It was a
night to remember as my wife and I went to the Monday night game at TCF Bank
Stadium, the 1st outdoor game in 29 years to the day.
The trip took about 3 hours but we
made it and stood in line from 3-5 o’clock waiting to get in. It was so funny
looking around as I am seeing human snowmen with snow just piling on people’s
hats.
The gates
opened a little earlier than planned and what happened at our gate was ugly
with fans pushing their way through. You could not get out of line if you
wanted to. There was absolutely no bag check or pat down due to the amount of
people coming. We could have any seat lower or upper deck. There was supposed
to be bracelets handed out to determine lower or upper deck.
I felt a
responsibility to be honest so we sat upper deck on the 30-yard line 9 rows up
behind the Vikings bench. I have no idea how they figured the attendance that
night.
The
tractors were pushing snow and leaf blowers were in abundance as the fans in
the front row of the end zone were getting face washes as the equipment went
by.
The pregame
warm-ups were funny because there were 2 sets of hash marks with one for
college and one for NFL. The kickers in pregame were on the wrong hash mark
kicking.
Another
funny sight I saw also was in the upper deck with some empty bench seats fans
running and sliding as far down the seats as they could. It looked so funny
from across the stadium.
The teams
came out on the field as the Vikings had a snowmobile lead the charge with non
other than Cris Carter riding on it. The Vikings came out but this time
something I have waited for 2 years.
The PA announcer announced the team captains one by one to a standing ovation
with the last being Brett Favre.
The
honorary captain this night was Bud Grant. It brought so many memories as he
came out with his breath coming through the air like old Met Stadium days. It
was an awesome sight to see Bud. It was a true honor to witness this.
The first
touchdown of the game was so crazy not that the Vikings scored so fast but what
happened in the seats was a snow throwing frenzy looking so awesome a blizzard
of snow.
In the first
half, a fan decided to be part of the game. I happened to see a man about the
5-yard line walk all the way out to midfield. I could not believe no one
stopped him. He walked up to the ref and pointed to the Vikings players. All of
a sudden down the man went as the tackle of the game came from security and the
police followed.
The
halftime show was unforgettable as the top 50 players with most being there introduced.
It was so cool to see Kramer, Rashad, Sammie White, the Purple People Eaters
and even Daunte Culpepper was there doing the “Daunte Roll.” The highlight of
the halftime for me was when Bud Grant came out in a short sleeve shirt. The
player carried him off the field on their shoulders. It was truly memorable.
The stadium
scoreboard showed clips from the past but the one that brought tingles was
Kramer to Rashad Hail Mary pass to put the Vikings in the playoffs. The camera
came live on Rashad and Kramer.
The
snowballs flying throughout the night was something but by the 4th
quarter security and police came up and started hauling people out one by one
as they were being caught.
The whole
upper deck as far as I could see every single person stood for the entire game.
It was just so fun to be part of it.
I saw one
vendor the entire game in our section. The steps were so slippery from the
entire night of snow.
The no
liquor in the game I felt was not going to happen. I saw many flasks being
passed. In fact, when we left our seats after the game we came upon a bench
where someone had put 8-10 liquor bottles in a row. The funny thing is people
would stop to take a picture.
I feel bad
for the cleaning crew with all the snow and the garbage in the snow in the
seating area, How are they going to clean it up? You cannot sweep it up. It was a sight with 10 inches of snow and garbage all combined.
That was
our night at TCF Stadium
Thanks for reading
Purplestick
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