Week 4, @ Vikings
So far on this trip, in just 4 weeks, I have witnessed some of the most celebrated records in American sports history fall week after week after week. To say that this year is something special with respect to the NFL and the Green Bay Packers would be a total understatement. How do you top a 3 and 0 start from a team that some were saying wouldn’t win 3 games the entire season?
A start that has seen Brett Favre equal and overtake Mike Tinglehoff of the Chicago Bears for 2nd on the all time consecutive starts list. Current consecutive starts before today of 240.
That has seen Brett move from equal with Dan Marino for all time wins as a quarterback to surpassing both he and John Elway to be the single winningest quarterback in the history of the game. Current all-time wins before today of 150.
A beginning that has Brett placed equal 1st with Dan Marino for the all-time touchdown pass record. Current touchdown passes before today of 420.
A season that has already witnessed Brett’s 8,300th completion, 49th 300+ yard passing game, 60th 3+ touchdown game and 38th, 4th quarter come from behind win.
I’ll tell you how you can top all of that and I can tell you how to do it all in 3 and a half hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon. You take your first road trip from Green Bay to Minnesota to see one of the fiercest divisional rivalries that exist in todays game. You scalp tickets from a passing motorist who has them hanging out the window of her car for all to see. You climb as high as you can without oxygen into a dome that holds 75,000 people and you sit back to watch history in the making.
Today, in one unbridled day of football history my mate Robbo and I, along with millions of other football fans country wide witnessed the Packers defeat the Minnesota Vikings in one of the loudest, most hostile arenas I have had the privilege of ever attending. We saw the Packers take the win and improve to 4 and 0 on the season, their best start since 1998 to be one of just 4 teams still undefeated through September. A record that sees them at 8 and 0 when taking the end of last season into account, putting them 2nd behind only Indianapolis for current consecutive wins.
We saw Brett take the field for his 241st consecutive game putting him on his own in 2nd place all-time and we saw his 151st career win. We saw Brett attempt enough passes to put him alone atop that category all-time and we saw his unprecedented 50th all time passing game of 300 yards or more. Most importantly though we saw Brett’s 421st touchdown pass to Greg Jennings midway through the first quarter to see him take the record of all records. Most touchdowns passes in the history of the game.
There has been alot said about Brett and what he should or shouldn’t do with respect to retirement. I’m glad he’s blown it off time and again to do what he loves and bring joy to all football fans who love watching him play just because he wants to. Days like today make you realise that whilst some think running around after a piece of pigskin is worthless, it’s the inspiration of individual performances like these that keep you coming back for more, every week of the year.
The Morning – Breakfast, Travel and the Search for Tickets
So, Robbo and I made the trip to Minnesota as described yesterday without a ticket or accommodation to speak of. Don, a friend of mine that I had made in New York when we were there for the Giants game had arranged accommodation for himself but wasn’t able to make it in the end. As such he was kind enough to gift his room to us but despite his generosity we were uncertain whether we could in fact check in. I mean not being him may have caused the sorts of problems we could easily have done without. Thankfully it wasn’t an issue so we were free to sleep last night and wake this morning in our nice Packer Backer beds ready to roll on over to the Metrodome.
We had done our research to learn that there were so many tickets across so many websites still for sale that picking one up this morning shouldn’t have been an issue. With that in mind we moseyed on down for breakfast not long after 930 and left the hotel in Stillwater Minnesota shortly before 1030. What should have been a half hour trip, 25 miles into town took almost twice as long thanks to the city of Minneapolis being just that little bit (a whole lot) bigger than I had anticipated. Coupled with continual rain and the customary game day traffic, we were beginning to worry less about getting a ticket and more about actually getting there at all.
With Don as our guide we made it to the car park just shy of 1130 (for 12:00 kick-off) and headed out, in the wet, to find ourselves some of the 100’s of scalpers we expected to see desperately trying to push tickets down our throats. Can you tell by now that there weren’t in fact many scalpers out at all and our mission was becoming again more difficult than expected? One that we did happen across tried his best to sell us 2 tickets for $400. We quickly told him he was dreaming and moved on. He tried again at $300 but for 2 tickets when there were (according to the www at least) 1000’s still available we decided to try our luck. Suffice to say it didn’t get us very far.
Reluctantly, after 10 minutes of ticket (soul) searching we headed back his way hoping he’d have forgotten already meeting us and the obvious ease with which he could have jacked the price well beyond his initial ask. Lucky for us, literally 30 yards away from him, a woman was driving down the street, steering wheel in one hand, 2 tickets in the other. She called over to us and I obliged by crossing the street to see what she had to offer while she stopped her car, right there, in the middle of the street forcing all of those behind her to sit and wait. Her offer? Both tickets, face value, $9.95 a pop. Yes the Minneapolis Metrodome, home of the mighty Minnesota Vikings has regular season tickets for just $9.95 a seat. Gee what a great venue, no wonder it’s for ever sold out. Choking back the screams of joy I hastily whipped out a $20, told her to keep the change (hey big spend-ah) and ran back to Robbo where we joined the shortest cue there was to get inside.
The Entry
It seems the Minnesotans are yet to discover the phrase “sexual discrimination”. Either that or they are so wrapped up in the phrase “politically correct” that they had separate lines of entry for men and women. Supposedly this was to do with men being searched more thoroughly than our fairer friends. I found this remarkable. I mean, if I was going to take something naughty into the game but I knew I would be subjected to more of a search than my wife, wouldn’t I just give her what it was I was trying to hide and meet up with her on the inside? This created quite a stir amongst the men’s line that was some 10 or 15 people deep seeing that the women’s line was never in fact queued up at all. Oh and the fact that we were standing in the rain whilst waiting didn’t please too many people either.
At a second attempt we were told that it was because they had men guards searching men and women guards searching women. This caused some of the rowdier fans (all Vikings I might add) to suggest they weren’t in fact happy to be searched by another male and the banter went on. In the end we got in and the temperature went from Alaskan to Hawaiian in the space of 60 seconds. The joy of watching football indoors was finally upon us. So too was the joy of overcrowded concourses, stifling humidity, echoes like we were in ‘Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome‘ and obnoxious home team crowds that didn’t want to seem to give fans wearing green and gold any sort of warm welcoming.
Our Seats
So here’s the beauty of Lambeau Field. It doesn’t matter with whom you talk, anybody, even visiting fans will tell you that there isn’t a bad seat here in Green Bay. I’m sorry to say the same can’t be said for the Metrodome. Our seats, expectedly so, were in the nose-bleed section. In fact truth be known, we were so high up our noses were too scared to bleed for fear of how far it’d have to fall. Either way I was happy to be in as we ascended to row 29 seats 30 and 31 of section 212. What we would come to realize is that was indeed a reason that the tickets we bought were just $9.95 a pop. A very good reason indeed.
Something our lady friend forget to mention was the reason these tickets were in fact so cheap. Having said that, and to be fair, I didn’t exactly look too closely as I was pulling $380 less out of my pocket than I expected too. You see, on the actual ticket, printed right where the seat details were, lay the words “Limited View” and let me tell you, they weren’t bloody lying. Two seats, directly behind a 2 foot square pillar that was holding the roof in place. You can see it in the background of the picture with Rob and I, and more clearly in the photograph that I took exclusively or, well, the pillar below!
This concrete monstrosity, and there were about 40 of them throughout the stadium, was in such a position that it blocked out the entire middle of the field. I’m talking the best part of the 30, 40, 50, 40 and 30 yard lines. Now tell me, who in their right minds, knowing that these seats were obstructed, would even consider going to a game to see only 2/3rds of the field? (See the pictures of “with pole” and “without pole” or as i like to say, “now you see cheerleaders, now you don’t”.) Anyway, we decided that concrete watching wasn’t what we came to do so we stood at the top of the aisle until we decided it was safe enough to sit in seats that had laid vacant for the entire 1st quarter.
Game Time
There’s nothing quite like a divisional game and I learned that today. Sure, I know that the Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota games mean more but today I experienced that first hand. If you only win 6 games in a year, make sure it’s the teams in your division you beat. If you’re going to lose 10 games in a year lose to everybody but the teams in your division. Now I’m not saying that the first three games lacked any feeling but boy there was FEELING in this game. From the opening whistle that stadium was absolutely electric. And Loud. The noise was intense and I noted on more than one occasion that at it’s peak, you can scream without hearing your own voice.
On a Packers 3rd down it was even more obvious. How those players call an audible at the line is beyond me. I guess that’s why they’re the players and we’re the fans. It was a unique first impression and one that, despite being at the home of the ViQueens (Sorry Vike fans, I was dared to do that at least once) I would love to do again.
‘The’ Play - 421
Of course the special play came with some 5 minutes to go in the 1st quarter - pictures courtesy of my camera and viewpoint first and Don’s camera and viewpoint second. Ironically it was on 3rd down and even more ironically it was after an audible. Brett threw a slant pass to Greg Jennings for 20 yards and the 421st touchdown of his stellar career was here at last. I tell you what, number 85 must be counting his lucky stars. Of all the catches to make in only his second year, Greg has caught Brett’s 400th, 420th and 421st passes. All milestones in themselves. How many apples did he have to buy the teacher to have that happen so early in the piece?
Allowing the play to pause a little whilst the team celebrated and crowd rose as one was a nice touch seeing as a penalty could have been blown. A tribute to Brett from Dan Marino was also played and my take on this was fantastic. At this point, watching Brett live for the moment, with Dan Marino on the big screen as fans, wearing purple as well as green and gold applauded.
I felt like I was part of something big. The whole country at some point over the next few days will see this pass replayed 1000 times over. It’ll be in every single newspaper that goes to print and it’ll be one of the most read articles online for a long time. That moment, living it live the way we did, right before our eyes will be a hard one to top let me tell you.
As most of you know by now, and I did ruin it in my intro, the Packers won 23 – 16. The Vikings game plan of kicking us to death with field goals didn’t work and by the time they did find the end zone it was too late anyway. I was interested by the celebration after each field goal in fact. It was huge. The team song rang out loud, the flag bearers ran across the field and the crowd all clapped along in unison. All of that for not scoring a touchdown made me realise why they didn’t score touchdowns. The party after the field goals was just as good.
The Wrap-Up
Being at my first divisional game to experience the true rivalry of these cities first hand was exciting. Doing so in a dome made only for football was awesome and walking away with a win in place of my hearing was an acceptable cost. We tried and very much enjoyed (sorry Pack fans) the traditional “Dome Dog” with gherkin, mustard, ketchup and onions. Beer was a little rich at 6 and a ¼, especially seeing as we didn’t pay much more than that to get in but I guess compared to that, everything was over-priced.
Having to scalp tickets wasn’t as much fun as I thought it’d be but boy did I enjoy the trip there and back. We actually missed one of the highways on the way back plus there were some road works not far into the trip so it took us the best part of 6 hours to get back to sunny Green Bay.
The last time we went 4 and 0 to start the season was 1998 and we’ve only done that a handful of times in almost 90 years. The last time we went 5 and 0 was 1965. Nobody thought that we’d start this well but now that we have, does anyway dare to suggest we can’t go one more?
Write about the trip home….. kwjh wkjg wks wkjv wkvb wkjvh wugv wuiv gwkjv wivk gwuvg wkv wriuv gwlhjvb wrjkhgv ilwrg vklwgh vufe gvklufgb kubh efklubh eukhb eubg erubg eilbf iugb wlkubh ow;ubgw;oiugb woub wb wouh boufgb woubg wubg wioubg ;wbg wuilgb ;g w;obh ;wub howbh wobg w;bg w;iug b;wiugb wugb uwibg ;w;g w;bg w;rugb ;woubg w;robgwkubg w;bguwbu ;wbwuigb w;iubg wugb wugib wiugb w;ribwrubh uwriubg .
Until next week, primetime Sunday night, against the Bears. Could this season get any better?
