It was an 8pm start, so the expectation was that they would start letting cars into the lots around 345 or so. But at about 1pm, whoever was doing the pregame on EEI said that because of the terrible traffic that was already starting to build up, they were letting cars in early. So we had to break our routine (never a good thing in our superstitious heads) and head down early. Even though we got there around 3pm, we got shut out of our regular lot (the lot behind route 1 liquors) and had to park in what was then the main stadium lot, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
We had had the same seats since 1993. That whole stretch, there was a guy who sat behind us, who we referred to as "Mr. Football". He would regularly drag his poor wife to the game, and spend the whole game telling her stuff like "That's Marshall Faulk. He's the best running back in the league." He usually had a good sized transistor radio with him, which he'd hold to his ear during the games, and provide running commentary based on what they were saying on the radio. When the play happened and everyone got up to leave, he yelled "they are reviewing the play and it is going to be ruled an incomplete pass." We waited, because after all he was Mr. Football, and sure enough he was correct. Sat back down and the rest was history.
It is almost unfathomable that you had this game, then the game in Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship, then the Super bowl, all within a 3 week window. Each one of those was an all-timer, and we got them all within less than a month.