Wow, NFL games ROCK

Watching the NFL on TV is great, I enjoy it immensely. But after my second live game of the year, nothing beats being there in person.

Our drive over went well, only one wrong turn and we were very early so it wasn’t a big deal. Once we parked it became immediately apparent that the Eagles were well represented by their fanbase. Birds fans were EVERYWHERE. As we walked through the tailgating area other fans told us they were expecting as many as 27000 Eagles fans! Incredible. We were yelling to other Eagles fans, slapping hands, doing Eagle cheers all through the parking areas. You heard the E A G L E S EAGLES chant echoing throughout the grounds. We spent a good hour and a half walking around before they opened the gates. We both got some drinks but didn’t eat because we wanted to wait and eat inside the stadium. The 2 glasses of zinfandel on an empty stomach knocked Ali into silly street and soon she was just as crazy as everyone else, yelling, jumping and carrying on. It was funny.

We got inside just as the gates opened, collected our Mark Duper and Mark Clayton commerative coins (they retired their jerseys at halftime) and headed up to our level. The upper deck was a sea of green, cheering, chanting, taunting and smiles everywhere. We immediately hit the food stand and took it up to our seats to check out the view. We were way up there, maybe 20 rows from the top of the building but even there our views of the place were great. By the time we finished eating we still had close to an hour and a half before kickoff. We walked around the stadium some more, just taking it all in. It was as close to a home game as I can imagine a team can have 1200 miles away from their home city.

Just prior to kickoff, Mark Dupers brother sang God Bless America, a good rendition. Then the national anthem was something I will never forget. Evidently in Miami they don’t have a singer do the anthem. The anthem is played by a guy on a trumpet, and all of the fans sing the anthem. I mean they sing it loud enough for all to hear and then just as it ends, perfectly timed, 4 F14’s scream over the stadium with their afterburners blazing. I have a hard time describing how cool that moment was but all I can say is after they went over Ali had tears in her eyes and she hugged the Dolphin fan to her right. The sound and feeling of overwhelming power of those planes was something I never ever felt before.

Can it get any better? YES! The Eagles score a touchdown in 3 plays!!!! The Eagles fans went nuts. I don’t need to recap the game on the field as that will be well documented elsewhere. The activity in the stands was classic. Chants going back and forth. Clearly, the Eagles fans were more agressive, our cheers came more often and were in many cases louder than the Dolphin fans. Some of the cheers heard courtesy of Eagles fans, AUTO-MATIC (when Akers kicked his field goals), DOLPHINS SUCK, YOU CANT STOP US, ASSHOLE (to a few Dolphin fans that were trying to piss of our fans), IT’S ALL OVER, MVP, THIS IS OUR HOUSE and when it was apparent we would win the Nah nah nah goodbye song was sung repeatedly to the disappointed Fin fans milling towards the exits. The Dolphin fans had a few good cheers, the most memorable was F*CK THE EAGLES. I had pretty much lost my voice by halftime from yelling so much. It was the most I ever cheered and yelled for a team at any sporting event by far. I had to make one third quarter bathroom run and was dreading that the Green Bay sink pissing drama would unfold again. Luckily the sinks were still being used for washing hands but when I got to my urinal, it had a beer bottle, a beer can, and a plastic cup in it. 🙂

Once Fielder threw his final interception to ice the game for the birds our fans went beserk. It was such a cool feeling. The trash talking got pretty severe. The one guy behind us was running back and forth the aisle yelling to the Dolphin fans “Why are you still here?? It’s over, go home, this is our house now!” I must have slapped hands with 100 Eagle fans. Game over, Eagles 11-3, 9 in a row, unbelievable.

The journey back home was not so fun. As we walked out to the cars there were some isolated pockets of angry, drunk Dolphin fans that were looking to start some trouble. As I was walking to find our exit gate a bunch of 10 or so were heckling every Eagles fan they could. I just gave them the one finger salute and continued on. While we were stuck in gridlock, there was a small mini-bus filled with Eagles fans, they were heckling a car of Fin fans. They were just chanting stuff like Dolphins suck! Well I guess that was all it took because the Dolphin guy got out of his car, went to the back of the bus, and slammed the glass with his fist, breaking it! When the bus driver got out, the guy jumped back into the car and sped off. That sort of crazyiness is a bummer but it is hard to be avoided when football and alcohol are involved. All in all the interactions between the fans was loud and biting but not terrible.

We got in our car at about 12:45. We didn’t get onto open highway until at least an hour after that. The drive across alligator alley was very tough for me. I had a cup of coffee and it did very little to keep me alert. By the end of the trip I was hallucinating and catching myself literally dreaming with my eyes open. The last 45 minutes of the trip I kept myself alert by holding my breath a minute at a time. It worked. 🙂 We didn’t get home till almost 3:45 am, my head hit bed at 4.

I am off work today, I have no voice, I’m tired as hell but man was it worth it. Happy birthday to me.

Look for pics soon….