So this weekend is one weekend I've been looking forward to since the middle of the year. Earlier this year I managed to get hold of tickets to see the American Football. This was after spending 45 minutes going through various pages on Ticketmaster (at work no less). And for once, I didn't have to leave these shores. This is because the NFL was coming here, they were staging a regular season game outside America for the first time. American football was coming, to wembley no less!
Just so you get some idea this is the equivalent of the Premier League, taking a league game to America. The teams coming across were the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. This technically was a home game for the Dolphins, although they were a long way from home.
Notice I mentioned tickets. I had also managed to drag Simon, Dave and Mike into this adventure. Although drag isn't really the right word. Mike is a very big American Football fan, Simon and Dave aren't big fans, but were interested all the same. And for the three of us, it would be our first ever trip to the new Wembley Stadium.
I'll say it now, Wembley isn't the easiest place to get to, it's badly situated if the truth be told and is only where it is now due to nostalgic reasons. After failing to get National Express (coach) tickets, earlier in the month, we (Me, Simon & Dave) had hatched a plan involving me Driving, A Train and the Tube. And then last Monday, I tried the National Express Website just on the off chance and managed to get Tickets. I count myself very lucky.
Because Simon had to be at work on the Monday we started/ended out journey at his house. I drove across to Stoke-on-Trent, picking up Dave on the way on Saturday Evening. On Sunday, the journey begins. The first leg was to walk from Simons house to the Coach station, which takes about 45 minutes. When we started out it was raining lightly. After about 10 minutes this turned into an absolute downpour. By the time we got to the coach we were completely drenched. All our clothes were soaked and some of our possessions as well. I had a number of books in my bag for the journey and they were all completely soaked. One is still not dry even now.
We left Stoke about 11am and the coach took about 3 hours to reach Wembley. This was the first time I'd been on a coach for over 10 years and my first time on a National Express Coach. The journey seemed long, but went off without incident. We met Mike outside Wembley, and after having all our bottles of drink confescated, were allowed to enter the Stadium. We took our seats quite early as there was very little to do inside the stadium (unless you drink).
Here is our first view of the Stadium from the inside. At this time it is very empty. It's a very impressive stadium and the Newness hasn't really had chance to fade yet. We did take our seats rediculously early. Although some people were completely the opposite and there were whole tiers that were sparsly populated with just 5 minutes to go.
Which is a shame, as one thing you get with American Football, over Football (I refuse to call it Soccer) is the Pre game. Here we get to see the New York Giants warming up.
And here we have a medley of Songs by the Band "The Feeling".
Finally with the Razzmatazz the Americans are none for the Miami Team take to the field. Cue the customery Fireworks.
The teams had honorary captains for the day. Martin Johnson, represented the Dolphins (and got a loud cheer), John Terry the Giants (Solidly booed) and the coin was tossed by one Lewis Hamilton (a very loud cheer).
The game was on.
Highlights of the game include the atomosphere, which was brilliant. We got that English tradition the streaker (sorry ladies no pictures I'm afraid) and also that the Dolphins brought there Cheerleading Squad to a very Wet London. Surprisingly I did manage to get one picture of them. ;-)
The game finished Giants 13 - 10 Miami. I wish the game had a higher score, but most of the points were scored at our end of the field so we did get to see quite a lot of action. The game finished abour 20:15 (after starting at 17:00). We got to our coach quite quickly, but had to wait for others to arrive, so we didn't leave until 21:15. We also had to negotiate a Crash coming out of London as well, so we didn't get back to Stoke until half past midnight. Factor in the walk and we didn't get back to Simons until 01:15am.
Poor Simon had work to go to (thankfully just a teacher training day). I however, had managed to take the day off and slept soundly until mid-morning. Was it worth it, I would have to say definately Yes!
6 comments:
Some of the cheerleaders were pretty.
Thanks for getting tickets, sir - an experience I will never forget!
How cool is that??!!
The last time I was at an NFL game was like... TEN years ago, and I live in The States.
I'd love to see a real life cheerleading display.
Sounds like overall, you had a good time, and maybe one day I'll see an NFL game :-)
I have to disagree with you about Wembley being difficult to get to. You couldn't really have it in the centre of London because it's too big. The stadium itself is close to the tube stop, and the tube stop is serviced by the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines which, between them, go to Waterloo, King's Cross and Liverpool Street, three of the big train stations in London. The fact that it's on the Jubilee line is a big bonus, because the Jubilee crosses almost every other tube line. I think you must have just been unlucky.
Oh my god, I'm starting to sound like a Londoner.
Glad you enjoyed yourself though.
Maybe you had a bad day - I found Wembley quite easy to reach using the Underground, although if you're adding on all the other travel you had to do, I can only agree...
Cool!! I've only seen NFL games on tv.
So I read on Helen's that you're doing NaNo!! :) Yay!! What are you writing about?
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