Football

I've been to many football games before. I've been to games with little kids, high school games, and college games (all divisions). Yesterday, I went to my first NFL game.

I saw the Vikings play the Cowboys in Minneapolis. The dome reminded me of the Unidome, where I've seen UNI play many times before. The Vikings game (opposed to the cowboys game, as my dad called it) was very loud. It wasn't until the game started, when I realized this. Not only was it a full stadium, but it was also a dome. This provided for a very loud game. I even saw a few people with earplugs.

An unfortunately common thing about games is that food is expensive. At the Vikings game, I bought a hotdog for 6 dollars. At the Megadome (I made that name up, I don't know the actual name), they must have some pride, because their hotdogs were not like other games' hotdogs. Not only were they bigger (both the dog and the bun), but they loaded them up. It felt like I was in a Subway, where I choose all the toppings to put on my sub. I loaded mine up with about half of the things available. These included baked beans, some type of peppers, tomatoes, a special kind of relish, and surely a few other additives. I will say that it was not a completely good mix. The spicy peppers, for instance, did not mix well with the baked beans.

Another experience that happens perhaps in only professional games was fireworks. During the Star-Spangled Banner, red rocket fireworks glared, and the bomb fireworks burst in the air. Also, at every Viking touchdown (I don't know if they would have done it for the Cowboys, because they never got a touchdown), fireworks leaped outwards from the goal posts.

At a high-school football game, you can expect the team to run through a big piece of decorated paper. This often gets a lot of applause. The Vikings did something much grander than that, though. Unfortunately, everyone saw it coming, because a huge viking boat had to be blown up before hand. It was like a tunnel, where the players would run through. In the tunnel entrance, from my point of view, I could see that there was a wheel, most likely of a motorcycle. I figured that maybe the wheel would help in the movement of the boat. That, or what actually happened, which was that the Viking mascot on the motorcycle, along with a few others very similar to him, burnt rubber on the field coming from inside the boat. Immediately following the mascots, the team rushed onto the field. This was the first time that the crowd got loud.

During warm ups, I got to see a very famous man. Brett Favre was warming up in the middle of the field, like he was in charge (though he kind of was, being a quarterback). His big number four on his chest revealed to me the man that was on the radio so much the previous summer. I remember my drivers education teacher ranting about him in the car while I was driving. This man, who anyone could talk about knowledgeably, was in real life right in front of my eyes. He then went to play a great game. It made me realize how real these football players actually are.

Another realization was when a man was yelling at the Vikings team(of course, I heard about this after the game). He was complaining that they were running up the score. Jared Allen, who played for the Vikings, was about to go over and make him stop complaining, but contained himself and simply laughed at the Cowboys fan.