyn. “I said whoever wins is a Colts fan, and I won.”
Colts fans Christian Shaw and his daughter, 8-year-old Chaelyn Shaw, from Sacramento, smile together while visiting the Super Bowl LX Experience at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco. The two partook of some of the games offered by the experience, including the an obstacle course and the 40-yard dash.
Photo by Jonah Decker, TheStatehouseFile.com.
The two looked forward to competing in the 40-yard dash and seeing who could come out on top.
“I have to redeem myself, I have to get revenge,” said Christian. “He’s gonna trip again,” replied Chaelyn.
TSF spotted Clark Walmer from San Francisco in a Peyton Manning jersey walking through the convention center. He became a Colts fan in sixth grade when his gym teacher made everyone in class pick a football team except the local 49ers.
Clark Walmer, from San Francisco, has been a Colts fan since he was in sixth grade. He spoke with TheStatehouseFile.com while visiting the Super Bowl LX Experience at the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco.
Photo by Scott McDaniel, TheStatehouseFile.com.
“Back then, we had (NFL) pencils that you could (buy with a quarter). Turn (the machine) and it came out Baltimore Colts,” said Walmer. “That became my team.”
Not all fans were from California. Julio Lozano, from Monterrey, Mexico, has been a Colts fan for over 20 years.
“I started watching the NFL in 2005,” said Lozano. “In that season, Peyton Manning went to the Super Bowl, … and I fell in love with that team.”
Lozano has seen the Colts play in Houston and in Dallas but hopes to make it to a game at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I’ve never been to Indiana, but that’s a dream,” said Lozano. “I want to go to Indiana.”