Franklin High Grads Heading to New Orleans

Jay Abarbanel feels a little dirty spending the amount of money he’s going to spend on the Super Bowl, but he just had to do it.

“It’s one of those bucket list things you have to do in your life,” the Reisterstown native said. “If your team’s in the Super Bowl, you have to go.”

Abarbanel, who was a sports writer for Franklin High’s school newspaper before graduating in 2003, said he’s known for a while he would head to a Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl. During the AFC Championshp game in quarterback Joe Flacco’s first year, he decided he’d have to go when his team made it.

He’s not the only Franklin High graduate heading to big game on Sunday.

Mike DeAngelis decided soon after the Ravens beat New England in the AFC Championship game that he was going to head down to New Orleans.

“I may never get another chance to go to the Super Bowl with Ravens,” he said.

As of Monday night, he and his friends didn’t have tickets, and were waiting to see if prices would go down. He said he’s willing to drop $2,000 for a ticket, and plans to spend $3,000 - $3,500 on the whole trip.

Another Franklin graduate, Heather Doll, will be heading down with her two brothers and her father for the family vacation of a lifetime.

“We beat New England and the dream was much more a reality,” she said. “So we were willing – not me so much as my family – was willing to shell out a decent amount of money to make it happen.”

Although her family was initially “extremely disgusted” by the prices, Doll contributed partly to the $3,200 per ticket price her family wound up paying.

“It’s a once in a lifetime family vacation, worth two years of my little brother’s future college tuition,” she joked.

For all three of them, seeing the Ravens make it through a season plagued my injuries and a few not-so-pretty games and wind up in the Super Bowl is a special thing.

“It was definitely frustrating, but we have the kind of team that shows up for the big game,” DeAngelis said.

Even during the rough times, Doll never lost faith in her team, but she didn’t expect them to make it this far.

“I think every fan of a good team dreams of it, but they have realistic expectations,” she said. “But once they beat Denver I had a feeling we were gonna do it. It just seems so magical.”