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My first NFL experience

26 October 2009
jets bills 2009 nfl game


Last Sunday, Christi and I braved the rain and cold weather with about ten other people to experience our first NFL game. Most people were shocked that neither one of us has ever been to a game (or an NBA or NHL game for that matter). On the flip side, we ran the math and unofficially I've been to more college football games than almost my whole team combined. It's just a different beast out here in the northeast.

There were a lot of obvious differences, but one of the main ones was how many men between the ages of 30-50 go absolutely crazy for their team. I'm not talking about the average joe sports fan, I'm talking about the guys who are just dressed to the nines in their Jets gear screaming at the top of their lungs and acting like a college frat kid the entire game. I can only imagine the wives of these guys sitting at home holding onto every calming second until the stench of $9 boos and $7 hot dogs stumbles through the doors. Don't get me wrong, "that guy" has been at every college football game I've been to, but it just seemed like he was everywhere at The Meadowlands.

Also, Christi pointed out that it was strange to see empty seats at a game. Thinking about it, I can't remember a time, including away and bowl games, that I didn't watch football with every seat being occupied.

The game wasn't the best, but we were two minutes and forty-four seconds away from an NFL rarity in the form of overtime. It would have been pretty sweet to say that the only NFL game that we attended ended with a tie.

Even more important than the NFL game itself, it was a great tailgating test run for us. At the end of November, an even larger group of us will be heading a few minutes south to The Game.

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