Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005

Chiefs Opener

Today I enjoyed my first NFL game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a Vikings game, but it was still a GREAT game to see.
Before I get into the details, I must say, the Chiefs fans were friendly and not too crazy. I am a Vikings fan at heart and that will never change, but the Chiefs may turn out to be a close 2nd. It’s lonely being a Viking in Chiefland.
My dear fiancé, Jeffrey, won tickets through his company to the season opener of the Chiefs. I, being the most important person in his life, was graciously invited to go along. Not only did we have tickets to the game, but we had VIP Tailgate tickets and free (close) parking.
We set off early this morning with coffee and a full tank of gas. We arrived about 3 hours and 25 minutes ahead of kick-off, acclimated ourselves to our surroundings, and went into the VIP tent. At 9am, we had food consisting of French toast and mashed potatoes, Italian sausage and fried chicken, scrambled eggs and spinach salad. While the food was nothing to write home about, it was FREE food, therefore good food. We also had the privilege of enjoying a beer and a screwdriver free of charge.
We were given free mini-massages by some massage therapy students, and judging by the pain in my arm, my therapist had not been a student all too long. We enjoyed dessert and then went to find our seats.
The pat-down on the way into the stadium was much less threatening than I feared, they have a “male” line and a “female” line and my line seemed to be much shorter than the other. 
The gate we went into happened to be directly in front of the gate where we were seated, so we found our seats. Lower level, under the overhang so much to our delight we were in the shade at Arrowhead Stadium. To start the game the Air Force held the flag in the middle of the field while we all sang the National anthem. At the end some fighter jets flew overhead and while we couldn’t see them because of the overhang, we did see the shadows on the field. It had quite an impact. The game started, and it was the Chiefs dominating all the way. Up and down, and up and down in our seats, the action seemed to stop only momentarily for an injury or a timeout. After spending $14 on a pretzels and a soda to share, we saw a silent Marine drill team give a performance and it was really amazing. They were so skillful in handling their guns it was just remarkable.

The second half of the game was much like the first. One additional thing was a fan who you could tell was really dedicated to the Chiefs but talked WAY too much and seemed to take a liking to Jeff and his coworker close by. He did get the hint eventually (by Jeff and his coworker ignoring him) and seemed to continue talking to either himself or the 12 year old next to him. After the third quarter many of those seemingly less dedicated fans left, although I can’t fault them too much because it felt like 110 degrees in the stadium at least and I’m sure most of them had been there for hours already like we had. We stuck it out until the end when the score was 27-7 in favor of the Chiefs.

Getting out of the parking was relatively easy and quick, we went for custard and came home and watched the game that we had seen in person on our DVR. It was interesting to hear the commentators take on things that we had seen.

My first NFL experience was pretty first-class and I would be willing to partake in another game any time. I just hope the next one involves Daunte Culpepper.

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