A sports fan might dream of being in the Super Bowl one day, but a sports fan who loves to write might dream of covering the Super Bowl as a journalist.
For one former Sports Editor of The Equinox at Keene State College, that dream came true.
Paul Silverfarb, KSC Alumni and The Equinox Sports Editor in 1999, said we could probably hear him screaming from Connecticut when he found out his credentials had been accepted to report on the Super Bowl.
Silverfarb grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut, and started at KSC in the fall of ’95.
Silverfarb worked on The Equinox newspaper staff as a sports reporter for three years, until he became the sports editor his senior year. When Silverfarb graduated from KSC, he said he planned to take off a couple weeks to regroup, and to, “get ready for the fun stuff.”
His plan became side tracked when a news reporter position for Norwalk Citizen opened up. Silverfarb said he worked as their general assignment reporter until he became the sports editor in Norwalk in 1999.
Contributed Photo: KSC alumnus, Paul Silverfarb, stands at MetLife Stadium before the Super Bowl he covered.
“I am a local reporter for my newspaper, Greenwich-Post, now. I’ve done sports editing, a lot of local stuff, high school and college games. We’re very lucky that we have professional athletes that live in our town, also owners of professional teams—all that fun stuff is living around us—so I’ve been able to use that towards the national spotlight,” Silverfarb said.
Silverfarb said he applied for credentials to cover the Super Bowl in October of 2013.
Credentials, similar to press passes, offer permission from the company, in this case the NFL, for someone to enter an event.
After applying for these credentials, Silverfarb explained that he forgot about the application, as he did not think that his credentials would be accepted. But sure enough, in November of 2013, he received his NFL credentials.
“The game stunk, it was a stinker; everything leading up to it though was as awesome as you could imagine it could be,” Silverfarb started to explain.
“It was about a 20-21 hour day. I got on a train at 8 a.m. in Fairfield [Connecticut] where I live, to Grand Central Station, walked to Times Square where the hotel for media was. From there, I picked up my media credentials for the Super Bowl game. And at about 1:15 p.m., they started loading the busses for the media to the Super Bowl. I didn’t have to drive or pay one-hundred dollars to park, which was awesome,” Silverfarb said.
From the Super Bowl venue on, Silverfarb noted there were hours worth of security.
“I was sniffed by very friendly dogs, once on the bus—picture airplane security, but twice as bad as that. It was a level-one security event. They [the NFL] needed my SS [social security] number, they did a background check, the whole nine yards,” Silverfarb mentioned.
He said the NFL made an axillary section just for the Super Bowl and that is where he sat.
There was working Wi-fi, he was given a boxed lunch and he said there was a lot of waiting and talking to a lot of different media members until kick off.
Silverfarb mentioned he was also keeping a live blog throughout his day, posting about the event.
Silverfarb, a self-described Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, said that he really enjoyed the halftime show, while mentioning that he also became a Bruno Mars fan that night.
“He’s [Bruno Mars] very entertaining. The show was very good. I remember what it was like live, and then I watched it later on YouTube to see what it was like on TV, and the live [version] was much better,” he said.
Silverfarb also got to participate in media day for the Super Bowl. This event, which took place on the Tuesday before the Super Bowl, was a completely different event in New Jersey, according to Silverfarb.
Silverfarb arrived to a facility where all reporters got to interview the players. He said the Denver Broncos came out and reporters could talk to them for about an hour, until the Seattle Seahawks came out.
Silverfarb said he spoke with numerous players and coaches from Broncos Head Coach John Fox to Richard Sherman, cornerback with the Seattle Seahawks, to Peyton Manning, Broncos quarterback. Silverfarb said he asked them the same type of questions as the other reporters.
“You know everything from ‘How do you think your defense is going to hold up, to what’s your favorite color;’ just everything,” he explained. The KSC alumni said his Super Bowl story published on his website on Greenwich-Post with the title “Denver Broncos no match for Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48.”
“Sometimes I think I’m over my head, but then, I mean, I got credentials to the Super Bowl. There are not that many people in that stadium that could say ‘I was chosen as a respected person of the media to cover the Super Bowl.’“
He continued, “I think there were three to four-thousand members of the media there, and like ten-thousand that applied for it, and I was one of them. Part of that, all the crap you go through, edits, stories, see this, see that, it’s worth it to say, ‘Oh wow, I get to cover a Yankee’s game. I talked to athletes that play for the NHL that are going to play in the Olympics.’ It lets you know you’re succeeding and on the right track,” Silverfarb commented.
Writing for The Equinox in college was one of the greatest things Silverfarb did while at KSC, he said.
“Because the books tell you one thing, and how to write a nice story, but the real world experiences are what is very important, especially in journalism. It’s always nice to be prepared. I was prepared a lot more when I interviewed players and was used to doing it because I did it for The Equinox,” Silverfarb said.
He explained he was happy he chose journalism as his career path after graduating KSC.
He said, “It’s [journalism] truly what I love to do. It’s a lot of fun, I like to write. I joke around with my wife, she’s a math major, and I’m lucky if I can do two plus two. I can write a nice story, but I just hand everything with numbers right over to the wife,” Silverfarb laughed.
Silverfarb explained that he gained more than a journalism experience in college.
While at KSC; he met his wife in Carle Hall in 1999. They got married in 2003, he said. Silverfarb also shared that in 2008 they welcomed two little twin boys to their family.
“We have five-year-old twins. That is beyond anything you could imagine in life. You’re tired now? Oh boy. You put in a good eight to ten-hour day, and you come home and it doesn’t stop. I couldn’t be happier though, it’s worth it,” Silverfarb said.
Silverfarb is also happy to say he went to Pumpkin Fest all four years as a student here at KSC.
To all journalism majors at KSC, Silverfarb said, “Be as creative as possible. Don’t give up after your first few stories with a lot of corrections. I still get a lot of corrections, stick with it and don’t give up, and good things will happen.”
Silverfarb said he has been in contact with the Alumni Office at KSC on-and-off since he left the college.
Sara Telfer, associate director of Alumni & Parent Relations, said the Alumni Association’s hope is that they can help alumni stay connected to the college.
“We do that in many ways, starting when they’re students. One reason we try to get alum back on campus is to talk to students; help demonstrate that once you graduate you can still come back and stay connected. We have events on campus that we hope alumni come to—home-coming, winter fest, alumni reunion weekend, where they can stay on campus and kind of relive their past experiences here,” Telfer said.
Telfer said one of the things the office is working on right now is a big push in terms of making sure they have updated information on graduates so they can stay in touch better.
She also said the Marketing and Communications office on campus puts out an online newsletter that goes out typically once a month, where someone can see and read about alumni’s accomplishments.
“Shawn Huckins, 2007 featured in the Huffington Post, Jennifer Dunnington in 1993 joins the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Bravo TV goes behind the scenes of Katrina Hodgson’s 2006 ToneItUp Workouts,” are a few that Telfer listed.
“Anytime someone has an accomplishment, it reflects positively on the college,” Telfer said.
Silverfarb said when he found out he was going to be interviewed it was “very cool.”
“It’s a great honor to be featured in a paper that I put so much time and effort into while I was at Keene [State College],” Silverfarb declared.
Bethany Ricciardi can be contacted at bricciardi@keene-equinox.com