 "View from the Sidelines (Eagles
game)"- by NittanyRam (1/3) |
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As Shaky mentioned last
night in his nice post about the Eagles game, I was lucky enough to watch a portion of the
game from the sidelines...thanks to my brother's generosity. My brother works for a small town paper. The Sports Director of that paper is friends with someone in the Eagles Public Relations Dept. He was cool enough to pull some strings and get my a brother a sideline pass. He used the pass for the first half and was kind enough to let me use it in the second. My brother (Will) went out on the field prior to the game where he saw Kurt Warner warming up with an assistant coach. Will had been told by a security person not to talk or yell to the players, and to always stay behind the yellow lines. (There is a dotted yellow line that runs around the perimeter of the field, about two feet from the wide sideline stripe). Despite this warning, he got as close to Kurt as the yellow line would allow, and jokingly asked Kurt to toss him the ball. To his amazement, Kurt did just that, and then walked over and asked him how he was doing. My brother, with his lower jaw now resting on the hard Philly turf, stammered something like "Your the best" to Kurt and mentioned how proud he was of the Rams' success this year. At that time, Marshall Faulk came up to them, (Will hadn't even noticed he was there), put his arm around Kurt's shoulders and said "You ain't seen nuthin' yet." I can still see the childlike, awestruck, expression on his face as he told me that story. Will was also able to get his picture taken with Dick Vermeil and even managed to grab a quick bite to eat in the press room with Ron Jaworski. Ron didn't invite him, he just took it upon himself to sit at the same table.:) I also met Ron later...he is one heck of a nice guy. In the second half, Will gave me the pass and went and sat with Shaky, Mrs Shaky, and VaRamFan. I must say, standing on the sidelines is THE way to watch an NFL game. It gives you a unique perspective about professional football that you could never capture from the stands or from your living room. Three things immediately jump out at you when you're standing that close to the action. The first is how violent the game truly is. The hitting is so hard and the impacts are so loud, that it's hard to believe someone isn't injured on every play. Holcombe got hit so hard and so often, it's a credit to him that he was able to walk off the field after that game. The second is the size of the players. Orlando Pace, Freddie Miller, Roland Williams, even D'Marco Farr. I'll never believe anyone who says that Farr is a "smallish" DT. He is the widest human being (without being fat) I've ever seen. The third, and most memorable thing about standing on the sidelines, is that you feel like your almost a part of the game. On one occasion, I was two feet from Dick Vermeil while he berated an official for missing what he thought to be a personal foul committed by an Eagles player. He said something like "Jesus (expletive) Christ, aint'cha watching the (expletive) game?!" The ref just stood there, calmly...gritting his teeth. I busted out laughing, the ref looked over and smiled sheepishly, and shook his head as if to say "Why me?". On another occasion, I almost got runover by Fred Miller as he attempted to make a tackle after an interception. You wanna' talk about an adrenalin rush? My heart hasn't beat so fast since Venessa William's appearance in Penthouse. And speaking of good looking women, the Eagles cheerleaders were incredibly hot. My brother had left me our camera, but there weren't many exposures left. Occasionally I would turn around and snap a picture of a cheerleader. They pretended they didn't notice me taking their picture, but they would immediately smile and "perk up" when I did. Heck, for all they knew, that picture could end up on the cover of some magazine. I continued to do this even after I ran out of film, just because I got a kick out of their reaction to the camera. That camera almost got me into some trouble though. Whenever the Rams would get close to the goaline, I would move to the rear of the endzone with the hope of getting a picture of a touchdown. After Holt caught that 15 yd TD, I was trying to get a picture of the "Bob and Weave" when I was rudly told to "Get the f--- off the net!" I'm like..."Huh?". As it turns out, I was standing on the net they raise prior to extra points. Before I could step off, the net started going up with my one foot stuck between the meshing. I yelled at the guy who was hoisting the net, but he was no longer paying attention to me, and he didn't seem to particularly concerned with my predicament. Now, prior to the game, my brother and I had jokingly talked about ways to get onto ESPN's highlights. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure a chubby Rams fan who's dangling by his foot a good 30 feet above the the turf of Veteran's Stadium would have done the trick. Luckily my foot slipped out of the net before I "went aloft", and the only embarrassment I suffered was some catcalls from a few Eagles fans in the cheapseats above me. Many other things happened that really made this experience special...I shook Georgia's hand (she didn't seem real pleased to do it, but the Rams were losing), I talked with Smokin' Joe Frazier, who was also on the sidelines. But, this post is long enough. Just take my word for it...if you ever get a chance at a sideline pass, by all means take it. It's the best football experience you'll ever have! |
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