Miasmatic Review

Substitute NFL.

Sorry, it’s been an action packed weekend for me. Well at least Saturday was action packed. Sunday was more like a redneck homoerotic gay wrestling fest. That, however, is a separate post. This post is about my Saturday night adventure, the home opener of the Rock River Raptors. Being an avid football fan I’m going to do a complete review of my first arena football game.

As part of football there is a great tradition, a tradition that every football loving human, male or female, participates in. That’s right, tailgating. That is unless you live in Rockford, Illinois where they won’t let you grill in the parking deck, even on the top of it. The only tailgating option you had was to go into the Metro Center and attend their sTailgate party. Anyone that has met me knows that I will shell out $10.00 for a beer at a various events; here it was only $4.50… for a 12 oz plastic bottle of Miller Lite. Which I had to hunt down because the outside sTailgate area only had Bud Light. I’ll drink Bud and Bud light, but not if there’s a choice and I’m paying for it. The only reason this irks me is that I can get a 22 oz Miller Light at Lambeau Field for $5.00. I can get the same 12 oz bottle for $4.00 at Lambeau Field. For those of you that don’t know, Lambeau is where the Green Bay Packers play, you know the NFL. The event food coordinator at the Metro Center thinks really highly of their venue. For clarification, the Raptors have NOTHING to do with the food and beverage service. I’d review the food, but it was also obnoxiously expensive AND from what I heard people saying, small portions and not good. They wanted $4.50 for a bratwurst… dammit, that’s a beer! Thus I didn’t eat. I know for the next game I’m going to a strip club first to do some “tail”-gazing before the game. The beer is cheaper and the entertainment has got to be better.

The tailgating and food was the only down side of my experience. The rest was fantastic. The field is 50 yards long; my seats are right on the 20. I’m 5 yards from mid-field. I was supposed to have seats at the 25, but the person selling tickets didn’t realize the field was going to be 5 yards off center when she sold me them. I’m in the first row, right behind the Raptor bench. During the game I could lean over the glass partition and talk with the players. Okay, let me rephrase that, I did lean over the glass and annoyed the players. Since there are different rules, I would ask one of the players what was going on. It was great! The only problem with my seats was that when the highway robbers beer vendors would walk down, they wouldn’t go all the way to the bottom, so I didn’t see them when they would walk down the stairs along my section. Yes, the game was that intense that I was more concerned about the game then beer. (Mark that day on your calendar.)

The game itself was fast paced. There are only 8 men on the field at a time, but being a smaller field; if they had more there would be no room for them to do anything. As it was people were being driven into the walls and flipping into the crowds. That reminds me, any balls that are tipped, thrown or kicked into the stands; the fan that catches it gets to keep. No, I didn’t get one, but not for a lack of trying. The fans in the end zones seemed to get a lot of free balls. There’s no net for field goals, point after attempts and kick offs. Some long passes even went into the stands.

With it being indoors, I thought the game wouldn’t be as rough. Was I even wrong. These guys would hit the players so hard you could feel the impact into the walls and carpet covered concrete floors all the way into the stands. On the first play of the game one of the opposing teams players was hit so hard, he laid on the floor sucking air for a good 20 minutes. Later in the game a player was slammed into the wall right in front of me so hard it rattled my seat. I could see the snot bubbles coming out of his nose!

Yes, that is the wall the guy is diving into!

The only down part of the game was that the Raptors lost in a blow out, 46-20. Sure it would have been more fun if they had won, it’s always more fun when your team wins. Either way it was a great game, great time and I can’t wait until the next home game. If anyone lives in the Rockford area and wants to see some good off NFL season football, I’d recommend it. The ticket prices aren’t bad, $27.00, $17.00 and $12.00 depending on the seat location. Trust me, it’s worth the price… just eat before you go.

Oh, and the cheerleaders aren't bad either.