SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Boston Herald will take you inside Super Bowl week with our running diary. In our first entry, we’ll give you the inside scoop on Super Bowl LX Opening Night.

As usual, opening night, or media day, as it used to be called, was a circus. Most of the credentialed media at opening night are there to have fun with players, rather than asking serious questions, so it’s a good and somewhat harmless introduction to the week for players with a sense of humor.

One player, who was particularly popular, said his mouth was so dry after the hour-long session that he could barely speak by the end. Even practice squad players have lines forming of media members waiting on 1-on-1 interviews. A lot of players play along and have a great time being asked who they would perform with at halftime, what their favorite food is and even playing games for social media apps. I watched offensive tackle Thayer Munford Jr. being asked to flip through pictures of his teammates as children and guess who they were based on their appearance. He nailed most of them but missed on Will Campbell, who plays the same position.

The Super Bowl media center, NFL Experience and NFL Shop are all in San Francisco, but media night was held in the San Jose Convention Center, since the Seahawks are staying next door in the San Jose Marriott, and the Patriots are staying in the Santa Clara Marriott, which is much closer to San Jose than San Francisco.

That necessitated a shuttle ride from one convention center in San Francisco to another convention center in San Jose. We’re touring convention centers this week! Patriots media availability will be held at their hotel in Santa Clara.

The vibes inside the convention center were much different than past events that were held in more impressive venues like the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Grand Casino Arena in Minnesota, Daikin Park in Houston and Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. This felt a little more lifeless, to be honest, since it was simply held in a big room with bad lighting. There were fans, but they stood off to the side and were allowed to ask players questions at a 12th podium, rather than sitting in stands. One reporter described it as “aura-less.”

The Patriots, as a team, were introduced by NFL Media host Scott Hanson before they departed for the floor and podiums for interviews.

Unsurprisingly, Drake Maye was the most popular player at the 11 standard podiums. He was surrounded by hordes of media members all night.

He was asked how it would feel to be tagged as a “Masshole.” He said he hopes he can earn that honor on the field.

On the floor, wide receiver Mack Hollins, who was barefoot, drew the biggest crowd. During the season, Hollins is only available to the media on Wednesdays. Since it was a Monday, Hollins wouldn’t answer any football questions.

He was asked if he would wear shoes for the rest of his life if it would guarantee a Super Bowl win.

His answer: No. “A man should never break his principles.”

Opening night is also a great time for reporters in local media to get 1-on-1s with players.

A fun fact I learned while overhearing wide receiver Efton Chism being interviewed by a Seattle station is that he was in the same graduating class at Monroe (Wash.) High School as Benson Boone, a popular singer. They still keep in touch.

Head coach Mike Vrabel was asked the best game he’s been a part of.

His answer: “Hopefully Sunday.”

There are a ton of people on the floor at media day, so it can be tough to find the players or coaches you’re looking for. I made a list of guys I wanted to talk to and gathered quotes from Chism, Munford, EVP Eliot Wolf and outside linebackers coach Mike Smith for pieces that I’ll be writing about in the future.

Prior to media night, two-thirds of the Boston Herald contingent — myself and Andrew Callahan — arrived in San Francisco on Saturday night. We originally planned to fly out Sunday morning, but didn’t want to take any chances with the upcoming storm.

Tailwinds allowed us to arrive an hour early, but I got in some valuable writing time and rewatched “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I ventured out to get my Super Bowl week credentials from the Moscone Center on Sunday morning. I then went to check out the NFL Shop and posted some pictures of the merchandise on social media (a good call, since it’s already generated over three million impressions) before getting my bearings with where radio row and the media workroom were located in the convention center.

This year’s merchandise leaves a lot to be desired. I was shocked by how little Patriots-centric merch was available.

Since there was no media availability that day, I took a chance to enjoy getting out of the frigid temperatures of New England to enjoy the weather in San Francisco and walked 10 miles throughout the city, enjoying tacos from Taqueria Cancun in the Mission District before returning back to the hotel and FaceTiming my wife, Jen, and 8-year-old daughter Olivia.

My sister, Amanda, lives in San Francisco with her husband, Jeff, so I took my first self-driving Waymo out to their house and had dinner with them and my in-laws.

A review on the Waymo: Felt safe the entire time, and it’s a nice option for some peace and quiet. It’s fun to watch the screen in the front of the car to see how the autonomous driving vehicle is identifying cars, pedestrians and any obstacles.

On Monday morning, I sent some texts and emails for information I needed later in the week for stories, talked to a player’s college head coach for another story I was working on, and then headed back to radio row to do my podcast, Pats Chat, live from the CLNS table with my co-host Michael Hurley, who’s back in New England.