NFL fans from Ireland sneak into the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is among the world's most secure sporting events, but it isn't without its flaws.

We hear stories almost every year about fans who managed to find their way into the stadium without tickets, and Sunday's game was no exception.

Independent.ie chronicled a pair of NFL fans from Ireland who snuck into University of Phoenix Stadium without tickets and ended up sitting in the fourth row. Those seats were reportedly worth $25,000 each.

Paul McEvoy (a Patriots fan) and Richard Whelan (a Seahawks fan) told RTE Radio One Morning Ireland that they walked right in through stadium doors by acting confident.

"We just thought if we pretend we belong there, nobody will question us," Whelan said.



"Between one layer of security and another we just walked in behind these 20 first aid workers, straight up to the front door and hid in behind them.

"Paul was looking at his phone, pretending to text me, as if we had just popped out to look at an email we got or something," he said. "We walked past another security guard that just wasn't paying attention. We could see the field then, the stadium and the atmosphere was insane."

Whelan also gave constant updates of their journey on social media.

Whelan posted on his Instagram that he was interviewed by NFL Network and tried to score some legal tickets from the crew, but to no avail.

They scouted out the stadium for empty seats and got lucky when they learned that the fourth-row seats of some halftime show participants would remain unoccupied for the second half.

It wasn't his team, but Whelan got the Patriots mascot to hold an Irish flag.

To sneak into a Super Bowl, there has to be a ton of luck involved because the security seemed impenetrable. At least through the media entrance, there was no chance of getting through without a valid credential.

Irish luck jokes aside, these two returned to Dublin with an amazing story to tell.

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