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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- **As the locker room teemed with reporters and microphones at Dove Valley on Thursday, one of day's the most popular questions posed to players centered on one very specific topic.
The Seahawks? The team's first day back at practice after taking Tuesday and Wednesday off?
No, try the question that Shaun Phillips fielded instead.
"Yeah, I got some random ticket requests," the defensive end said.
Part of the excitement and intensive preparation that players and coaches undergo each year in advance of the Super Bowl is arranging tickets to the big game for family members and loved ones.
Tagging along with that process, however, are the inevitable ticket requests from all directions – including some from some rather unexpected sources.
"I let my mom handle that," Phillips said. "But the answer is no. If you didn't get a ticket to game one, you're not getting a ticket to the last game."
Phillips isn't the only one on the team receiving a little maternal support in handling the matter.
"Yeah – a lot of requests, but the good thing is that my mom is my 'no' person," defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said. "Once you tell people, 'My mom is handling all the ticket stuff,' they don't even ask. They don't even want to ask her. They try to put my back against the wall and ask me, 'Remember that time I did this, remember that time I did that?' I'm just like, 'Yeah, my mom is handling it.' They just stop asking after that."
With an inherently limited number of tickets compared to the number of requests players receive, saying 'no' isn't always easy.
"She's saying no so I don't have to be the bad guy," Knighton said.
It's a bit easier, though, when requests are as off-the-wall as the one linebacker Nate Irving fielded in a text message from a random number that wasn't even in his contacts list.
"They wanted me to fly them out to the game and get them a ticket for them and some people," Irving chuckled.
Linebacker Steven Johnson laughed when asked if he had experienced anything quite that random.
"No, not that bad," Johnson said. "Not any high school girlfriends or coaches or anything like that. Just people who supported you, really. Even if you haven't talked to them for a while because you've been busy and stuff like that – just people who support you and they just love you and want to be there for you."
And fortunately, other players agreed with Johnson that much of the outreach from friends and family has been positive support as opposed to ticket requests.
"Not anything random, just a lot of different text messages, emails reaching out and congrats or whatever," safety David Bruton said. "But nothing like people out of the woodwork asking, 'Can you get me this ticket?'"
Tackle Orlando Franklin even pointed out that many of his loved ones have been understanding that the quantity of tickets players have access to isn't unlimited.
"It's been a little crazy," Franklin said. "But at the same time, a lot of my family understands that we only get a certain amount of tickets and a lot of them actually prefer to stay at home."
Some players averted the situation by limiting the number of people who they would be able to find tickets for.
"I kept it simple – just immediate family," cornerback Tony Carter said. "It's not a struggle for me."
"I have both my sisters, my parents, and a couple of friends," running back Montee Ball added.
But for players like Phillips who will play Super Bowl XLVIII only miles from their hometowns, it's also a special opportunity for plenty of loved ones to see the defensive end play in the first Super Bowl of his career in person.
"It's pretty cool just because at this point in my career and to get to go to my first Super Bowl and to go back to my hometown, I think it's huge," he said. "Plus to get your mom to come see you, your high school coaches, brothers and sisters – it's always a wonderful experience."
