When Austin Klapman received a text from his mother with an unfamiliar link and the message, “Hey you should sign up for this,” he did what any son would do.
He signed up.
“I guess it got approved,” the 26-year-old Klapman told The Athletic. “Next thing I knew, I was practicing to be a grass person for the halftime show.”
Just a few weeks later, Klapman walked onto the field at Super Bowl 60 dressed as a sugarcane plant. He found himself among a forest of like-minded individuals, costumed as shrubbery on the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., to help create part of the set for Bad Bunny’s performance.
Klapman, a former tennis player at Monmouth University who now works in corporate finance for the Bay Area technology company Ouster, documented the entire performance on the fitness app Strava.
Well, just his steps.
“I love to track my activities and see my stats,” Klapman said. “I just thought it’d be funny, like a fun memorabilia of, ‘Hey, this is my little Strava walk of my halftime show performance.’”
Strava allows users to document steps, time, distance, elevation and other endurance metrics from runs, walks, rides and workouts, then share them with other users. Klapman posted a TikTok with his halftime stats after the Super Bowl, and in less than 48 hours, it had already garnered 1.2 million views. Klapman also created a joint post with Strava on Instagram that has more than 115,000 likes.
All told, he took 1,198 steps to travel 0.57 miles in 14 minutes and 21 seconds.
Klapman, an endurance sports enthusiast, is currently training for the New York City Marathon. He had just returned home from a run when The Athletic reached him for an interview about his experience performing in Bad Bunny’s halftime show.
The initial halftime application specified that performers needed to fall within a certain height range to fit the sugarcane suits. Klapman said he doesn’t remember the specific limits, but at 5 feet 9 inches, he qualified. The application also asked about marching or dancing experience. The Chicago native believed his lone college dance course at Monmouth might be good enough.
Once selected, he had only a few weeks of rehearsals before Super Sunday. He took time off work to attend practices, all for a role as one of the sugarcane plants lining the performance.
Now, he’s reaping the rewards of the public’s fascination with the people behind the bushes.
“Every detail matters,” Klapman said. “Even though we were such a small piece of the show with our tiny presence, there were hundreds of us out there. Maybe our small presence was bigger than we thought. It was really cool to get some of that recognition.”
The performers were paid, though Klapman declined to disclose how much or in what manner, as the cast was instructed not to discuss production details.
“I would have done it for free,” he said. “Just being a part of the Super Bowl, it was the greatest honor ever.
“Walking through the tunnel onto the field as a regular person, not an NFL athlete, and seeing tens of thousands of people, and then realizing the rest of the world was watching. It was a crazy feeling. My heart was racing.”
Racing, but not from exertion.
Klapman has documented numerous walks and runs on Strava that were much more strenuous than Sunday’s easy 0.57 miles. But the world fixated on the 1,198 steps he took while draped in green fronds.
Good thing he clicked the link.