Been away 10 weeks today that's an achievement. It's also an achievement that I don't have a hangover. I think I had it during the night. That's the benefit of starting drinking at 12.00.
Today I headed to Tempe on the bus,in the hope of being able to get cheap tickets to watch the NFL game between the St Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. I made sure I got there early after the debacle of the game I tried to get to in Chicago. If you are watching anything in America. Be sure to check the time. Most game times are advertised in Eastern time. Todays game is scheduled for 16.05, but kicks off at 13.05 local time.
I was lucky to get there early enough to get 1 of the 500 tickets specially priced at only $15.00. Having purchased the ticket I headed to one of the tailgate parties. There's a great buzz here and at only $2 (normally $4.00) for a corona it's no wonder. Although most people are drinking Bloody Mary's.
The game itself looks like a tough one for the Cardinals. Not one of the local pundits had predicted a Cardinals win. It's no surprise when you see the famous names on the sides. I recognise only 1 of the Cardinals and that is the aging running back Emmitt Smith (former Cowboy), who is injured anyway.
The easy look of the game, the small home crowd, big stadium and locations means that lots of Rams fans have turned up. They have a different mentality to us football fans. We want to see a close game played by 2 evenly matched sides that goes down to the wire. They want to watch a walk over and are bloody smug about it. I'm supporting the Cardinals. Always go with the underdog.
The respective records are 3-7 for the Cardinals and 7-3 for the Rams. I find the schedules even more confusing for the NFL. Each team plays 16 games in a regular season. It plays some teams twice, but not all of them, and it also plays most teams that are in its conference, but not all of them and then plays some teams in the other conference. How are you supposed to work out who the best team in the league is if they don't play all the other teams in its league. It beats me. That's the argument against the current best team in the NFL. The Kansas Chiefs are 10-1 but haven't played any notable opposition.
It surprises me again that there are scalpers (as we Americans call touts) at this game. The stadium won't be full, but there must be some money in it.
I entered the impressive stadium remembering that this is the borrowed from a college side. My seat is in the gods, but I don't care. It only cost $15 and I probably won't know half of what's going on. Still you can see the Cardinals need for a new purpose built stadium. More private money no doubt. It will be built by 2006 at a cost of $354m.
The field is a mass of bodies. Each team has a playing roster of 53, there are 7 match officials, about 30 cheerleaders, 16 coaches on each side, numerous other assistants like line markers, ball fetchers and water carriers.
The game itself was a spectacle. Not all the players are great athletes, but they do have some great abilities. It started really badly for the Cardinals finding themselves 0-14 (that's only 2 touch downs) at the end of the first quarter. However in the 2nd quarter the Cards (as I now like to call them) had a couple of great defensive plays and clawed their way back to 10-14 with 1.50 mins left in the half. It was bloody exciting and it shut up the cocky Rams fans. They went in at half time trailing 10-17 having just conceded a field goal.
The thing that annoys me about American Football is the time they spent faffing about. Especially because when they want to play quickly they do.
The Cardinals conceded another touchdown early in the 3rd quarter to trail 10-24, but again the defense rallied and after a couple of interceptions they scored 2 touchdowns to level the game at 24-24 with 12 minutes of the game left. The Cardinals then took the lead with a field goal leaving the Rams 2 mins to win the game. They duly tied the game with another field goal with only 4 seconds left.
Of course the game doesn't finish there. This is America and you can't draw games. The game went into overtime. The Rams won the all important toss and scored a 49 yard field goal on their first possession to win the game. A great game, not the ideal outcome, but enjoyable. Now I've achieved a life long ambition of watching NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB live in America.
The only thing that sucked was the fans. Most of them pay little attention to the game. They don't even wait for one of the numerous natural breaks in play to go and get concessions. If you thought soccer fans were brainless, you should see this lot. As least there is some humour into our chants. This lot are all guided by the PA. If I hear "Defense" or "Go Rams Go" or "Hey, number 53 your Mum just called and she said you suck" one more time then I might just cry.
The only thing I will say about them is that there was no segregation and not one ounce of trouble. If that had been a football match, there would have been fights. That's one thing about football I can't defend or condone.
Anyway I digress. Guess where I went for dinner? Yep Fridays and as I walked back (drunk again) it struck me that I am living the dream. I'm just a bit worried that I'm turning into an alcoholic.
