QB1 story time....
2000, game play numbers for QB1 dwarf Showdown and any other trivia game on the network. NTN is giving away tons of large prizes including trips, rings, parties, and other minor awards. Stadium Cafe wins the team championship during the 2001 Super Bowl and is awarded with a big party during the first Monday night of the 2001 season.
Four NTN employees fly in for the party including Jamie Hilton as well as the NTN CEO at the time. The CEO is sporting his personal playmaker with gold housing, we were all jealous. Come to find out that Stadium Cafe would soon be receiving our own gold playermakers as sort of a bonus for our triumph. To my knowledge, we were the only location ever to have a full set of these.
Regardless, the party was awesome and hanging out with everybody was tons of fun. We caroused well into the night. The next morning, the NTN brass heads to the airport to fly back to Carlsbad. That morning was 9/11/2001.
Needless to say they weren't flying anywhere. They were lucky to obtain a rental car which they drove halfway across the country to California.
QB1 was really, really good to both me and my team. Materialistically as well as spiritually. It's been a couple of years since we played, but still think about it often. And I will never be able to watch a single snap of football without mentally calling a play. And still be right a scary percentage of the time.