X-mas came early to the Lucky household. Last Sunday, the wife and I took a bus across uptown, Minneapolis, hitched a ride across downtown on the new multi-million dollar train line, entered the new billion dollar stadium, and witnessed millionaire athletes playing for billionaire owners.
The experience: for one, even from the eleventh row, we could not hear any sound from the field (except the occasional crack of pads and a whistle now and then.) The television microphones pick up the barking quarterbacks and plenty of clashing action, but, from the seats, I felt strangely removed from the event.
Also, and probably because the Detroit Lions are not a contending team, I did not experience the mayhem of a nutbag football audience. Mostly, people act insane only when a camera crosses in front of them. In reality, there was a lot of lulls during television timeouts and there are no announcers ramping up the excitement during a play.
These are not complaints. It did feel somewhat surreal, but we had a good time. We've already spoke of trying it again, probably next season, in order to get a better grasp of the environment.
In the end, the Minnesota Vikings soundly defeated the Detroit Lions 20 - 7.
Here are a few pics I took between downs. Thank you.
