Hey Toyota! Welcome to the party!
You might find this mildly surprising, but I went to my first pro football game this past weekend. I've been following the team since 1996, but never made it out to a Pats game. Last Sunday night, the Eagles were in Foxboro taking on the Pats. Although the final score turned out to be much closer than anticipated (31-28 good guys), it was a really good game. In retrospect (and knowing the team won), this was probably much more fun than a blowout. My dad was expecting to have a little time during the 3rd or 4th quarter to go get a hamburger, but because it was so close he never made it!
I won't bore you with the details of the actual game, but rather share my thoughts on watching a game in person. I wondered how watching a football game without the close up cameras and the fake yellow first down line would be. I was a little concerned, especially with standing room only tickets, that it wouldn't actually be as much fun - but I was wrong. First - there are a ton of spots to stand, all over the stadium. You can even stand behind all of the seats on the first level around the 50 yard line, which is clearly a better vantage point than any sort of nosebleed seat. I was worried about the view if the people in the back rows stood up, though, so we ended up standing a level higher up on the first walkway under the Super Bowl banners. Up there we simply stood behind a railing and looked down upon the action. Although that put us at one end of the stadium, I was pleasantly surprised at the view, considering. On top of that, practically anytime you want to see a replay, they show them on the big screen. The thing I liked most about taking a game in, in person, was that you could watch the entire play unfold in front of you instead of having to focus on where the TV camera is. I found this interesting and honestly missed a few actual plays because I was focusing on what some of the players on the field but away from the play were doing.
I also loved the atmosphere driving into the parking lot before the game - it was a cross between a college party and 1930's depression era slums (think fires in trash cans - no really). Which is awesome of course. I couldn't really do traditional tailgating with my dad because it was a cold night game and I didn't want to freeze him any more than necessary (don't worry, he was very excited to go and took Monday off). But at another game in the future, it's something I would love to do. We had sandwiches in the car, and when we finally emerged a guy across from us yelled "Hey Toyota! I was getting worried about you! Welcome to the party!"
posted by Nathan @ 1:47 PM
0 comments
