I would venture a guess that 75% of people on the Hall of Fame grounds were Packer Fans, crushing the number of Indy, Pittsburgh or other fans in attendance. It was like being at Lambeau Field. The wife was surrounded by her people. It truly was a sea of Green and Gold....
....well, perhaps I should say 75% of people in attendance were wearing the number FOUR, as there were green #4s, purple #4s, pro-bowl blue #4s and black Falcon #4s. Surprisingly (or not), we saw ZERO Jets #4. I guess all those pissed off Packer fans didn't burn all their Favre jerseys, after all.
How we didn't burst into flames with all the excitement, I do not know.
So many things happened in such a short amount of time--I don't even know where to begin orwhat to include. Because younger gaybor does work for the NFL, we had top-notch access to everything. We hob-knobbed with current and past NFL greats...some of the time, we did not know who we were looking at, but their stature and Super Bowl rings let us know we were looking at someone of NFL importance. (For the record, it is REALLY hard to determine who you are looking at when they do not have a uniform and helmet on.) We ate decadent buffet meals with players and families and totally enjoyed Orlando Pace's family dancing like their was no tomorrow (they do a mean Cupid Shuffle). We gawked at the Stabler family (who was at the table next to us) and pointed out all the Super Bowl rings (beyond ostentatious displays of victory). We strolled through the Hall of Fame, stared at Tony Dungy while he was shopping in the gift shop with his son and we laughed at just about everything. I was in hog heaven because not only was "The Snake" being inducted into the hall, but also because there were TWO Goodyear blimps flying high above the stadium. (You may not know it, but I do love a good blimp...and, there were TWO!) The wife was giddy with delight when she got her photo taken with a Packer great (George Koonce) and was smitten by the volume of Packer Fans in attendance for the weekend. As part of the package, we attended the Hall of Fame concert by Tim McGraw. Like I said, we wouldn't have been able to do these things without our beloved-have-NFL-access-friends.
Several of the high lights had nothing to do with the actual enshrinement, which made for that much more fun. For instance, the wife almost got beat up at the Tim McGraw concert, something of which we are still laughing about. I made a new boyfriend...of whom caused us to move seats lest he puke all over us. And, can I just say that people in Ohio are super-friendly, nice and polite. I don't think I've been anywhere so genuinely friendly.
Security was amazing and omnipresent--at one point, their were SWAT sniper types on the roof, overlooking the stadium. Talk about feeling safe. Police presence was almost overwhelming. Getting "wanded" happened every time you entered a new section of the grounds. Security checkpoints for bag checks were the norm. (Note: If you go anywhere like this, invest in the plastic-see-through purse-type bag--it saves oodles of time at the bag checks.) There was nothing that was going to go wrong at this event.......save the Hall of Fame Game being canceled. Oops!
Suffice it to say the new turf was ruined when someone (or, a bunch of someones, I suppose) used the wrong paint on the field. The giant logo mid-field and in the end zones congealed into this hot mess of goop and then turned to something like cement. We were at one of the buffets at the time the issue surfaced (Orland Pace family, we bow to you!), so we had no idea anything was transpiring. We thought it was strange that they didn't close down the buffet at 7 PM as scheduled, but we were none-the-wiser until one of the gaybors got a text from her brother, alerting us the game had been canceled. We thought he was kidding. Turns out he was not.
Oh, they tried to fix it. They scraped off that paint as fast as they could. It remained too unsafe to play. Imagine being the President of the Hall walking out to mid-field, having to tell all those green and gold diehard fans that the game was canceled. That's the stuff of which nightmares are made. I'm sure he has an ulcer bigger than the congealed logo.
This photo is of the players, big wigs and inductees standing on the once-congealed mess. I love that the players are in shorts. If you look closely enough, you can see Brett Favre walking down the 50 yard line, headed toward the other inductees. Yes, he has shorts and a polo shirt on. I want the NFL Hall of Fame to know that this snafu did not ruin one iota of our time at the Hall of Fame. I am sure the NFL is receiving tons of hate mail and bad press. But, it was the first pre-season game of the year and would not have given us opportunity to see any of the starters do anything besides talk to each other on the side lines. We still got to see the teams and still got to fill the stands. We still got to see the inductees take the field once again and give us a wave. We still got to swim in a sea of Green and Gold. It's just that the game was not not to be.
I'll tell the stories of the wife almost getting beat up and me almost getting puked on another time. For now, let us bask in the glow of football. Let us revel in glory of a sport that entertains us to no end. Let us don our team colors and banter with those who fail to embrace those colors. Let us thank the gaybors for yet another excellent outing....
...and, let us pray for the person(s) who used that paint. They are gonna need all the prayers they can get.
*****************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment