A good example of this is the use of people's names in the piece. I'm also telling about the random and unexpected stories that occur at an event. I'm not longer describing the nuts and bolts operational side of things, I'm focusing on the colorful happenings.
I changed the pictures in this piece so they could fit into the blog here. I also added the video of the Brady-Moss-Gaffney play. This was originally written on December 14, 2007.
Evening (4:15 PM) games are my favorite to work. It’s not too early, it’s not too late. It’s dark, but people don’t have all day to drink. I get home at a reasonable hour, but I don’t have to get up at an unreasonable one.
Once again, I was stationed in the North End Zone (the one on your left on TV), behind section 142, on the ADA (American with Disabilities Act) platform. Great view of the field, the jumbotron, and the cheerleaders.
One of the many things I never really thought about before getting this job was all the stuff that happens in the sky during an event. The airspace around the Stadium is restricted on game day. This is a security precaution and a logistical matter. There are too many aircraft around the venue to allow unauthorized planes to enter. There are airplanes dragging advertisements, blimps, State Police choppers, Mister Kraft’s helicopter, our helicopter patrolling the parking lots, military flyovers, and so on.
On Sunday, an unauthorized and unwelcome plane invaded the skies above Gillette Stadium. Well, it might have been authorized, but it certainly wasn’t welcome. It towed a sign that read “Barry Bonds: 756* Bill Belichick: 3 Super Bowl Rings*.” It did 8 or 10 laps around Gillette before disappearing, probably forced to leave for an unapproved sign, or maybe even shot down by SAMs. You never know with the Patriots.
I don’t care what your opinion is on SpyGate, Barry Bonds, or any combination of the two. You don’t fly that crap over our Stadium. Ironically, there were probably a couple dozen surveillance cameras watching that plane as it circled the area.
Back to the game. There were slightly fewer Steeler fans at this contest than there were Eagle fans a few weeks ago. However, they still made their presence felt. Thanks to the Terrible Towels that they brought, it was easy to spot them throughout the Stadium. Nevertheless, it was mostly Patriot fans who caused problems.
I went on break in the middle of the second quarter. On my way to our break room, I saw my friend Joe and a few other TeamOps event staffers (orange jackets, more security oriented) standing in a semi-circle around something. Behind them were three cops kneeling on a guy as they cuffed him. The dude being arrested was face down on the concrete, a cops knees on the back of his neck. I couldn’t help but chuckle.
My buddy Mike was working the section next to mine, and four Patriot fans had been acting up. They yelled drunken obscenities, threw stuff, and were overly intoxicated. Another fan told Mike that this quartet of punks were planning on hitting him, so that was the last straw. Three of them were willing to be peacefully escorted out, but one of them decided to be a tough guy. He punched a cop. To quote Good Will Hunting : “You hit a cop, you’re going in.” The guy could have just left the Stadium and drank in the parking lot all night. Instead, he went to Norfolk County Lockup.
My section was calmer than Mike’s. The problems I dealt with were more stupid and silly than violent. There were two drunk guys who claimed that someone was in their seats. I walked to the seats with them and they were empty. One of the beer vendors approached me with a slip of paper that appeared to be a temporary Rhode Island license. He then asked me if he should serve the guy. How the hell should I know that? And of course, there were dozens of people asking where they could stand with standing room tickets.
Standing room people really piss me off. Most of them are okay, and some are fun to interact with during the games. However, they think that having an SRO ticket entitles them to something more than just entry into the Stadium. I had a man in a wheelchair and his wife enter my ADA section, and the SRO people behind them were screaming at the woman to sit down, even though they had just arrived. I summoned the meanest “STFU” glare I could at them and they piped down.
The Red Line (everyone must stand BEHIND the red lines around the Stadium) is seriously abused in the end zones because of the hordes of SROs. I’m very strict about enforcing the Line, because if you give these clowns an inch, they’ll take a mile. By the end of the game, they were calling me “The Red Line Gestapo.” I wanted to have some fun with that and start yelling in German. “Sie ziehen hinter die rote Linie um!” But I didn’t.
Being at the Stadium is so much better than watching the game at home (obviously). What I mean is, actually being there allows you to see things before they happen. On TV, the camera is aimed at the quarterback and the area around him. You can’t see downfield. But being there, you can see everything. On the busted double lateral pass trick play (it’s called “Raven”), once Moss threw back to Brady, the entire crowd could see what was about to happen. They saw Brady with space, and Gaffney about 10 steps ahead of Anthony Smith. The sound made by the crowd was like 70,000 people sharply inhaling in unison. Then the place exploded as Gaffney hauled it in.
But the best part of the game wasn’t the trick play, or the goal line stand, or Brady’s 4 touchdowns. It came late in the 4th quarter, when the game was in hand. A chant arose from the south end zone, and spread along the east and west sidelines. I don’t know if it was heard on TV that well. It was done to the beat of the “M-V-P” chant. But the fans were saying “GUAR-AN-TEE!” It gave me goose bumps. Then they put Anthony Smith on the jumbotron in between plays. It was the second best moment at Gillette this year, behind Belichick’s first pre-game introduction after SpyGate.
Thankfully, the Patriots won and won convincingly. I’m not just saying that because I’m a fan. As this winning streak progresses, any loss would be catastrophic, especially for Stadium security (and even worse for parking lot security). And blowouts are great because people leave early.
Last Friday, I worked the premier Boston College hockey game of the season: the BU game. It was lively, but still not nearly as intense as Alfond Arena in Maine or Lynah Rink at Cornell. But the Conte Forum still overflows with drunk students for the BU game. They fill the sections behind the nets and all of the upper level of the arena. But it was fairly obvious that for most of these students, this would be their first and last game of the year.
You have to be smart to get into Boston College. But apparently, you don’t have to be so smart if you want to run a BC sporting event. Someone decided it would be a neat idea to put those little towels fans wave on all of the student seats. In the 2nd period, the crowd realized that these rags could be tied into a ball and used as a projectile. Thankfully, they were just towels. Nevertheless, it’s not good to have fans throwing stuff around.
I had one interesting situation. I was on the top floor of the rink, making sure people didn’t wander into the press area. A very drunk BC fan was walking around the section, singing the theme song to Team America. He took a seat behind some of his buddies, and passed out. I called my supervisor, and we watched him dream his drunk dreams for a bit before his friends woke him up. There were only 3 minutes left in the game, and he wasn’t causing any problems, so we didn’t do anything.
Wednesday night I worked the BC/UMass basketball game. Stupidly enough it was scheduled for 9 PM right in the middle of finals week. I was at the gate the entire time, so I missed the 83-80 seesaw Umass win, BUT, the cheerleaders and dance team all warmed up in the gym adjacent to the gate. It was nice.
Speaking of cheerleaders, here’s a gratuitous pic:
Next event: Jets vs. Patriots in a Nor’Easter. Could get weird.
Ushering Statistics:
Events worked: 31
Ejections: 1
Ejection Threats: 35
Uncomfortably hit on/fondled: 8
Times I’ve Heard “Shipping Up to Boston”: 110
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