07:11 Mon 02-08-10 | by Andy Kent
Dolphins Season Ticket Holders who participated in today's Super Bowl XLIV Field Experience can see their photos at MiamiDolphins.com/SBPhotos. They may purchase a file to download for $5.00 with net proceeds donated to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, Haiti Relief Fund. They will also be able to order prints on the site if they so choose.
Less than 24 hours after he sat in Section 424 of Sun Life Stadium with his father, Tom, to watch the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, Blaze Pronesti was running deep slants and catching passes on the same field where Saints quarterback Drew Brees earned MVP honors.
The Pronestis and other Miami Dolphins season ticket holders were invited by the team to experience stepping on the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl field, while at the same time getting to feel good about helping the people of Haiti recover from last month's devastating earthquake. The Dolphins were accepting donations to the Haiti relief effort and will give the general public the same opportunity tomorrow between 4 and 8 p.m., but today was for kids like Blaze to pretend they were Brees or Peyton Manning and hold a replica of the Vince Lombardi Trophy while standing on the same Super Bowl platform at midfield that Brees and head coach Sean Payton stood on last night to accept the trophy.
"It feels awesome to be on the same field as the players I saw last night," said Blaze, who got to play an actual game at Sun Life Stadium at half-time of the Dolphins-Jets game back in October as a member of the winning team from Twan Russell's Miami Dolphins Flag Football Camp. "The trophy was heavy but that was real awesome. I really wanted to come down on the field last night but I knew we were coming today."
Blaze and his father got to attend the Super Bowl because they won two tickets during the team's Christmas shipping promotion with Best Buy and were given the tickets by Dolphins CEO Mike Dee. Julie Pronesti, Blaze's mother, watched the game from home because she wanted to make it a father-son experience, but the smile on her face today as Blaze, wearing the No. 88 jersey of Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey ran up and down the field.
Having been a season ticket holder for quote some time and remembering the last Super Bowl that was here three years ago, Julie couldn't stop praising the new ownership for coming up with this idea.
"We were thrilled. This is an unbelievable thing that the Dolphins are doing," Julie said. "To give you the opportunity to stand where like 150 million people were watching last night is amazing. The Dolphins are doing great things. Stephen Ross is a great owner. We were on the field before the Jets game and got to watch the players work out and everything was just amazing."
There were lots of fathers and sons out there today, as there most certainly will be tomorrow, including Bill Satinover and his son Gregory from Cooper City. Bill got the e-mail from the Dolphins on Thursday letting him know about today's open house and all he could think about during last night's game as he hosted a Super Bowl party at his house was how much fun he and Gregory were going to have he next day.
The first thing the two did when they stepped onto the field was throw the football around for a few minutes, and then Gregory climbed up to the top of the Super Bowl platform and posed with the replica Super Bowl trophy.
"It was neat because you're like the champion up there holding up the trophy," Gregory said.
Ever the proud father, Bill couldn't be happier that he got to share this moment with his son.
"This is great. It's really nice for them to invite us out," he said. "And it's for a good cause, which is why we made a donation on the way in and we'll make another donation and I explained to Gregory what was going on."
All guests coming to the stadium were encouraged to make donations to the Sun Life/Miami Dolphins Haiti Relief Fund. The two organizations have pledged to match every dollar donated to the fund with $2 dollar matching contribution, with a maximum overall contribution of $300,000. Supporters can log on to SunLifeStadium.com or MiamiDolphins.com to donate money to this important cause or make their cash donation at today's second of the two open houses. Fans are welcome to bring their own cameras to take pictures. Professional photographers again will be available.
Dolphins Season Ticket Holders who participated in today's Super Bowl XLIV Field Experience can see their photos at MiamiDolphins.com/SBPhotos. They may purchase a file to download for $5.00 with net proceeds donated to the Miami Dolphins Foundation, Haiti Relief Fund. They will also be able to order prints on the site if they so choose.
Also, thanks to a licensing deal the NFL has with StadiumAssociates.com, fans will be able to purchase a piece of the grass from the end zone and from the midfield NFL logo. They are going to take 75,000 pieces of the grass from the end zone and 50,000 pieces from the logo and freeze dry it, preserve it and sell it.
