Back in these days of working for TeamOps, I was all about watching the game. It's amazing how little of the game I see now, and how little I care. I'm certainly no less of a fan, but when you can't sit down, have a beer, and enjoy the game; they can lose their glamor. But back in '07, I was still wide-eyed about working at Patriot games.
This was originally written on September 17, 2007.
I woke up at noon on Sunday, with a massive cold. I had worked the New England Revolution game the night before. I must say, that’s a pretty easy gig. There were only 12,000 fans at the game, most of them are families or groups of kids. It was fun, and the kids have fun. But it doesn’t feel like a true sporting event. We only open half of the lower bowl. I worked the Brazil/Mexico friendly on Wednesday and spent Saturday morning watching the English League, so watching MLS was a step down in intensity and level of play.
Anyway, back to football. Like I said, I had a nasty cold. And by the end of the night it would be a heinous cold, but by then I would wind up having more energy than I’ve had in maybe a month.
We have to get to the Stadium extremely early. I got there at 2:00 PM, 6 and a half hours before kickoff. See, the supervisors and managers have to figure out exactly how many people they have in each department, then they have to assign everyone to go there. About 1,000 people are deployed by TeamOps for a Patriots game. It takes a long time to divide that many people up.
I successfully avoided taking tickets and was assigned as an usher. YAY! I would get to see the entire game! I also had a sick vantage point. I was in between sections 116 and 117, which is in one of the corners. If you’re watching the game on TV, my section was on the extreme right of the Patriots’ sideline. Basically, I was in the last row of the lower level. Pretty good seats, people pay $89 to sit in my section and $49 to stand behind it.
Standing around doing nothing before a big football game sucks. It’s cold, windy, there’s pump up music playing on the Stadium sound system, but there’s nobody to pump up.
Talking to people working around me, we’d inevitably talk about what we thought the score would be. My prediction was 31-27 Patriots. Everybody was predicting a Pats win, but all by close scores: 24-21, 27-24, 28-24, and so on. We’d all be wrong about the scores, but we’d all be pretty happy when the night was over.
After a few boring hours of standing around, with only the occasional “Is that Tedy Bruschi warming up?” to offer any sort of diversion, people started to come in more and more. My section slowly began to fill up.
The atmosphere at any sporting event is brought by the fans, not the players. Fans create this contagious buzz that spreads through the Stadium like an airborne virus. And I was infected. Three hours before the game, the Stadium was empty, and I was a tired, sniffling mess. Two hours before kickoff a few people had arrived, and I felt a little better. One hour before kickoff the Stadium was 1/4 full, and I forgot I even had a cold. Thirty minutes before kickoff the Stadium was 2/3 full, and my heart was pounding. Fifteen minutes before, the Stadium was 7/8 full, and I truly was ready for some football.
Right before kickoff, they introduced the Patriots defensive players. Everyone got some cheers, with guys like Bruschi and Wilfork getting the most applause. Then they did something different: they introduced Coach Belichick. The place went fucking nuts. I taped the game and they didn’t show this on TV, but it was awesome to see/hear the support we gave to the much maligned Bill Belichick. If Bill had an emotion chip, he probably would have been happy.
The game was amazing. We totally dominated one of the best teams in the NFL. The first drive was moving away from my section, and I missed the actual TD pass to Watson because I was checking people’s tickets. But you can still feel the plays when they happen, and it is a great feeling. This was only the second regular season game I’ve been to, the first being a week 17 win over the 49ers in 2004. The atmosphere for this game was much better.
I had a good view of Colvin’s 1st quarter interception. It was far away from me, but I could see it happening before it actually did. Once the ball left Rivers hand, and I saw Colvin hovering in coverage, I could see him grabbing the ball out of the air, and maybe even taking it back for 6. We failed to score off the turnover, but you could tell we were in control of this game, even without videotapes.
I got sent on break toward the middle of the 1st quarter. This was right when Olivea was on the ground injured. It was scary for a few minutes because he didn’t move. And after what happened to Kevin Everett, everyone in the place feared the worst. But he got up and appeared to be somewhat OK.
Like I said earlier, there are 1,000 of us working Patriot games, and we all share the same small little break room. The cops assigned to the game also eat there, as do the vendors, maintenance staff, and custodians. So when I got there, I saw a long line or orange, green, and red shirts, and it wasn’t moving forward. I decided that eating a shitty meatball sub wasn’t worth missing the entire 1st half, so I went back to my post. I got back in time to see Randy Moss haul in a touchdown.
I had a great view of Adalius Thomas’ 2nd quarter interception return. That man is fast. He was running right at my section and nobody, not even San Diego’s receivers, was going to catch up to him.
By half-time, we were up 24-0, and we could have been up 35-0 had we been playing our best. The Chargers were being outclassed. Barring some major 2nd half adjustments, this game was over. Furthermore, with such a lead, the Chargers would be forced to run LT much less. San Diego has no deep threat WR, either. Their big plays come once and awhile with Ladanian Thomlinson on the ground, or Antonio Gates making yardage after the catch. Philip Rivers' performance was not very promising for a comeback. There was a general good mood in the Stadium.
During half-time, the most desired information was the Red Sox score. It was 1-1 at the time, but rumors were circulating that it was 2-1 Yankees, or 1-0 Sox. I couldn’t use my phone to find out the actual score. It kind of sucked missing the entire Sox/Yankees game, and it looks like it was a great game, but I didn’t want to be anywhere but Foxborough last night.
San Diego scored on their opening drive of the 3rd quarter, but it took 7:22 off the clock for them to do it. That was kind of fine with me and the rest of the fans. It was still a 3 score game, and there was only about 20:00 left on the game clock.
We only took 3:37 to go the other way and score a TD. This was one of the many nails in the coffin we would drive into San Diego.
During the 3rd and 4th quarter was when I had to deal with the fans the most. The people in my section were well behaved (95% season ticket holders who know if they screw around, they lose their seats), but the standing room people were a bunch of drunk children. It was all in good fun, but they refused to stand behind The Red Line. Actually, they’d stand behind it whenever I asked them to, but a few minutes later they’d cross the line again. But they were good natured about it, and they’d come over to where I was standing and celebrate whenever we scored. I only had a few guys be any sort of trouble. I told him he couldn’t stand where he was standing, and he tried to argue with me about standing there. I was 2 seconds away from calling over the TeamOps manager to dispense with this individual, but he left. Then there was another guy who also felt as though he could stand anywhere he wanted. He argued a bit, then did what I said, calling me a “fucking faggot” in the process. I let it roll off my shoulder, but it’s unwise to make enemies with someone who has the power to kick you out of the Stadium, or have you detained in our holding cell.
The funniest moment of the night came in the 3rd quarter. A drunk guy, in his early 30s, typical guy you’d see anywhere. He was wearing a Patriots shirt and a drunken grin. He walked up to me, I asked him for his ticket. He turned his back a bit, bent over slightly, and displayed the backside of his jeans to me. He pulled out the ticket and said, in a thick Boston accent “I was hoping you’d reach for it.”
“Sorry, sir, I don’t want to do that.” I replied. I checked the ticket, and it was for the wrong section. “Sir, this is the wrong section. Your section is two sections over that way.”
He replied “I know, but I saw you from afah! I just had to come over here, you big hunk. You’re a stud!” He tried holding my hand and hugging me. It was awkward. I knew he was kidding, but when people get that drunk, it’s very weird to be around them. He then asked if I would walk him over to his section but I said I couldn’t. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The Chargers scored again to open the 4th quarter. Ellis Hobbs fumbled a kickoff and San Diego recovered, but were able to do nothing with the ball. We then had a 10:07 drive that was a beautiful thing to see. Not only was I happy that we took time off the game clock. It also meant that I’d get home sooner. And when Sammy Morris scored, the Exodus of people trying to beat traffic ensued.
My favorite moment of the night was during the 4th quarter. You probably didn’t hear it on TV, but the 2 sections next to mine began a “Belichick” chant that was phenomenal to hear.
My 2nd favorite moment of the night was when the Patriot cheerleaders switched uniforms. They wore their tight shorts and small top for the 1st half, which are spectacular to behold, but I’m a big fan of the pleated skirt, white shirt, USC Song Girl look. To me, it just looks hotter. They wore their USC-esque uniform in the 2nd half. It’s nice.
My section is the one right above the tunnel to the visiting locker room. So after the game, the Chargers had to walk under me. They were greeted by booing. Shawne Merriman received a mock cheer. LaDanian “9 out of 10” Tomlinson was greeted the loudest as fans mercilessly yelled at him. He took it like a man and did his walk of shame with his head down…right under me. I felt 100 feet tall.
As an usher, blowout games are great! People leave, the Stadium clears out early, and we can go home early. We can’t leave until the Stadium is cleared. The Revolution game on Saturday took 30 minutes to clear, and was only 12,000 people. I feared that the Patriots game would take much longer with 70,000 fans. But it only took 20 minutes to significantly clear. Then traffic wasn’t that bad, it only took 30 minutes to go the 6 miles to my house. It normally takes 15 minutes when there’s no traffic.
I felt great after the game. I still had that cold, my nose was stuffed more than Route 1 after the game, and I had been on my feet for 7 hours, but I had all the energy in the world. I couldn’t sleep until about 4:30 AM.
This morning, I woke up and the cold is even worse than before. It looks like I’ll be in bed all day, eating Sudafeds. But all the Patriot haters out there will be eating crow for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I saw it all live and in color.
PS: I know this is poorly written, but I’m very sick and I just had to write about this experience right away.
PPS from 2 years in the future. It's written well, Rob.
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