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Published: October 5th 2005
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Giant Stadium crowd
Americans at their place of Sunday worship. The midday sun really beat into me. I thought summer was over, but sitting in Giant Stadium, a sweltering furnace of heat and energy, today with 78,452 of my closest friends I thought I was going to be cooked. Maybe I deserved it because I had, along with many others in NFL stadiums around the country, spurned a day of prayer for a chance to worship at the mammoth cathedral that is American Football on Sunday.
My dad and I had always watched football together on TV every Sunday since I was little. I grew up idolizing my New York Giant heroes, Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, and Bill Parcels. However, it wasn’t until last year that I actually got to attend the big event live for the first time. Today I got the chance to go again. With two tickets to the Giants/Rams game in hand, my dad and I sped across the border into New Jersey to take it all in. That’s one other thing how embarrassing for New Jersey that a team that plays there still calls themselves the New York Giants because nobody wants to be affiliated with New Jersey. OK, you got me, I’m
Eli Manning leading the Giants
Manning dominated today throwing 4 TDs. a life long New Yorker.
One thing about an NFL game is the tailgating. A vast majority of American football fans get to the stadium early. Once there they unpack their barbeque equipment and grill themselves up a feast and drink some beers. It smells so good as hamburgers, steaks, and all kinds of sausages are cooked to perfection. The blue clad Giant fans tossing footballs in the air combined with the sounds of the pre-game show on the radio produces a festival atmosphere.
What I found really cool is that the stadium is still half empty up until like 5 minutes before kickoff and then all the tailgaters come rushing in and assume their positions in the red plastic pews. They obviously have been doing this for years. Giant tickets are very hard to come by. Everybody has had their season tickets for years and now they just seem to get passed down from generation to generation. The stadium builds to a roar as the kickoff looms, with the crowd trying to see if they can produce a sound louder than the Stadium PA blasting hard rock.
Today they played a clip from
Happy people in the parking lot
Time to go home after a satisfying 44-24 victory. the movie Gladiator, with Russell Crowe exhorting on the troops, just before the teams got ready to fight it out on the field. I immediately could totally picture being amongst crowds of ancient Rome packed into the Coliseum. Like our ancient forbearers we had come to see our fare share of blood. I could have sworn it was Maximus himself out there as a player raised his arm high above his head while he was being carted off the field after a game ending injury.
In the past few years I have actually gone off the American football, the NFL in particular. I find that there are way to many stoppages of play and to many substitutions. It has none of the pleasing flow of basketball or soccer, and only about 40 minutes of actual game action spread over a three-hour period. There is so much excess, but that is what makes it uniquely American. Besides it was the only major team sport to be pretty much 100% American athletes playing. In baseball you have many Latin players. In hockey you have Eastern Europeans skating all over the ice. In basketball you have Manu Ginobili, an Argentinean, leading his team to the NBA title, not to mention Olympic gold. Don’t even think about soccer. But in football it is pure red, white, and blue. There is something in this, along with a game that lends itself to those with short attention spans, that is comforting to most Americans. Not to a traveler like me though. Give me a global game any day.
I have to say though being at the stadium and witnessing all that excess for myself first hand is something special. It is a uniquely American experience. We are the lucky. We are the well off. We are like golden retrievers, open and happy. Most of us have never been out of the country. Many don’t even own passports. To Americans this is what is all about, whether it is gathering with the crowd at the stadium to cheer along your teams or at home with some friends. But thinking back on it I wonder what percentage of them have any idea of the amount of poverty the small towns across Southeast Asia or in a Rio favala. I doubt even 5,000 of them have heard anything about the tragic bombings in Bali yesterday. However, at the stadium it was easy to be sunny and happy. God bless America.
Let me say a little about today’s game. It was great to see Eli Manning coming into his own as quarterback for the Giants. He has a chance to one day rival the great Phil Simms in the pantheon of Giant greats. He threw a remarkable four touchdown passes, along with one amazing throw on the run as he eluded his pursuers. Many of these throws found the tall lanky target of Plaxico Burress, a great off-season pick-up. Hopefully, there will be many more Sundays of Manning-to-Burress in future years.
It was a very satisfying win for the Giants as they left the Rams lying on the Coliseum floor after a 44-24 drubbing. The gladiators of New York could march back into the tunnel victorious. I put my shoes on, that had come off in order to beat the heat, and my Dad and I headed off up the New Jersey turnpike. The Sunday afternoon service had let out.
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Sam
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GIANTS WOOOT!!!!!!!!!!
the giants fuckin rock the nfl. they are gonna be amazing in the 2006 2007 season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!