From the end of this past summer all through fall and the holidays, I have been pretty much obsessed with all things Super Bowl related.

It has had nothing to do with football since my Giants were already pretty much out of it at the end of the summer but more about all the side pre-parties and events associated with this “Woodstock”-esque historic day. You can ask my friends and family, they can attest to the fact that I was so intrigued with this event being in my backyard and how it became just an unfathomably unique and wild situation that deserved my full attention and obsession.

Well, you actually will see everything I have been doing and saying about this once-in-a-lifetime day on “The Johnny Meatballs Experience,” my soon to be released documentary. Yes I have been writing letters to press, politicians, celebrities, anyone with any influence…making videos…phonecalls…tweets…hired a manager and a filmmaker...just have been working effortlessly and exhausting all resources and doing everything I can to generate media attention and involvement, my two big accomplishments getting coverage in Metropolis Night Magazine and My9 on TV. I have done everything I possibly could to promote the idea of this being New Jersey’s Super Bowl and petitioning for a piece of the pie as a Jersey resident and businessman.

I would sincerely like to thank you all for all the kind words of support and encouragement over the past six months regarding my entire “Balls 2 the Bowl” quest of finding a spot to set up and serve the public my meatballs on Super Bowl Sunday. It has been a long journey which had a lot of bumps in the road and a lot of periods where I was very close to giving up all hope. The amount of red tape and paperwork and expenses involved with any event related to the Super Bowl – or even unrelated events taking place near or the week of the Super Bowl was double and triple what it normally is for me as a New Jersey street vendor. But nothing stopped me from achieving my goal of being involved someway somehow in all the hoopla.

People told me to give up. They said no matter what, New York will reap all the rewards. They said I should just sit home in my livingroom on Super Bowl Sunday and watch the game on TV. Some “haters” have been a little more nasty but I will get to that later.

So with my journey, first thing I did of course was I wrote to the Super Bowl Committee about becoming a vendor inside the stadium somewhere. But when I found out that those contracts were granted long ago to out-of-state franchises with big bucks, I knew I had no shot. So then I got the idea to create my own little tailgate feast in the parking lot of MetLife Stadium with my fellow foodie friends with our food trucks and carts. But that was quickly out of the question as ticket holders of the game are not even allowed to set up a tailgate! I then tried to find a parking lot NEAR the stadium, somewhere in the Meadowlands owned by a local business and see if they would allow us to set up there. I had 2 potential spots – a liquor store and a tile warehouse – both literally a block away and both seemed promising. But these spots both fizzled out.

At that point I was ready to throw in the towel but then I saw all the coverage that local towns in the vicinity of the Meadowlands were getting with regards to their plans for the weekend. The comments by the local officials echoed mine in that New York and other big companies are stealing the limelight from Jersey when this is our day and the people selling their goods and services on that day should be from Jersey. Two events which caught my eye taking place Super Bowl Weekend are “Winter Blast” in Secaucus and “Meadowlands Tailgate Party” in East Rutherford. Between those two, I decided that the best fit for me was the latter and I’ll tell you a little bit more about why I feel I made the perfect choice in contacting them.

But first, I want to touch briefly upon the topic of my “go-fund-me” page which has received some backlash. See me being somewhat of a public figure and having no “privacy settings” on any of my social media sites, I have to carefully monitor my interactions. Although most of the time things are all good, I do, on occasion get haters and stalkers and crazy people trying to take me down. I've addressed this in several blogs before and prefer doing it this way as opposed to directly on a message board or facebook wall. I prefer to keep things positive at all times and simply delete any negative commentary I see. But some of the stuff lately has been a little more vicious than usual and I suspect it is because with this Super Bowl event coming—things are more magnified with anyone involved in big game week events.

So I created this funding page as a way to get sponsors for the Super Bowl. Let's clear up a few things... I am not broke but I am not rich, I am a working class hustler, an underdog. The Super Bowl is my shot at the title, my day on the big stage with the big boys of the food and beverage industry. I was never looking for any donations or hand-outs, the contributions were all intended to go towards preparing supplies for the Super Bowl – in particular getting the meatball wagon and my new meatball truck ready. However, at this time I know that there is no way that I will be able to have the truck ready in time but that doesn't mean I am not going to still fix it up! All of the contributions will certainly go towards that cause and when it is on the road in May, everyone's name who helped will be printed on a plaque which will go on the bus as my way of saying thank you.

One person in particular named “Ashley” (not sure if it's a man or woman or what) flooded my facebook wall and fan pages with a craigslist ad picturing my meatball truck and wagon for sale and implied to my very large following that I was a “fraud” and stealing people's money. Whoever this person is clearly has an agenda against me, I suspect it's a former disgruntled business associate or someone I had bad dealings with...or it could just be the same stalker / hater who continues to write nasty and false things in the comment section of this blog all the time. People with no time on their hands who want to try and ruin other people's reputations – not that any of these nutcases ever came close to doing that. This stuff doesn't bother me, it's more annoying than anything because as I said, I keep my social media pages all positive and public for promotional purposes.

But just to set the record straight, I am not selling my business, that craigslist ad was removed and that person was reported and blocked for posting such hateful and false nonsense. To imply that I would ever scam anyone or be fraudulent in my goals and ventures is quite low. But there are lowlifes out there and always will be, all I ask is that you believe in me and never jump to conclusions and this does not just pertain to me but give all people—especially public people—the benefit of the doubt before drawing assumptions on partial sides of stories. This is why I come to the defense of a lot of these reality show participants when they are going through difficult situations. I don't get any pleasure in sharing “trending” gossip topics or jumping on negatively biased media bandwagons.

Karma will get this “Ashley” character and I will continue to thrive and pursue my goals—and the one goal I have been striving for comes in 2 weeks. And back to why I feel that “Meadowlands Tailgate Party 2014” is the best possible place I could be on Feb. 2.

Well, last week I was part of a press conference in downtown East Rutherford for the formal announcement of this first ever wintertime street festival with the mayor and celebrities and press galore. It was extremely exciting and at that moment I was so glad I never gave up hope on this journey despite the vast odds I faced... As a traveling vendor for the past 5 years having done hundreds of events dishing out my meatballs, not only is what's going to occur in New Jersey a day to MEAT and greet locals and tourists alike on the grandest of all stages in the existence of my business, but as a lifelong resident of the Garden State I am so proud and honored to have a chance to participate in this particular festival...

You see showcasing and serving my specialties on the day of this nationwide sporting event in the host city of where the Super Bowl will take place only a few blocks away, is everything I could have imagined, there is just nothing better and nowhere closer to the action. So forget Times Square, remember this is Jersey's day and myself along with Frankie Antipasto and Cupcake Cutie are all official vendors where we will be set up in grand fashion along Park Avenue all day on the day of the big game!! So please come support us local guys and celebrate with us NEW JERSEY ITALIAN STYLE!