February 5, 2025 • 51 mins
Mark Roberts is the world's most notorious streaker. He’s spent more time naked than most Greek statues. And in February 2004, he set his sights on the Super Bowl. To make streaking history, he just needs to dodge the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, SWAT teams, and 250-pound linebackers.
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Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
Written by Jake Rossen
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher
Mixing and Mastering by Baheed Frazier
Original Music by Elise McCoy
Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
Executive Producer is Jason English
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Originals. This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Let me take you back to February first, two thousand
and four. Super Bowl thirty eight, a showdown between the
Carolina Panthers and Tom Brady's New England Patriots, is about
to kick off. Security is tight at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Arena staff as well as the NFL are screening the
(00:40):
seventy one thousand, five hundred and twenty five fans in attendance.
They're checking for gate crashers, phony tickets, drugs, and barely
two years after nine to eleven. They are also aware
that the most watched television event of the year could
attract terrorists. There are bag checks and frisking and metal detectors.
(01:06):
Helicopters are flying overhead to make sure no one enters
the stadium's airspace. Among the hordes of diehard American football
fans filing into the stadium is one with a British
lilt to his voice. His name is Mark Roberts, and
(01:26):
he's stepped forward for a frisk. The security officer notices
something unusual.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So as I've gone to the security hold my arms out,
he's patting me down. He's gone down the inside of
my legs. He said, what's that man? And the first
thing I could think of, I said, I've got a
skin disorder. I need to be able to get to
my skin. It's put the cream on.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Mark doesn't have a skin condition. What he has is
a pair of velcrow pants, the kind favored by the
cast of Magic Mike.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Like a stripper. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The officer will soon notice that under Mark's street clothes,
he's got on something that should get him an immediate
and swift eviction from the premises and likely relocation to
a holding cell somewhere.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
He's lifted me topo. I've got a black and white
referee uniform underneath.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Mark is at the Super Bowl to meet his moment,
the moment he's spent his entire career building towards. If
his timing is right, he'll soon be bounding onto the
field of the biggest event in sports, running from police
with the game ball tucked under his arm, and doing
(02:41):
it while nude. Mark Roberts is the most notorious streaker
in the world. He's spent more time naked than most
Greek statues, and the Super Bowl is about to become
his Mount Everest. If he can dodge the FBI, the
Department of Homeland Security, the SWAT teams, and the two
(03:04):
hundred and fifty pound linebacker who has him in his
sights to make streaking history. Mark is even willing to
take a bullet.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
This is gospel truth, I thought, because it's not long
after nine eleven, just going to be snipers on the
roofs look of a terrorists. I thought, well, I'm going
to go on disrupt. They're not gonna know what's going
to go on. As I'm lefting me clothes off, they
might think, you know, I've got a weapon. One of
them might take a shot, but he won't shoot to
kill what he set the naked. He'll shoot to this arm.
(03:35):
He'll shoot me in the leg. So I thought, okay,
I'll take a bullet in the leg to do Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Welcome back to very special episodes and I Heart original podcast.
I'm your host, Dana Schwartz and this is super Streaker.
Caution this episode contains nudity.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Welcome back to very special episodes. My name is Jason English.
Today is our second annual Super Bowl episode. I'm down
in New Orleans this week because iHeart is the official
podcast partner of the NFL. Now, if you've been with
us since the beginning, you might recall Dana Zarin and
I recorded live from Radio Row last year when the
(04:19):
Super Bowl was in Las Vegas. That was a lot
of fun, learned about Zarin's horrifying football injury history. Had
a very special team dinner at Spago. It's just me
here this year representing the show. No Spago, but Dana's
got another great Super Bowl adjacent story. I think you're
gonna like it.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We're all born naked, but fairly early on we learned
to be bashful, even ashamed of nudity, depending on our culture.
In a lot of places, indecent exposure is actually illegal,
and so we spend much of our public lives with
pants on, unless we happen to be at a nude
(05:00):
beach or Donald Duck. But there are those among us
who aren't big fans of socially except behavior, who don't
like feeling constrained.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I was always naughty in school, well, I want to
say naughty. I was like the class joker I was
on who took the mickey or the teachers to give
the kids something to laugh at in class. You know,
I got expelled eventually, for just choking around too much
in school, and that followed on into my workplace, into college.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That's Mark Roberts born in Liverpool, England, in nineteen sixty four.
He's always been impulsive, a fun seeking missile, sometimes to
his own detriment.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I got kicked out of college for messing around too much.
I got fired from a few jobs for just taking
the piss basically, you know, not doing with what I
was supposed to be told to do.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Mark is one of those life is for Living types,
the guy not at the bar, but standing on top
of the bar. To make ends meet. He sold catering equipment.
He lived in Greece for a period. He was a bartender,
a painter, but it was hard to take things, take
life too seriously. There was a sense he was destined
(06:19):
for something else.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I got a job as a pipefitter, doing sprinkler systems
into the ceilings, but these just to end money. All
the time, I knew I wanted to do something else.
I was made for something else. I'd just believe in
myself that you know, I'm going to go somewhere. And
I had no idea what it was, no idea at
(06:40):
all until I went to Hong Kong.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
In nineteen ninety three, Mark, then just twenty nine years old,
found himself in Hong Kong. At the time, he wasn't
making very much money working on the sprinkler systems, and
so he accepted a one way ticket from a friend
of his who was working there.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'm had no money, I said, well, I've got nothing.
He said, well, I'll send you a ticket, a flight
ticket to come to Hong Kong. It took him three
months to send me the ticket. Got on the plane,
one way ticket with thirty pounds in my pockets. Change
my life forever.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Mark got a job at a bar in Wan Chai,
a commercial area of Hong Kong. One night, after finishing
his shift, he started drinking himself. It was in this
establishment that Mark got a look at the rest of
his life.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
While I was working another bar and you can drink
me at a bar in Hong Kong. I finished me
shift at ten thirty, so I'm sat next to the
owner having a drink and I was pretty pissed at
the time. And the Rugby seven's is on Saturday and Sunday.
It's one of the biggest rugby events in the world.
The Hong Kong rugby sevens. And then all these guys
came in the Saturday night shouting about a Galu.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Street, casually and without much thought, as drunk people are
often prone to do. Mark told his friends that he
could do it. Streak run naked onto the rugby field,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So they own in the bar next to me next
to me said, okay, big mouth, you streaked tomorrow? Is okay?
I was just talking through drink, no intentions. I was
drunk talking basically. So next thing, because I knew everyone
in the bar, are you streaking tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
At this point, Mark wasn't a serial nudist, no exhibitionism,
no real indication of his future vocation.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was one of those ones on the beach, scared
of you know, I've got to have a towel wrapped
right around me to get me shorts off, to put
me drunks on. So I was never one thing that
I had ever did or contemplated.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Mark got so drunk he forgot all about the dare.
The next day he was awakened by his friends. He
was still fairly inebriated. They dragged his semi conscious body
to Hong Kong Stadium and reminded him over and over
again of his promise, which was to sprint onto the
grass totally nude. To work up the courage. Mark went
(09:07):
back to the bar.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I was all over the place. Just take me to
the bar. So straight walking to the streets to the bar.
Had one beer, made me feel worse, had two littleside
a bit better. I had three beers and a shot
as just about leveled out. I's okay, let me look
inside the stadium.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The stadium had a capacity of about forty thousand people,
but he had accepted a dare. So Mark stripped down
to nothing and started running. He grabbed the ball and
ran up to the goalposts, and he experienced a kind
of epiphany. Streaking was an adrenaline rush, not just for
(09:45):
Mark but for the crowd, who could live vicariously through him.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
As I've turned around the whole stadium all at once
jumped up screaming the heads off. I've just scored a
try against the best rugby team in the world, and think, wow,
what's going on it? So as I've running back to
be seen, the crowds are going nuts.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Security was understandably concerned. They cornered Mark, but they didn't
threaten to arrest him. They just politely asked him to leave.
He did, and as he walked out, someone pressed something
into his hand. It was a ticket. Mark was so
energized and possibly still so very drunk, that he did
(10:27):
something he claims no other streaker has ever done before.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So come back in the next teen style went back in,
jumped on and did it again, crowded Matt. The crowd
went crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Just as Michael Jordan once picked up a basketball, or
how Wayne Gretzky once slammed a puck into the net,
Mark had found his true calling, showing his genitals to
thousands of people. Two days later, he did it again
at a soccer game. Off went the clothes, On went
the political revolution.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Every person was just stared and not making a sound,
And it was like surrounded by cheese police. On the Sunday.
There is like English police because it was the sevens.
This is a Chinese football match. All the pieces are
stared at me, not knowing what the hell's going on.
No one in that stagium had seen a streaker in
their life. I thought, what you do, just take off
(11:24):
and keep running. So as I've took off the second
length of the field. That's when they started coming after me.
All the Chinese police tried to rugby tackle me. So
I've moved out the way, and that's when the crowd
woke up. Because I'm taking a piss out the Chinese
police and all the Chinese people to sew downtrodden by
their own governments. It's not a good position for the
(11:45):
Chinese people in Hong Kong, especially in mainland China. And
because I'm taking the piss out the Chinese police, the
crowd woke up and you were going to started going crazy.
It was a slow build of noise.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Mark wasn't alone in his fascination with streaking.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
The early nineteen nineties hadn't seen a lot of nude
gate crashers. The practice had once been everywhere in the
nineteen seventies. Mark doesn't remember seeing much of it as
a kid, and it probably wasn't an influence, but it
was still part of American and British culture. College streaking
stunts in the nineteen sixties gave way to more audacious displays.
(12:26):
Streakers figured out the best way to make an impression
was to crash a sporting event. The patron Saint of
streaking may have been Michael O'Brien, who acted on a
dare from friends to storm a rugby match between England
and France in nineteen seventy four. He was rounded up
by a police officer who used his cap to cover
(12:49):
his privates. That was a good year for streaking. At
the University of Illinois, twelve thousand people came to watch
students hold a mass streaking event, with over four hundred
people showing up nude and bravely sliding down flagpoles. There
were even nude parachutists at these seventy four Academy Awards.
(13:13):
A streaker ran behind actor David Niven, who ad libbed
a vicious insult about the man only getting laughs when
he was naked. Streaking was so much a part of
pop culture that Life magazine featured Michael O'Brien on their cover.
Even Snoopy streaked in Peanuts, although dogs are pretty much
(13:35):
always streaking, and the singer Ray Stevens recorded the Streak,
a novelty tune that paid homage to the trend. Standing
on the shoulders of these giants was Mark Roberts, who
returned home to England determined to play with his new
found form of self expression. Because, and this is kind
(13:57):
of important, Mark didn't consider streaking a crime or disruption
adrenaline rush aside. It was more about rebellious against authority.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Authority. I'm not a big fan of authority. You know.
From school, you get the cane, We used to get
corporal punishments every day, get the bamboo stick, cross me hands,
literally every single day. And it's supposed to teach you discipline.
But I'd tell you what that made me tin against
the people additional punishment. And it's been, as I said,
(14:29):
it's been a theme throughout me whole life, to the
point where get kicked out of school, get kicked out
of college, get kicked out of jobs, and now we
get kicked out of countries.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It was also performance art. In college, Mark had studied
dance and drama. There was a desire to entertain, though
the vehicle for that didn't seem clear until the rug began.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
It was just like a progression, natural progression from one
of all done on my life. So everyone was meant
to be. The stars were aligned on that day for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Back home, he ran onto the field during a soccer
game between Liverpool and Everton in an inadvertent homage to
Michael O'Brien. A policeman used his cap as a makeshift cup,
covering Mark's nether regions as he was ushered off the field.
Very quickly, Mark learned that disrupting soccer games was not
(15:28):
going to be an ongoing concern. He was banned from
virtually all England soccer clubs. Eventually, he claimed he had
to surrender his passports whenever an English team was playing abroad,
getting it back only when the team returned. With Soccer
considering him public Enemy number one, Mark turned to other sports.
(15:51):
The streaking obsession needed to be fed. He bounded onto
the grass at the Grand National Steeplechase while dressed as
a cowboy, jumping over the equestrian obstacles. He jogged onto
the field of the British Open Golf tournament with right
on his back that pointed to his rear end that
said nineteenth hole. He streaked Wimbledon, where he did a
(16:15):
somersault over the net the Commonwealth Games in front of
Prince Edward and his wife Sophie. In the Champions League
Final of two thousand and two, he even managed to
score a goal booting the ball past an astonished goalkeeper.
He streaked in front of his mother, brothers, and sisters
(16:37):
in plays and during weather segments on television. He did
have rules, and the rules separated the amateurs from the professionals.
Mark never streaked during official gameplay when something was really
on the line. Occasionally, he'd make a small concession to
modesty and use something to cover his genitals, depending on
(17:00):
how severe he believed the punishment for a full frontal
show might be.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Over the years, I've gradually started wearing a little monkey.
I've got a monkey, I've got an elephant, I've got
a horse, and i've got a bull. But my little monkey,
all of him, he's lost an eye. He's a one
eyed monkey, and he's been such a friend to me
over the years. He's saved me from probably more severe
(17:28):
charges than I want to normally get.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
The streaks varied, but there were some constants Mark could
expect to be cheered, and he could expect to be
chased by security in what amounts to a live action
Tom and Jerry routine.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I'm looking around when I'm getting chased by the police
and security. I'm looking around the stadium, and every single
time everyone's on the feet, screaming, cheering, and then when
I get taken down by the police, everyone boos the
police because they want to see more. They did don't
want to see me getting caught, but to all part
of the game, you know, I want to see how
(18:06):
long I can stay on and then how many people
it takes to take me down. And I've take for
a nice I've tended to an art a lot of form,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
There were consequences, of course. Running onto a field and
away from police and angry players resulted in sprained wrists
and ankles, stitches and bruises. There were overnight stays in
jail and fines which he was often unable to pay
due to being fired from jobs for streaking. Once on
(18:39):
a break while working as a bartender, he blitzed a
Liverpool stadium. The bar owner saw it on TV and
by the time Mark was back, he.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Was out of a job.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
But of all the streaks, it was one at a
dog show that proved to be among the most hazardous.
Mark trotted through the nineteen ninety nine Cruftz Purebred event
and discovered that a canine beauty pageant was very serious business.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
But before I went on. I just had the bad feeling.
I don't know what it was. I couldn't put my
finger on it, so I've jumped on anyway, next thing,
I'm running around to security, I've grabbed hold of me,
ran me through the arena into a utility room, and
systematically tortured me for fifteen minutes in this utility room
(19:29):
while all the people in suits watched from the doorway.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
This involved a thumb lock, a kind of control maneuver
favored by police officers as well as Steven Segal.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Well do it systematically. You know your thumblock where sometimes
when security grabs hold of you on a field or police,
they'll grabbled your thumb and bend it backwards towards your forearm.
So they had both of me either side, and both
of them were pushed at that much my thumbs were
virtually touching. But stop did take it in tens, he
(20:03):
decided for fifteen minutes, and eventually the only stopped when
the police came. I was in that much pain. The
tears were rolling down my face. I'm begging them to stop.
I'm begging the people in the doorway to get them
to stop. People to stay and nobody give a dog show.
I've streaked every major event in the world and the
worst way I was ever treated was a dog show
(20:23):
in Birmingham.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
This all went on for about a decade, and through
it all Mark kept an eye on the one undiscovered country,
the New World to his Columbus, or the Arctic to
his earnest Shackleton.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Always at the super Bowl in my head, because I've
done everything else, everything that's big, I thought, what's the biggest,
the biggest one event in the world. It's got to
be Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
But the goal felt way beyond his reach. For one thing,
security at the super Bowl was on another level. For another,
it cost a lot of money to travel to the
States to buy a ticket close enough to get access
to the field and have money left over to pay
for the legal fees he'd likely incur. What Mark Roberts
(21:13):
needed was a benefactor, a streaking sponsor, and he found
one in someone who had once paid twenty eight thousand
dollars for a grilled cheese sandwich. Today, online gambling is
(21:37):
everywhere Draft Kings, fan Duel, bet MGM. Depending on the
state you're in, you can open a site or an
app and place a bet on everything from Major League
baseball to college basketball to the Super Bowl coin toss.
It's legal now, with states realizing they can generate lots
of revenue in taxing both the online gaming company and
(22:00):
the consumer. But back in the early two thousands, online
gaming still had a stigmaid with it. No one in
local or federal government had figured out how to profit
from it, and so many companies wound up operating outside
of the United States, companies like Goldenpalace dot com, an
(22:23):
online casino that allowed users to visit a virtual Vegas
with digital roulette wheels and blackjack. Golden Palace set up
its base of operations in the Caribbean, with the Kanawagi
Mohawk First Nation tribe in Montreal, Quebec, Canada granting them
a gaming license. Founded by CEO Richard Rowe in nineteen
(22:45):
ninety seven, the site was one of the earliest online
gaming success stories, and it was mostly due to its
innovative marketing approach. Because it wasn't legal to advertise online
betting sites at the time, Roe and his small team
had to figure out another way. The answer was gorilla marketing.
(23:08):
If Golden Palace couldn't pay to advertise on television or
in print. They'd simply have to find another way to
get their url out there. In two thousand and one,
Golden Palace approached boxer Bernard Hopkins with an unusual offer.
If the fighter agreed to sport a temporary Golden Palace
(23:30):
tattoo on his back during a middleweight championship fight on
pay per view, the company would pay him one hundred
thousand dollars. Hopkins knew easy money when he saw it.
He wore the tattoo while beating his opponent, Felix Trinidad
by TKO in the twelfth round. The company wound up
(23:51):
sponsoring other boxers, but they knew it would lead to
diminishing returns. That's where Mark Roberts comes back in. It
was a match made in marketing heaven. Mark was always
guaranteed to draw attention to himself, and Golden Palace gave
him something. He never had a paycheck for running around naked.
(24:13):
Usually he was getting fired for it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
These guys got in such sponsors. We're seeing what you've
been doing, We've seen the headlines you've made. If you'll
put our name on your back, we'll fly through any
sport events in the world. Did you kidd me? I
thought I was limited to the UK, didn't have funds
to go traveling around the world to take it on tour.
So wow. So the first game I did for them
(24:38):
was a d U eight A Cup final in Seville
in Spain. And so the only time I've had pressure
to do a streak because when I've got someone's name
on my chest. But I did it in style.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That first assignment came in May two thousand and three
when Roberts ran across the field during the finals of
the Union European Football Association Cup. Roberts wore the url
along with an arrow pointing to his buttocks and a
message that ran click here. Okay, so not exactly tasteful,
(25:11):
but effective. Millions of people saw Roberts and Golden Palace
on television. The relationship blossomed and Roberts went on a
streaking streak. He jogged onto a tennis court during the
two thousand and three French Open, covered only in tennis balls,
Mark jumped over the net while being chased by security.
(25:34):
He followed that up with an appearance in a horse
racing event, the Royal Ascot. The British event is very
posh and both men and women are expected to dress eventfully.
Roberts wore an ankle length dress before tearing it off
and running onto the field. That was followed by the
(25:54):
running of the bulls in Pamploma, Spain, which seems like
the worst idea possible for anyone naked.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, the fair trib after it three times, n got killed.
The third time was the last time, and I did
it naked. But I had like a toy ball covering
my calf, my little baby bull, so to speak. And
but I fell over as I'm running. And I was
told beforehand, if you fall, crawl up into a ball
and the bull should jump over. You don't move unless
(26:26):
it's a loan ball, because they had to work. They're
the killers. So but when I fell, the adrenalines pumping
through my head so much, I just crawled over, and
all the runners had to jump over me because I'm
crawling to the fence, says A crawl to the fence
security grab told me. I pulled myself away and started
running again.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
After making several appearances for Golden Palace, he got the
call he had been hoping for. The marketing director had
an idea.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
He said to me, he said, we've got tickets for
the biggest thing in the States. I said, what's that?
He said, the Oscars. I said, now, he said, what
do you mean? It's the Oscars. Man, it's the biggest
thing in the States. I said, no, it's not the
biggest thing. I said, the shop is the biggest thing
in America. Is what are you talking about? Mane, You
can't do the Super Bowl ast? Why not?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
For Mark? The Super Bowl was well, the super Bowl
of streaking.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
It's never been done, can't be done. Securities too tight.
I said, you get me a ticket and I'll show
you it can be done. So next thing I can.
I can feel a commotion on the other end of
the line on the phone. Wow, he said, okay, man.
So he took me upon the challenge. They've got me
the best seats in the house.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
The call came after Mark had considered gate crashing Super
Bowl thirty seven in two thousand and three. He had
lined up tickets from a scalper for five hundred dollars,
but the scalper soon jacked the price up to thirty
five hundred dollars, which Mark couldn't put together. The Golden
Palace relationship was a different story. The site had a
(27:58):
marketing budget that paid for itself many times over. When
a grilled cheese sandwich that purportedly had an image of
the Virgin Mary on it hit eBay, the casino paid
twenty eight thousand dollars for it and got millions worth
of publicity. They paid one woman, Carrie Smith, fifteen thousand
(28:20):
dollars to get a permanent Golden Palace tattoo on her forehead.
The tattoo artist spent hours trying to talk Smith out
of it before relenting. He tried to keep the letters
close to her hairline so she could cover it with bangs.
They even paid multiple people for naming rights to their
(28:41):
unborn children. Somewhere out there is a person named Golden
Palace Bendetto or Goldie for short. Thanks to these efforts,
Golden Palace didn't need to advertise they had reporters calling them.
The site eventually built up to two point four million
users with eighty million dollars in annual revenue, so they
(29:05):
could foot the bill for Mark. The casino solved the
logistical issue of traveling to the US and buying an
expensive Super Bowl ticket. They'd pick up all travel expenses
and pay Mark a fee which would become a little
controversial later on. We'll get to that. The only catch,
as usual, was that Mark would have to sport a
(29:28):
Golden Palace tattoo and be a locomoting billboard for the company.
The stage was set, but even though the Super Bowl
had long been his dream, Mark had one reservation. The
game was being held in Houston, and Mark knew Texas
was extremely extremely serious about football, Friday night lights and
(29:52):
all that. How would the crowd, security and the NFL
react to someone disrupting the game. There was also the
great unknown of how American athletes might receive his antics.
In the UK, they seemed to regard him with amusement,
but a linebacker experiencing a career highlight might not.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
It's Texas, It's America. What can happen to me when
I go on so those okay sowall of Warrior? If
I get clotheslines by one of the players, like the wrestlers,
might break being neck. Because these are huge guys. One
of them could rugby tackle me, break a leg. My
worst fear was if they throw me to the floor
and all the players jump on top of me. I'd
(30:34):
suffer from a suffocation. I want to survive, though.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Between the security and players, there was every possibility this
would be more dangerous than running with the bulls. As
we've said, the Super Bowl is one of the most
widely viewed events in the world, and with that attention
comes the potential for someone to take a shot at infamy,
a terrorist attack, for example, which is why Super Bowl
(31:03):
thirty eight, which took place February first to the thousand
and four, wasn't just subject to stadium security. It was
under highly coordinated federal protection, the FBI, the Department of
Homeland Security, the Secret Service, the Houston Police Department. Airspace
over Reliant Stadium was being cleared, the Coast Guard was
(31:27):
patrolling nearby waters. Trucks towing hazardous waste were being re routed.
The FBI canceled leave for its local agents. SWAT teams
were assembled. The most resourceful law enforcement agencies in the
world were on the ground to make absolutely certain people
(31:47):
were safe. This is what Mark Roberts was walking into.
How do you outsmart national security agencies? First, you gather surveillance.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Now I'm going to go if ionuto the Super Bowl,
I have to go on after the best advantage as
I possibly can. Someone sent to the Reliant Stadium in
Houston to watch a normal game and take pictures of
security around the stadium.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
The intelligence was not promising, even a regular season game
had virtually air tight security. But Mark had a plan
and it involved making the NFL a co conspirator. Underneath
his street clothes, he would wear a referees uniform, which
he had shipped to him before his visit.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So what I did? I wrote to the NFL toldmost
started an American football team in the UK, but it
couldn't get any referee uniforms. They sent me two referee uniforms.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
He cut it up then had a seamstress reassemble it
with Velcrow. Arriving at Reliant Stadium and at a security checkpoint,
he held his breath while a security officer patted him
down and quizzed him about the funny bumps along his clothes.
The velcro on his outer layers, he explained, were for
(33:11):
a skin condition so he could apply lotion. The underlayer, well,
that was his lucky ref uniform. This might seem strange,
but consider that this is Mark's first time in the
United States. His notoriety isn't what it is in the UK.
And this security is more concerned with weapons than fans
(33:32):
trying to invite good luck to their favorite sports teams
by wearing a refs shirt.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
He said, what's that?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Man?
Speaker 1 (33:40):
So it's my locky uniform? Or when it's every game?
He said, okay, man, in you go. He had two
chances to catch me on the door.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
He didn't, But getting in the door was only half
the battle. Once inside, he got his first glimpse of
Super Bowl sized security.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Every stadium had been so mah, I've never seen security
like this in my life. It was immense. Wasn't just police,
it was security. Please, security, please, security two and threefold
and so close together.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
He headed for his front row seat, which had been
comped by Golden Palace and resided on the fifty yard line.
In front was a very serious looking man, a man
of some unknown agency affiliation, who stood between Mark and
Streaker history.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So all the time I've got acnormal join him at
the crowd and got him right in front of me.
Does police security police security? But does this one guy
stood directly in front of me, facing me with his
arms crossed. That man did not move. I was there
for four hours. He stood solid for four hours.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Mark's white whale of running onto the Super Bowl field
was in danger of being waylaid by a guard who
seemingly had no need to ever use the bathroom. Mark
anticipated this, of course, he brought along an accomplice, a
friend named Mick, who was prepared to provide a distraction.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I've took a friend with me who was going to
be a decoy if a needed one, And the point being,
if I had security in front of me, Maker's going
to go further down the wall, drop his phone and
go to climb down the wall, so security would go
towards him and hopefully give me an open path to
a LUNs of the field.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
But it didn't take long for fate to intervene. Here's
the thing about streakers, pranksters, even burglars. Wait long enough
and you'll see an opening just outlast the people guarding
(35:50):
the store. It worked at soccer games, it worked at
the French Open, and it worked here at the biggest
and most secure sports event on the planet.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Just as the.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Third quarter was about to start, opportunity knocked.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
As I said that the one guy who stayed still
for four hours walked away to speak to another security
god fathered down. I said, there must have been a
light shining down ons off of me. I said, Mick, go,
I'm going. So I've ripped me unclothes off. Now I'm
a referee. I've dropped the wall really quick.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
This was Mark's chance. First he discarded his civilian attire,
which was torn away in a symphony of separated velcrow.
For the next few minutes, he was just another NFL referee.
Fans deferred to him moving toward the field because he
looked like he belonged there. Then he sprinted straight ahead,
barreling out onto the field. He tore away his refere's
(36:46):
uniform to reveal his pale torso and fair buttocks. Then
he began doing an Irish jig and.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Just ripped me clothes off and just started to dance.
So everyone's going, what's going on all the places? But
what's the referee doing? And the thing on what was
supposed to do in my head was crabbed the ball
and transcord a touchdown. But when I took me clothes off,
he had just said dance. So I'm doing his crazy
bog stomping river dance and moonwalk stuff. The crowd. They're
(37:14):
going nuts. Everyone the crowd know what's happening. I'm look
at the plays. I think the referee has lost his
mind because he's just come und with his clothes off.
But I'm looking at all the police, and all the
police are on the stagium are confused. They're all looking
at each other, going what's going on. There's a naked
guy in the middle of the field, you idiot, such
what's going on? And he didn't have a clue what
to do.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Mark moonwalked and river danced for about a minute, which
is virtually an eternity in streaking terms. Further out on
the field that were the Patriots and Panthers, who stared
at him in disbelief. On his back was the Golden
Palace url. On the front was a small football covering
his private parts, held in place by a g string. Sneakers, socks,
(37:59):
and a cap completed the ensemble. Security scrambled. Officers began
giving chase. Mark ran wildly like a disoriented squirrel, trying
to avoid oncoming traffic.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I thought, I've never heard that war again. I've had raws,
but no to that level. When in sex beat it
through the roof then the chase started. I've got every
policement in the stadium coming up me. When the chase
goes off, the roar has reached stupid decibels. Now as
I'm running, I'm sort of laughing my head off inside,
(38:34):
and I'm thinking, I'm it's going to take to catch me.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
His path took him into several Patriots players and the
man who would do what the FBI could not stop
Mark Roberts from streaking. Matt Chatham joined the Patriots as
a linebacker in two thousand. He stood six feet four
inches and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. His livelihood
(38:58):
depended on his ability to use his weight to tackle
other men hard enough to create a player sized dent
in the grass. He looked at Mark Roberts the same
way a lion looks at a gazelle. He would later say,
Mark resembled a dancing bag of mashed potatoes. Matt had
(39:18):
dropped his shoulder and four arm low and surged forward.
The hit came from Mark's right and sent him flying
his limbs floppy, like Andy dropping Woody in toy story.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
But now I've got about twenty on policemen on top
of me. I'm getting handcuffed behind me back. His face
is pushed in the grass, and also could think of us.
I just did the Super Bowl one. I didn't give
a shit so how many police are on top of me?
I just did the ultimate end style, you know? And
Matt Chatham did me a favorite. It was the best
(39:53):
end to streak in a Super Bowl getting flattened by
a footballer and then the police car carried me off
upside down hogtide, as they call it. The crowd had
going even more crazy. But now I think, okay, my head,
try to wear quick. What's gonna happen? Now I'm going
to get beaten by the police with the buttons, you know,
(40:13):
the sticks.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Visions of angry guards at a dog show danced in
Mark's head. Security carried him off the field, his feet
never allowed to touch the ground. He was booked into
a Houston jail on charges of criminal trespassing and public intoxication. Mark,
of course, had downed a few before taking it to
the field, but he had been here before. The guards
(40:37):
were polite and found it funny. He signed autographs. The
night went quickly, even though he had to spend it
still wearing the referees uniform, which prompted some to think
an NFL official had done something really wrong.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
And the policeman said, no, this is the guy who
stripped the ball man. Next thing you went, you're joking.
Man took me in the police station. Every policeman. It
was like a policy. They were absolutely buzzn's a bits.
He took me mug shots, asked me if demanded, duplicated
it so could sound autographs of the wives, the gail, friends,
(41:13):
the friends.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Cops may have found it funny. The NFL did not remember.
This was post nine to eleven, when security was hermetically
sealing up airports, sporting events, and other public assemblies. That
Mark could make a nimble run around over two dozen federal, state,
and local law enforcement organizations was a massive black eye
(41:37):
for everyone, and so Mark quickly discovered he was looking
at a two thousand dollars fine and possibly six months
in jail for trespassing.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
I was scared. Will someone be friends said we're going
to send you to prison, and a Texan prison as well,
and I thought I was scared. It was fifty to
fifty whether I was going to go to jail or not.
I'm so many friends that's mocked. Don't go back, do
you go go jealous? Of No? I have to see
this through. I've got all the way to to text
I've done the Super Bowl. I've got to say it
(42:09):
through a copy like a fugitive.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Fortunately, Golden Palace anticipated legal problems. They recruited a lawyer
before Mark even left for the States. When he was charged,
he consulted with Sharon Levine, a respected criminal attorney based
in Houston. On advice from Sharon, Mark pled not guilty.
Their defense was symbol you.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Plead not guilty. There's no signs saying you couldn't not
onto the field, nothing on a ticket, no announcements. Not guilty.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Mark's argument was one familiar to a lot of children.
I did it because no one told me I couldn't.
To be fair, he didn't have a lot of leeway,
as over seventy thousand people had seen him run out
onto the field. The Super Bowl streaker trial went under
way in Houston in June two thousand and four. A
(43:01):
jury of six, all women, listened as prosecutors detailed Mark's
criminal nudity.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
The prosecution wanted to give me six months in prison.
She was pushing for jail time.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
The jury found him guilty of misdemeanor trespassing, and after
about an hour of deliberation, decided six months in jail
was a bit much for a sprinting naked guy. Instead,
they find him one thousand dollars. As Mark tells it,
he was invited by the judge into the jury's quarters
after the verdict.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
But all you can aid in the jury room is lefter,
And the female judge said, mister Roberts, and all my
years of working on the bench, I've never hit this
kind of commotion in the jouring room. Will you please
escort me in? And she linked my arm and walked
into the jury room with me, and everyone started achieving.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
As Mark and Golden Palace expected. CBS, which was carrying
the game, cut away from Mark as soon as he
stepped onto the field, a normal practice so as not
to encourage copycats, but the streak was still filmed and
wound up both online and on television. Mark was something
of a folk hero to fans anyway. To the NFL,
(44:17):
he was a menace.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
That the following year, I was in Kentucky fried Chicken
here in Liverpool and with my brother Chicken beforee goes
as American voice. Hello, we can speak to Mark Roberts.
He said.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Speaking Mark says, a sheriff from Jacksonville, Florida called him
home of Super Bowl thirty nine. Mark was warned to
stay away from the big game.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I said, is that right now? I said, also can
say she was look out for an old lady with
a hump. That's what you mean, man, I said, I'm
a master of disguise, and he started laughing. He said, listen, say,
I'm going to tell you this now. If you do
manage to get on the field, we will arrest you.
But afterwards, myself in a few colleagues, we'd like to
go out for a beer.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
In a strange confluence of events, Mark's Super Bowl he
happened the same year as the infamous halftime show featuring
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, when Jackson experienced what was
deemed a wardrobe malfunction and had her bare nipple broadcast
(45:22):
on television. Despite the media frenzy surrounding that, Matt Chatham
would later say all any of the players were talking
about in the locker room was Mark Roberts. Later, NFL's
security team even gave Chatham a DVD of his tackle,
probably the highest profile hit of his career. Mark hasn't
(45:45):
been back to a Super Bowl, even if he wanted to.
Getting back into the United States might be a problem.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
A flu into Newick and as a flu into Newick
he called an escort. So what took me away to
a private room? You've got a police record as a
jet that's a private property with Dansloon in Texas two
years ago, so oh should like? And she flipped me around.
You're going straight back to the UK. So I've been told.
Now for what I'm back in the States, I've got
(46:13):
to go through the American Embassy.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
The Super Bowl, however, remains Mark's signature. In twenty fifteen,
The Guardian reported he had been paid a million dollars
by Golden Palace for the stunt, which would have certainly
been a record payday for streaking, but unfortunately for Mark,
he says that was a mix up.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
I did an interview a couple of years ago with
a jailist from the Guardian. So after talking about the
Super Bowl, he said, well, how much did you get fined?
I said one thousand dollars. I said, I'd have paid
a million dollars in fines to do the Super Bowl,
and he twisted my words and said I got paid
a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Golden Palace certainly had the money to spend. In two
thousand and six, they bought the naming rights to a
newly discovered species of monkey in Bolivia for six hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. The Casino you Know's last major
marketing effort came in two thousand and seven, when they
paid twenty five thousand dollars for William Shatner's kidney Stone.
(47:16):
There are only so many streaks and so many doritos
shaped like the Pope's hat one can purchase. The casino
may have gotten out of the streaking business, but Mark hasn't.
Over two decades later, at age sixty one, he's still streaking.
According to Mark, the count is at nearly six hundred.
(47:39):
Most recently, he was on a painting job at Saint
George's Hall, an event venue in Liverpool. King Charles the
Third was expected to visit. Authorities asked Mark to please
not streak in front of his Majesty.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
No, I'm never going to retire. Never. I don't see
even the police here. Security hate me in the UK
because their job to stop people like me get on
the field. But the police tell me I get arrested.
The police absolutely really love what I do. March Dombster.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
There have been other run ons at the Super Bowl,
most notably in twenty twenty one, a man wore a
pink swimsuit and tried to collect on a prop bet
on online gaming sites about whether there would be a
streaker at the game. And no, it wasn't Goldenpalace dot com,
it was Bovada. The site avoided the bets once the
(48:37):
scheme was publicized. Pink leotard aside, no streaker has had
the theatricality of Mark, who seems to relish the moment
when everyone who has paid to see a high level
sporting event stops and starts looking at the naked guy.
They should be angry, but they hardly ever are. The
(48:58):
cheers accompanying Mark jogging onto a field are loud, but
there's something beyond the crowd reaction, something that makes someone
like Mark defy societal norms.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Over the years now, I've met many streakers and every
single one has said it's one of the best days
of the life. There was a total moment of madness
and fun, being free as the day you were born.
And literally that is the freest anyone will ever get.
By discarding your clothes, You're freeing yourself of every single, tiny,
(49:36):
little problem or big problem that you might have in
your life for that one moment in time. And it's
just I've done it. I've been free that many times,
five hundred and eighty four times to date. I think
I'm one of the freest men alive.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
To be fair, Very Special episodes is made by some
very special people. Today's episode was written by Jake Rowson,
so wrote last year's Super Bowl episode Old Man on Campus,
about a thirty eight year old defensive lineman who goes
back to school to play football and dominate the youths.
(50:16):
Believe that was our third episode, So if you're looking
for something else to listen to after these credits and
after several minutes of podcast advertising, go check it out.
Our producer is Josh Fisher. This show is hosted by
Danish Schwartz, Sarah Burnett, and Jason English. Editing and sound
design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher. Mixing and mastering
(50:38):
by Beheid Fraser. Original music by Elise McCoy. Show logo
by Lucy Kintania. Our executive producer is Jason English. You'd
like to email the show, you can reach us at
Very Special Episodes at gmail dot com. If you happen
to be in the New Orleans Convention Center this week
for some reason, stop by the iHeart NFL set and
(50:58):
say hello. We've got one more Very Special Episodes episode
this month, and we'll be back to our weekly cadence
later this spring. Very Special Episodes is a production of
iHeart Podcasts.
Originals. This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Let me take you back to February first, two thousand
and four. Super Bowl thirty eight, a showdown between the
Carolina Panthers and Tom Brady's New England Patriots, is about
to kick off. Security is tight at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Arena staff as well as the NFL are screening the
(00:40):
seventy one thousand, five hundred and twenty five fans in attendance.
They're checking for gate crashers, phony tickets, drugs, and barely
two years after nine to eleven. They are also aware
that the most watched television event of the year could
attract terrorists. There are bag checks and frisking and metal detectors.
(01:06):
Helicopters are flying overhead to make sure no one enters
the stadium's airspace. Among the hordes of diehard American football
fans filing into the stadium is one with a British
lilt to his voice. His name is Mark Roberts, and
(01:26):
he's stepped forward for a frisk. The security officer notices
something unusual.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So as I've gone to the security hold my arms out,
he's patting me down. He's gone down the inside of
my legs. He said, what's that man? And the first
thing I could think of, I said, I've got a
skin disorder. I need to be able to get to
my skin. It's put the cream on.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Mark doesn't have a skin condition. What he has is
a pair of velcrow pants, the kind favored by the
cast of Magic Mike.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Like a stripper. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The officer will soon notice that under Mark's street clothes,
he's got on something that should get him an immediate
and swift eviction from the premises and likely relocation to
a holding cell somewhere.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
He's lifted me topo. I've got a black and white
referee uniform underneath.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Mark is at the Super Bowl to meet his moment,
the moment he's spent his entire career building towards. If
his timing is right, he'll soon be bounding onto the
field of the biggest event in sports, running from police
with the game ball tucked under his arm, and doing
(02:41):
it while nude. Mark Roberts is the most notorious streaker
in the world. He's spent more time naked than most
Greek statues, and the Super Bowl is about to become
his Mount Everest. If he can dodge the FBI, the
Department of Homeland Security, the SWAT teams, and the two
(03:04):
hundred and fifty pound linebacker who has him in his
sights to make streaking history. Mark is even willing to
take a bullet.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
This is gospel truth, I thought, because it's not long
after nine eleven, just going to be snipers on the
roofs look of a terrorists. I thought, well, I'm going
to go on disrupt. They're not gonna know what's going
to go on. As I'm lefting me clothes off, they
might think, you know, I've got a weapon. One of
them might take a shot, but he won't shoot to
kill what he set the naked. He'll shoot to this arm.
(03:35):
He'll shoot me in the leg. So I thought, okay,
I'll take a bullet in the leg to do Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Welcome back to very special episodes and I Heart original podcast.
I'm your host, Dana Schwartz and this is super Streaker.
Caution this episode contains nudity.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Welcome back to very special episodes. My name is Jason English.
Today is our second annual Super Bowl episode. I'm down
in New Orleans this week because iHeart is the official
podcast partner of the NFL. Now, if you've been with
us since the beginning, you might recall Dana Zarin and
I recorded live from Radio Row last year when the
(04:19):
Super Bowl was in Las Vegas. That was a lot
of fun, learned about Zarin's horrifying football injury history. Had
a very special team dinner at Spago. It's just me
here this year representing the show. No Spago, but Dana's
got another great Super Bowl adjacent story. I think you're
gonna like it.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We're all born naked, but fairly early on we learned
to be bashful, even ashamed of nudity, depending on our culture.
In a lot of places, indecent exposure is actually illegal,
and so we spend much of our public lives with
pants on, unless we happen to be at a nude
(05:00):
beach or Donald Duck. But there are those among us
who aren't big fans of socially except behavior, who don't
like feeling constrained.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I was always naughty in school, well, I want to
say naughty. I was like the class joker I was
on who took the mickey or the teachers to give
the kids something to laugh at in class. You know,
I got expelled eventually, for just choking around too much
in school, and that followed on into my workplace, into college.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That's Mark Roberts born in Liverpool, England, in nineteen sixty four.
He's always been impulsive, a fun seeking missile, sometimes to
his own detriment.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I got kicked out of college for messing around too much.
I got fired from a few jobs for just taking
the piss basically, you know, not doing with what I
was supposed to be told to do.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Mark is one of those life is for Living types,
the guy not at the bar, but standing on top
of the bar. To make ends meet. He sold catering equipment.
He lived in Greece for a period. He was a bartender,
a painter, but it was hard to take things, take
life too seriously. There was a sense he was destined
(06:19):
for something else.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I got a job as a pipefitter, doing sprinkler systems
into the ceilings, but these just to end money. All
the time, I knew I wanted to do something else.
I was made for something else. I'd just believe in
myself that you know, I'm going to go somewhere. And
I had no idea what it was, no idea at
(06:40):
all until I went to Hong Kong.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
In nineteen ninety three, Mark, then just twenty nine years old,
found himself in Hong Kong. At the time, he wasn't
making very much money working on the sprinkler systems, and
so he accepted a one way ticket from a friend
of his who was working there.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I'm had no money, I said, well, I've got nothing.
He said, well, I'll send you a ticket, a flight
ticket to come to Hong Kong. It took him three
months to send me the ticket. Got on the plane,
one way ticket with thirty pounds in my pockets. Change
my life forever.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Mark got a job at a bar in Wan Chai,
a commercial area of Hong Kong. One night, after finishing
his shift, he started drinking himself. It was in this
establishment that Mark got a look at the rest of
his life.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
While I was working another bar and you can drink
me at a bar in Hong Kong. I finished me
shift at ten thirty, so I'm sat next to the
owner having a drink and I was pretty pissed at
the time. And the Rugby seven's is on Saturday and Sunday.
It's one of the biggest rugby events in the world.
The Hong Kong rugby sevens. And then all these guys
came in the Saturday night shouting about a Galu.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Street, casually and without much thought, as drunk people are
often prone to do. Mark told his friends that he
could do it. Streak run naked onto the rugby field,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So they own in the bar next to me next
to me said, okay, big mouth, you streaked tomorrow? Is okay?
I was just talking through drink, no intentions. I was
drunk talking basically. So next thing, because I knew everyone
in the bar, are you streaking tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
At this point, Mark wasn't a serial nudist, no exhibitionism,
no real indication of his future vocation.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was one of those ones on the beach, scared
of you know, I've got to have a towel wrapped
right around me to get me shorts off, to put
me drunks on. So I was never one thing that
I had ever did or contemplated.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Mark got so drunk he forgot all about the dare.
The next day he was awakened by his friends. He
was still fairly inebriated. They dragged his semi conscious body
to Hong Kong Stadium and reminded him over and over
again of his promise, which was to sprint onto the
grass totally nude. To work up the courage. Mark went
(09:07):
back to the bar.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I was all over the place. Just take me to
the bar. So straight walking to the streets to the bar.
Had one beer, made me feel worse, had two littleside
a bit better. I had three beers and a shot
as just about leveled out. I's okay, let me look
inside the stadium.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
The stadium had a capacity of about forty thousand people,
but he had accepted a dare. So Mark stripped down
to nothing and started running. He grabbed the ball and
ran up to the goalposts, and he experienced a kind
of epiphany. Streaking was an adrenaline rush, not just for
(09:45):
Mark but for the crowd, who could live vicariously through him.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
As I've turned around the whole stadium all at once
jumped up screaming the heads off. I've just scored a
try against the best rugby team in the world, and think, wow,
what's going on it? So as I've running back to
be seen, the crowds are going nuts.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Security was understandably concerned. They cornered Mark, but they didn't
threaten to arrest him. They just politely asked him to leave.
He did, and as he walked out, someone pressed something
into his hand. It was a ticket. Mark was so
energized and possibly still so very drunk, that he did
(10:27):
something he claims no other streaker has ever done before.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So come back in the next teen style went back in,
jumped on and did it again, crowded Matt. The crowd
went crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Just as Michael Jordan once picked up a basketball, or
how Wayne Gretzky once slammed a puck into the net,
Mark had found his true calling, showing his genitals to
thousands of people. Two days later, he did it again
at a soccer game. Off went the clothes, On went
the political revolution.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Every person was just stared and not making a sound,
And it was like surrounded by cheese police. On the Sunday.
There is like English police because it was the sevens.
This is a Chinese football match. All the pieces are
stared at me, not knowing what the hell's going on.
No one in that stagium had seen a streaker in
their life. I thought, what you do, just take off
(11:24):
and keep running. So as I've took off the second
length of the field. That's when they started coming after me.
All the Chinese police tried to rugby tackle me. So
I've moved out the way, and that's when the crowd
woke up. Because I'm taking a piss out the Chinese
police and all the Chinese people to sew downtrodden by
their own governments. It's not a good position for the
(11:45):
Chinese people in Hong Kong, especially in mainland China. And
because I'm taking the piss out the Chinese police, the
crowd woke up and you were going to started going crazy.
It was a slow build of noise.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Mark wasn't alone in his fascination with streaking.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
The early nineteen nineties hadn't seen a lot of nude
gate crashers. The practice had once been everywhere in the
nineteen seventies. Mark doesn't remember seeing much of it as
a kid, and it probably wasn't an influence, but it
was still part of American and British culture. College streaking
stunts in the nineteen sixties gave way to more audacious displays.
(12:26):
Streakers figured out the best way to make an impression
was to crash a sporting event. The patron Saint of
streaking may have been Michael O'Brien, who acted on a
dare from friends to storm a rugby match between England
and France in nineteen seventy four. He was rounded up
by a police officer who used his cap to cover
(12:49):
his privates. That was a good year for streaking. At
the University of Illinois, twelve thousand people came to watch
students hold a mass streaking event, with over four hundred
people showing up nude and bravely sliding down flagpoles. There
were even nude parachutists at these seventy four Academy Awards.
(13:13):
A streaker ran behind actor David Niven, who ad libbed
a vicious insult about the man only getting laughs when
he was naked. Streaking was so much a part of
pop culture that Life magazine featured Michael O'Brien on their cover.
Even Snoopy streaked in Peanuts, although dogs are pretty much
(13:35):
always streaking, and the singer Ray Stevens recorded the Streak,
a novelty tune that paid homage to the trend. Standing
on the shoulders of these giants was Mark Roberts, who
returned home to England determined to play with his new
found form of self expression. Because, and this is kind
(13:57):
of important, Mark didn't consider streaking a crime or disruption
adrenaline rush aside. It was more about rebellious against authority.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Authority. I'm not a big fan of authority. You know.
From school, you get the cane, We used to get
corporal punishments every day, get the bamboo stick, cross me hands,
literally every single day. And it's supposed to teach you discipline.
But I'd tell you what that made me tin against
the people additional punishment. And it's been, as I said,
(14:29):
it's been a theme throughout me whole life, to the
point where get kicked out of school, get kicked out
of college, get kicked out of jobs, and now we
get kicked out of countries.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
It was also performance art. In college, Mark had studied
dance and drama. There was a desire to entertain, though
the vehicle for that didn't seem clear until the rug began.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
It was just like a progression, natural progression from one
of all done on my life. So everyone was meant
to be. The stars were aligned on that day for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Back home, he ran onto the field during a soccer
game between Liverpool and Everton in an inadvertent homage to
Michael O'Brien. A policeman used his cap as a makeshift cup,
covering Mark's nether regions as he was ushered off the field.
Very quickly, Mark learned that disrupting soccer games was not
(15:28):
going to be an ongoing concern. He was banned from
virtually all England soccer clubs. Eventually, he claimed he had
to surrender his passports whenever an English team was playing abroad,
getting it back only when the team returned. With Soccer
considering him public Enemy number one, Mark turned to other sports.
(15:51):
The streaking obsession needed to be fed. He bounded onto
the grass at the Grand National Steeplechase while dressed as
a cowboy, jumping over the equestrian obstacles. He jogged onto
the field of the British Open Golf tournament with right
on his back that pointed to his rear end that
said nineteenth hole. He streaked Wimbledon, where he did a
(16:15):
somersault over the net the Commonwealth Games in front of
Prince Edward and his wife Sophie. In the Champions League
Final of two thousand and two, he even managed to
score a goal booting the ball past an astonished goalkeeper.
He streaked in front of his mother, brothers, and sisters
(16:37):
in plays and during weather segments on television. He did
have rules, and the rules separated the amateurs from the professionals.
Mark never streaked during official gameplay when something was really
on the line. Occasionally, he'd make a small concession to
modesty and use something to cover his genitals, depending on
(17:00):
how severe he believed the punishment for a full frontal
show might be.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Over the years, I've gradually started wearing a little monkey.
I've got a monkey, I've got an elephant, I've got
a horse, and i've got a bull. But my little monkey,
all of him, he's lost an eye. He's a one
eyed monkey, and he's been such a friend to me
over the years. He's saved me from probably more severe
(17:28):
charges than I want to normally get.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
The streaks varied, but there were some constants Mark could
expect to be cheered, and he could expect to be
chased by security in what amounts to a live action
Tom and Jerry routine.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I'm looking around when I'm getting chased by the police
and security. I'm looking around the stadium, and every single
time everyone's on the feet, screaming, cheering, and then when
I get taken down by the police, everyone boos the
police because they want to see more. They did don't
want to see me getting caught, but to all part
of the game, you know, I want to see how
(18:06):
long I can stay on and then how many people
it takes to take me down. And I've take for
a nice I've tended to an art a lot of form,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
There were consequences, of course. Running onto a field and
away from police and angry players resulted in sprained wrists
and ankles, stitches and bruises. There were overnight stays in
jail and fines which he was often unable to pay
due to being fired from jobs for streaking. Once on
(18:39):
a break while working as a bartender, he blitzed a
Liverpool stadium. The bar owner saw it on TV and
by the time Mark was back, he.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Was out of a job.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
But of all the streaks, it was one at a
dog show that proved to be among the most hazardous.
Mark trotted through the nineteen ninety nine Cruftz Purebred event
and discovered that a canine beauty pageant was very serious business.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
But before I went on. I just had the bad feeling.
I don't know what it was. I couldn't put my
finger on it, so I've jumped on anyway, next thing,
I'm running around to security, I've grabbed hold of me,
ran me through the arena into a utility room, and
systematically tortured me for fifteen minutes in this utility room
(19:29):
while all the people in suits watched from the doorway.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
This involved a thumb lock, a kind of control maneuver
favored by police officers as well as Steven Segal.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Well do it systematically. You know your thumblock where sometimes
when security grabs hold of you on a field or police,
they'll grabbled your thumb and bend it backwards towards your forearm.
So they had both of me either side, and both
of them were pushed at that much my thumbs were
virtually touching. But stop did take it in tens, he
(20:03):
decided for fifteen minutes, and eventually the only stopped when
the police came. I was in that much pain. The
tears were rolling down my face. I'm begging them to stop.
I'm begging the people in the doorway to get them
to stop. People to stay and nobody give a dog show.
I've streaked every major event in the world and the
worst way I was ever treated was a dog show
(20:23):
in Birmingham.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
This all went on for about a decade, and through
it all Mark kept an eye on the one undiscovered country,
the New World to his Columbus, or the Arctic to
his earnest Shackleton.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Always at the super Bowl in my head, because I've
done everything else, everything that's big, I thought, what's the biggest,
the biggest one event in the world. It's got to
be Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
But the goal felt way beyond his reach. For one thing,
security at the super Bowl was on another level. For another,
it cost a lot of money to travel to the
States to buy a ticket close enough to get access
to the field and have money left over to pay
for the legal fees he'd likely incur. What Mark Roberts
(21:13):
needed was a benefactor, a streaking sponsor, and he found
one in someone who had once paid twenty eight thousand
dollars for a grilled cheese sandwich. Today, online gambling is
(21:37):
everywhere Draft Kings, fan Duel, bet MGM. Depending on the
state you're in, you can open a site or an
app and place a bet on everything from Major League
baseball to college basketball to the Super Bowl coin toss.
It's legal now, with states realizing they can generate lots
of revenue in taxing both the online gaming company and
(22:00):
the consumer. But back in the early two thousands, online
gaming still had a stigmaid with it. No one in
local or federal government had figured out how to profit
from it, and so many companies wound up operating outside
of the United States, companies like Goldenpalace dot com, an
(22:23):
online casino that allowed users to visit a virtual Vegas
with digital roulette wheels and blackjack. Golden Palace set up
its base of operations in the Caribbean, with the Kanawagi
Mohawk First Nation tribe in Montreal, Quebec, Canada granting them
a gaming license. Founded by CEO Richard Rowe in nineteen
(22:45):
ninety seven, the site was one of the earliest online
gaming success stories, and it was mostly due to its
innovative marketing approach. Because it wasn't legal to advertise online
betting sites at the time, Roe and his small team
had to figure out another way. The answer was gorilla marketing.
(23:08):
If Golden Palace couldn't pay to advertise on television or
in print. They'd simply have to find another way to
get their url out there. In two thousand and one,
Golden Palace approached boxer Bernard Hopkins with an unusual offer.
If the fighter agreed to sport a temporary Golden Palace
(23:30):
tattoo on his back during a middleweight championship fight on
pay per view, the company would pay him one hundred
thousand dollars. Hopkins knew easy money when he saw it.
He wore the tattoo while beating his opponent, Felix Trinidad
by TKO in the twelfth round. The company wound up
(23:51):
sponsoring other boxers, but they knew it would lead to
diminishing returns. That's where Mark Roberts comes back in. It
was a match made in marketing heaven. Mark was always
guaranteed to draw attention to himself, and Golden Palace gave
him something. He never had a paycheck for running around naked.
(24:13):
Usually he was getting fired for it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
These guys got in such sponsors. We're seeing what you've
been doing, We've seen the headlines you've made. If you'll
put our name on your back, we'll fly through any
sport events in the world. Did you kidd me? I
thought I was limited to the UK, didn't have funds
to go traveling around the world to take it on tour.
So wow. So the first game I did for them
(24:38):
was a d U eight A Cup final in Seville
in Spain. And so the only time I've had pressure
to do a streak because when I've got someone's name
on my chest. But I did it in style.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That first assignment came in May two thousand and three
when Roberts ran across the field during the finals of
the Union European Football Association Cup. Roberts wore the url
along with an arrow pointing to his buttocks and a
message that ran click here. Okay, so not exactly tasteful,
(25:11):
but effective. Millions of people saw Roberts and Golden Palace
on television. The relationship blossomed and Roberts went on a
streaking streak. He jogged onto a tennis court during the
two thousand and three French Open, covered only in tennis balls,
Mark jumped over the net while being chased by security.
(25:34):
He followed that up with an appearance in a horse
racing event, the Royal Ascot. The British event is very
posh and both men and women are expected to dress eventfully.
Roberts wore an ankle length dress before tearing it off
and running onto the field. That was followed by the
(25:54):
running of the bulls in Pamploma, Spain, which seems like
the worst idea possible for anyone naked.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, the fair trib after it three times, n got killed.
The third time was the last time, and I did
it naked. But I had like a toy ball covering
my calf, my little baby bull, so to speak. And
but I fell over as I'm running. And I was
told beforehand, if you fall, crawl up into a ball
and the bull should jump over. You don't move unless
(26:26):
it's a loan ball, because they had to work. They're
the killers. So but when I fell, the adrenalines pumping
through my head so much, I just crawled over, and
all the runners had to jump over me because I'm
crawling to the fence, says A crawl to the fence
security grab told me. I pulled myself away and started
running again.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
After making several appearances for Golden Palace, he got the
call he had been hoping for. The marketing director had
an idea.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
He said to me, he said, we've got tickets for
the biggest thing in the States. I said, what's that?
He said, the Oscars. I said, now, he said, what
do you mean? It's the Oscars. Man, it's the biggest
thing in the States. I said, no, it's not the
biggest thing. I said, the shop is the biggest thing
in America. Is what are you talking about? Mane, You
can't do the Super Bowl ast? Why not?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
For Mark? The Super Bowl was well, the super Bowl
of streaking.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
It's never been done, can't be done. Securities too tight.
I said, you get me a ticket and I'll show
you it can be done. So next thing I can.
I can feel a commotion on the other end of
the line on the phone. Wow, he said, okay, man.
So he took me upon the challenge. They've got me
the best seats in the house.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
The call came after Mark had considered gate crashing Super
Bowl thirty seven in two thousand and three. He had
lined up tickets from a scalper for five hundred dollars,
but the scalper soon jacked the price up to thirty
five hundred dollars, which Mark couldn't put together. The Golden
Palace relationship was a different story. The site had a
(27:58):
marketing budget that paid for itself many times over. When
a grilled cheese sandwich that purportedly had an image of
the Virgin Mary on it hit eBay, the casino paid
twenty eight thousand dollars for it and got millions worth
of publicity. They paid one woman, Carrie Smith, fifteen thousand
(28:20):
dollars to get a permanent Golden Palace tattoo on her forehead.
The tattoo artist spent hours trying to talk Smith out
of it before relenting. He tried to keep the letters
close to her hairline so she could cover it with bangs.
They even paid multiple people for naming rights to their
(28:41):
unborn children. Somewhere out there is a person named Golden
Palace Bendetto or Goldie for short. Thanks to these efforts,
Golden Palace didn't need to advertise they had reporters calling them.
The site eventually built up to two point four million
users with eighty million dollars in annual revenue, so they
(29:05):
could foot the bill for Mark. The casino solved the
logistical issue of traveling to the US and buying an
expensive Super Bowl ticket. They'd pick up all travel expenses
and pay Mark a fee which would become a little
controversial later on. We'll get to that. The only catch,
as usual, was that Mark would have to sport a
(29:28):
Golden Palace tattoo and be a locomoting billboard for the company.
The stage was set, but even though the Super Bowl
had long been his dream, Mark had one reservation. The
game was being held in Houston, and Mark knew Texas
was extremely extremely serious about football, Friday night lights and
(29:52):
all that. How would the crowd, security and the NFL
react to someone disrupting the game. There was also the
great unknown of how American athletes might receive his antics.
In the UK, they seemed to regard him with amusement,
but a linebacker experiencing a career highlight might not.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
It's Texas, It's America. What can happen to me when
I go on so those okay sowall of Warrior? If
I get clotheslines by one of the players, like the wrestlers,
might break being neck. Because these are huge guys. One
of them could rugby tackle me, break a leg. My
worst fear was if they throw me to the floor
and all the players jump on top of me. I'd
(30:34):
suffer from a suffocation. I want to survive, though.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Between the security and players, there was every possibility this
would be more dangerous than running with the bulls. As
we've said, the Super Bowl is one of the most
widely viewed events in the world, and with that attention
comes the potential for someone to take a shot at infamy,
a terrorist attack, for example, which is why Super Bowl
(31:03):
thirty eight, which took place February first to the thousand
and four, wasn't just subject to stadium security. It was
under highly coordinated federal protection, the FBI, the Department of
Homeland Security, the Secret Service, the Houston Police Department. Airspace
over Reliant Stadium was being cleared, the Coast Guard was
(31:27):
patrolling nearby waters. Trucks towing hazardous waste were being re routed.
The FBI canceled leave for its local agents. SWAT teams
were assembled. The most resourceful law enforcement agencies in the
world were on the ground to make absolutely certain people
(31:47):
were safe. This is what Mark Roberts was walking into.
How do you outsmart national security agencies? First, you gather surveillance.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Now I'm going to go if ionuto the Super Bowl,
I have to go on after the best advantage as
I possibly can. Someone sent to the Reliant Stadium in
Houston to watch a normal game and take pictures of
security around the stadium.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
The intelligence was not promising, even a regular season game
had virtually air tight security. But Mark had a plan
and it involved making the NFL a co conspirator. Underneath
his street clothes, he would wear a referees uniform, which
he had shipped to him before his visit.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
So what I did? I wrote to the NFL toldmost
started an American football team in the UK, but it
couldn't get any referee uniforms. They sent me two referee uniforms.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
He cut it up then had a seamstress reassemble it
with Velcrow. Arriving at Reliant Stadium and at a security checkpoint,
he held his breath while a security officer patted him
down and quizzed him about the funny bumps along his clothes.
The velcro on his outer layers, he explained, were for
(33:11):
a skin condition so he could apply lotion. The underlayer, well,
that was his lucky ref uniform. This might seem strange,
but consider that this is Mark's first time in the
United States. His notoriety isn't what it is in the UK.
And this security is more concerned with weapons than fans
(33:32):
trying to invite good luck to their favorite sports teams
by wearing a refs shirt.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
He said, what's that?
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Man?
Speaker 1 (33:40):
So it's my locky uniform? Or when it's every game?
He said, okay, man, in you go. He had two
chances to catch me on the door.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
He didn't, But getting in the door was only half
the battle. Once inside, he got his first glimpse of
Super Bowl sized security.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Every stadium had been so mah, I've never seen security
like this in my life. It was immense. Wasn't just police,
it was security. Please, security, please, security two and threefold
and so close together.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
He headed for his front row seat, which had been
comped by Golden Palace and resided on the fifty yard line.
In front was a very serious looking man, a man
of some unknown agency affiliation, who stood between Mark and
Streaker history.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So all the time I've got acnormal join him at
the crowd and got him right in front of me.
Does police security police security? But does this one guy
stood directly in front of me, facing me with his
arms crossed. That man did not move. I was there
for four hours. He stood solid for four hours.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Mark's white whale of running onto the Super Bowl field
was in danger of being waylaid by a guard who
seemingly had no need to ever use the bathroom. Mark
anticipated this, of course, he brought along an accomplice, a
friend named Mick, who was prepared to provide a distraction.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I've took a friend with me who was going to
be a decoy if a needed one, And the point being,
if I had security in front of me, Maker's going
to go further down the wall, drop his phone and
go to climb down the wall, so security would go
towards him and hopefully give me an open path to
a LUNs of the field.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
But it didn't take long for fate to intervene. Here's
the thing about streakers, pranksters, even burglars. Wait long enough
and you'll see an opening just outlast the people guarding
(35:50):
the store. It worked at soccer games, it worked at
the French Open, and it worked here at the biggest
and most secure sports event on the planet.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Just as the.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Third quarter was about to start, opportunity knocked.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
As I said that the one guy who stayed still
for four hours walked away to speak to another security
god fathered down. I said, there must have been a
light shining down ons off of me. I said, Mick, go,
I'm going. So I've ripped me unclothes off. Now I'm
a referee. I've dropped the wall really quick.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
This was Mark's chance. First he discarded his civilian attire,
which was torn away in a symphony of separated velcrow.
For the next few minutes, he was just another NFL referee.
Fans deferred to him moving toward the field because he
looked like he belonged there. Then he sprinted straight ahead,
barreling out onto the field. He tore away his refere's
(36:46):
uniform to reveal his pale torso and fair buttocks. Then
he began doing an Irish jig and.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Just ripped me clothes off and just started to dance.
So everyone's going, what's going on all the places? But
what's the referee doing? And the thing on what was
supposed to do in my head was crabbed the ball
and transcord a touchdown. But when I took me clothes off,
he had just said dance. So I'm doing his crazy
bog stomping river dance and moonwalk stuff. The crowd. They're
(37:14):
going nuts. Everyone the crowd know what's happening. I'm look
at the plays. I think the referee has lost his
mind because he's just come und with his clothes off.
But I'm looking at all the police, and all the
police are on the stagium are confused. They're all looking
at each other, going what's going on. There's a naked
guy in the middle of the field, you idiot, such
what's going on? And he didn't have a clue what
to do.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Mark moonwalked and river danced for about a minute, which
is virtually an eternity in streaking terms. Further out on
the field that were the Patriots and Panthers, who stared
at him in disbelief. On his back was the Golden
Palace url. On the front was a small football covering
his private parts, held in place by a g string. Sneakers, socks,
(37:59):
and a cap completed the ensemble. Security scrambled. Officers began
giving chase. Mark ran wildly like a disoriented squirrel, trying
to avoid oncoming traffic.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I thought, I've never heard that war again. I've had raws,
but no to that level. When in sex beat it
through the roof then the chase started. I've got every
policement in the stadium coming up me. When the chase
goes off, the roar has reached stupid decibels. Now as
I'm running, I'm sort of laughing my head off inside,
(38:34):
and I'm thinking, I'm it's going to take to catch me.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
His path took him into several Patriots players and the
man who would do what the FBI could not stop
Mark Roberts from streaking. Matt Chatham joined the Patriots as
a linebacker in two thousand. He stood six feet four
inches and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. His livelihood
(38:58):
depended on his ability to use his weight to tackle
other men hard enough to create a player sized dent
in the grass. He looked at Mark Roberts the same
way a lion looks at a gazelle. He would later say,
Mark resembled a dancing bag of mashed potatoes. Matt had
(39:18):
dropped his shoulder and four arm low and surged forward.
The hit came from Mark's right and sent him flying
his limbs floppy, like Andy dropping Woody in toy story.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
But now I've got about twenty on policemen on top
of me. I'm getting handcuffed behind me back. His face
is pushed in the grass, and also could think of us.
I just did the Super Bowl one. I didn't give
a shit so how many police are on top of me?
I just did the ultimate end style, you know? And
Matt Chatham did me a favorite. It was the best
(39:53):
end to streak in a Super Bowl getting flattened by
a footballer and then the police car carried me off
upside down hogtide, as they call it. The crowd had
going even more crazy. But now I think, okay, my head,
try to wear quick. What's gonna happen? Now I'm going
to get beaten by the police with the buttons, you know,
(40:13):
the sticks.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Visions of angry guards at a dog show danced in
Mark's head. Security carried him off the field, his feet
never allowed to touch the ground. He was booked into
a Houston jail on charges of criminal trespassing and public intoxication. Mark,
of course, had downed a few before taking it to
the field, but he had been here before. The guards
(40:37):
were polite and found it funny. He signed autographs. The
night went quickly, even though he had to spend it
still wearing the referees uniform, which prompted some to think
an NFL official had done something really wrong.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
And the policeman said, no, this is the guy who
stripped the ball man. Next thing you went, you're joking.
Man took me in the police station. Every policeman. It
was like a policy. They were absolutely buzzn's a bits.
He took me mug shots, asked me if demanded, duplicated
it so could sound autographs of the wives, the gail, friends,
(41:13):
the friends.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Cops may have found it funny. The NFL did not remember.
This was post nine to eleven, when security was hermetically
sealing up airports, sporting events, and other public assemblies. That
Mark could make a nimble run around over two dozen federal, state,
and local law enforcement organizations was a massive black eye
(41:37):
for everyone, and so Mark quickly discovered he was looking
at a two thousand dollars fine and possibly six months
in jail for trespassing.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
I was scared. Will someone be friends said we're going
to send you to prison, and a Texan prison as well,
and I thought I was scared. It was fifty to
fifty whether I was going to go to jail or not.
I'm so many friends that's mocked. Don't go back, do
you go go jealous? Of No? I have to see
this through. I've got all the way to to text
I've done the Super Bowl. I've got to say it
(42:09):
through a copy like a fugitive.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Fortunately, Golden Palace anticipated legal problems. They recruited a lawyer
before Mark even left for the States. When he was charged,
he consulted with Sharon Levine, a respected criminal attorney based
in Houston. On advice from Sharon, Mark pled not guilty.
Their defense was symbol you.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Plead not guilty. There's no signs saying you couldn't not
onto the field, nothing on a ticket, no announcements. Not guilty.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Mark's argument was one familiar to a lot of children.
I did it because no one told me I couldn't.
To be fair, he didn't have a lot of leeway,
as over seventy thousand people had seen him run out
onto the field. The Super Bowl streaker trial went under
way in Houston in June two thousand and four. A
(43:01):
jury of six, all women, listened as prosecutors detailed Mark's
criminal nudity.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
The prosecution wanted to give me six months in prison.
She was pushing for jail time.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
The jury found him guilty of misdemeanor trespassing, and after
about an hour of deliberation, decided six months in jail
was a bit much for a sprinting naked guy. Instead,
they find him one thousand dollars. As Mark tells it,
he was invited by the judge into the jury's quarters
after the verdict.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
But all you can aid in the jury room is lefter,
And the female judge said, mister Roberts, and all my
years of working on the bench, I've never hit this
kind of commotion in the jouring room. Will you please
escort me in? And she linked my arm and walked
into the jury room with me, and everyone started achieving.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
As Mark and Golden Palace expected. CBS, which was carrying
the game, cut away from Mark as soon as he
stepped onto the field, a normal practice so as not
to encourage copycats, but the streak was still filmed and
wound up both online and on television. Mark was something
of a folk hero to fans anyway. To the NFL,
(44:17):
he was a menace.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
That the following year, I was in Kentucky fried Chicken
here in Liverpool and with my brother Chicken beforee goes
as American voice. Hello, we can speak to Mark Roberts.
He said.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Speaking Mark says, a sheriff from Jacksonville, Florida called him
home of Super Bowl thirty nine. Mark was warned to
stay away from the big game.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I said, is that right now? I said, also can
say she was look out for an old lady with
a hump. That's what you mean, man, I said, I'm
a master of disguise, and he started laughing. He said, listen, say,
I'm going to tell you this now. If you do
manage to get on the field, we will arrest you.
But afterwards, myself in a few colleagues, we'd like to
go out for a beer.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
In a strange confluence of events, Mark's Super Bowl he
happened the same year as the infamous halftime show featuring
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, when Jackson experienced what was
deemed a wardrobe malfunction and had her bare nipple broadcast
(45:22):
on television. Despite the media frenzy surrounding that, Matt Chatham
would later say all any of the players were talking
about in the locker room was Mark Roberts. Later, NFL's
security team even gave Chatham a DVD of his tackle,
probably the highest profile hit of his career. Mark hasn't
(45:45):
been back to a Super Bowl, even if he wanted to.
Getting back into the United States might be a problem.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
A flu into Newick and as a flu into Newick
he called an escort. So what took me away to
a private room? You've got a police record as a
jet that's a private property with Dansloon in Texas two
years ago, so oh should like? And she flipped me around.
You're going straight back to the UK. So I've been told.
Now for what I'm back in the States, I've got
(46:13):
to go through the American Embassy.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
The Super Bowl, however, remains Mark's signature. In twenty fifteen,
The Guardian reported he had been paid a million dollars
by Golden Palace for the stunt, which would have certainly
been a record payday for streaking, but unfortunately for Mark,
he says that was a mix up.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
I did an interview a couple of years ago with
a jailist from the Guardian. So after talking about the
Super Bowl, he said, well, how much did you get fined?
I said one thousand dollars. I said, I'd have paid
a million dollars in fines to do the Super Bowl,
and he twisted my words and said I got paid
a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
Golden Palace certainly had the money to spend. In two
thousand and six, they bought the naming rights to a
newly discovered species of monkey in Bolivia for six hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. The Casino you Know's last major
marketing effort came in two thousand and seven, when they
paid twenty five thousand dollars for William Shatner's kidney Stone.
(47:16):
There are only so many streaks and so many doritos
shaped like the Pope's hat one can purchase. The casino
may have gotten out of the streaking business, but Mark hasn't.
Over two decades later, at age sixty one, he's still streaking.
According to Mark, the count is at nearly six hundred.
(47:39):
Most recently, he was on a painting job at Saint
George's Hall, an event venue in Liverpool. King Charles the
Third was expected to visit. Authorities asked Mark to please
not streak in front of his Majesty.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
No, I'm never going to retire. Never. I don't see
even the police here. Security hate me in the UK
because their job to stop people like me get on
the field. But the police tell me I get arrested.
The police absolutely really love what I do. March Dombster.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
There have been other run ons at the Super Bowl,
most notably in twenty twenty one, a man wore a
pink swimsuit and tried to collect on a prop bet
on online gaming sites about whether there would be a
streaker at the game. And no, it wasn't Goldenpalace dot com,
it was Bovada. The site avoided the bets once the
(48:37):
scheme was publicized. Pink leotard aside, no streaker has had
the theatricality of Mark, who seems to relish the moment
when everyone who has paid to see a high level
sporting event stops and starts looking at the naked guy.
They should be angry, but they hardly ever are. The
(48:58):
cheers accompanying Mark jogging onto a field are loud, but
there's something beyond the crowd reaction, something that makes someone
like Mark defy societal norms.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
Over the years now, I've met many streakers and every
single one has said it's one of the best days
of the life. There was a total moment of madness
and fun, being free as the day you were born.
And literally that is the freest anyone will ever get.
By discarding your clothes, You're freeing yourself of every single, tiny,
(49:36):
little problem or big problem that you might have in
your life for that one moment in time. And it's
just I've done it. I've been free that many times,
five hundred and eighty four times to date. I think
I'm one of the freest men alive.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
To be fair, Very Special episodes is made by some
very special people. Today's episode was written by Jake Rowson,
so wrote last year's Super Bowl episode Old Man on Campus,
about a thirty eight year old defensive lineman who goes
back to school to play football and dominate the youths.
(50:16):
Believe that was our third episode, So if you're looking
for something else to listen to after these credits and
after several minutes of podcast advertising, go check it out.
Our producer is Josh Fisher. This show is hosted by
Danish Schwartz, Sarah Burnett, and Jason English. Editing and sound
design by Jonathan Washington and Josh Fisher. Mixing and mastering
(50:38):
by Beheid Fraser. Original music by Elise McCoy. Show logo
by Lucy Kintania. Our executive producer is Jason English. You'd
like to email the show, you can reach us at
Very Special Episodes at gmail dot com. If you happen
to be in the New Orleans Convention Center this week
for some reason, stop by the iHeart NFL set and
(50:58):
say hello. We've got one more Very Special Episodes episode
this month, and we'll be back to our weekly cadence
later this spring. Very Special Episodes is a production of
iHeart Podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Dana Schwartz
Jason English
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