In Which Your Faithful Narrator Dons the Blue and Joins the Blue Clad Masses Loses Some Hearing, Flees, and Watches a Football Game at Home

Yesterday was the big day. The first day of the 88th NFL football season. It got a rousing kickstart here in little Ol Indianapolis with a free concert in the center of town, in front of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. I forgot my camera so I was unable to take pictures, however it was a sea of blue clad masses. I got downtown after work (about 3, or so) used my IUPUI parking permit, parked my car in the IUPUI lot, changed from work clothes to Colts Cammouflage (blue jeans, blue colts 29 jersey-- Joseph Addai runing back-- and blue Colts baseball cap) and followed the crowd. It was a surreal experience, truthfully because everyone was walking around wearing the same thing-- blue (or white) Colts jerseys. The place was, to be honest, awash in blue. Any one wearing a Saints jersey stuck out like a sore thumb.

I followed the crowd to the monument after getting turned around I found my way to the stage area. I had to get frisked, women to the left, men to the right. Now here's the thing. It was a free concert, but the musical talent that performed didn't fit my idea of "football." The first group who I'd never heard of called Hinder. Came out rocked the cashba, they reminded me alot of Aerosmith. I've never really like Aerosmith. They were the band that made me lose hearing. An outside concert and my ear drums begged for mercy. After they screeched through their 45 minute set, we got Kelly Clarkson. This is the first time I'd ever really heard Kelly Clarkson. Let me put it to you this way: I left after ten minutes, so, aww shucks, I missed Faith Hill. Here's the rub, though, Hinder, Kelly Clarkson, and Faith Hill don't really scream football to me. NASCAR, maybe, but not football and certainly not NFL. Hank Williams, Kid Rock, and Terri Clark: they scream football to me. I think that's why I left. I just wasn't feeling it, that my feet were starting to hurt from standing for so long.

Leaving was, in and of itself, an experience. It is difficult, to say the least, to work your way through a sardine packed group mob of people. I'd say there were probably 15-20,000 people in front of me and probably 100,000 behind me. I found a stream of people moving through the crowd and got onto that train. I got to the back of the crowd where it was quite thinned out and felt a bit more trapped because everywhere I looked were fence-barriers. I finally sat down on the sidewalk to watch the crowd for a few minutes and try and figure out how to get out of the madness. Actually, it wasn't madness at all, it was quite calm, it was just very crowded. I used my powers of observation and discovered another single file stream of people meandering through the sea of people behind me. I got on that train, again and pushed my way through the crowd.

I finally popped out on a side street and that was when the surrealism got a bit overwhelming. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was dressed in Colts blue. They were sitting in restaraunts eating and drinking, they were steaming to the stadium, they were chatting on cell phones (I think that was the weirdest part of it, I don't know why, but it was) there were street performers playing guitars, they were panhandlers shaking their cups, there were ticket scalpers buying tickets, selling tickets, they cops trying to keep some kind of order, I found myself wondering how I would shoot something like this on film.

I was goig against the flow, I was heading to my car, but everyone else was heading towards the stadium. I got back to my car, and headed out of the city. The strangness didn't stop there. I had to drive by the stadium to get out of town. There guys standing in the street with bright orange flags beseeching me to park my car in their lot. The prices ranged anywhere from 10-20 dollars. I wasn't having any of it, I wanted to go home. I finally got myself on Meridian Street and headed south. The final surrealism was this: the further I got away from the stadium and madness behind me the more "normal" life became. Some guy was weedeating his yard, another looked like he was pulling some weeds, you know just ordinary stuff.

I got home, ate some dinner, and watched the madness on tv. I was quite amazed when I saw how many people were there... I was in that? So much for my agoraphobia kicking in.

I tried to watch the football game, I really did. I made it up to halftime and then I started to fall asleep. I know the Colts won, but I didn't see much of the second half through my lidded eyes. I was just tuckered and my knees hurt from standing all day.

I Used the Word "Pithy" In This Post and I Expound to a Degree About Football Mainly its Just One Meandering Rant, Its Probabyl Best to Just Skip It

So, the professional football season begins in ernest on Thursday and Indianapolis is abuzz. I guess the first official real game will be Thursday night between *announcer voice* the Weeeeeeeerllllld Champeeeeeen IndianaPOLIS Colts..... and the New AAAAAAAHHHHHH-lin's Saints! (enough of that). Will I be able to go the game? No. I don't particularly want to go. I'd rather watch it on tv, my subtle agoraphobia doesn't really allow me to do the big crowd thing. That does not, however, preclude me from going to downtown to check it all out. There is a free concert going on the Circle (where the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument is located), there are some fairly big names that will be performing: Faith Hill being one of them. There other two performers I can't remember. And of course it wouldn't be an important event if John (don't call him Cougar any more) Mellencamp wasn't somehow involved. (An aside, he certainly lost something when he lost the Cougar, don'tcha think?) Ol John'll be rockin the Dome for the opening pre-game whatever.

I was reading an article the other day in the newest Indianapolis Monthly. Of course they were crowing about the Colts and they were trying to figure out why "we believe in the Colts" (another aside, no, never mind, I'm not going to rant about the over use of "You Just Gotta Believe" that has been stolen from the '69 Mets... really I'm not. I don't believe in sports teams, they invariably let me down). So, that Indianapolis Monthly was doing what the Indianapolis Monthly does, which is to say have nice glossy pictures and just barely readable prose about inane topics that really don't do much for the intellectual advancement of the reader, fluff, is what it is fluff. Lately, everytime the Indianapolis Monthly has an article about the Colts they trot out Cathy Day, an author, ex-Hoosier, who wrote a book about the Circus wintering in Indiana, its a good book (Circus in Winter) check it out, well any way, they had her pithy comments about being a born-again Colts fan (dig the religious metaphor) and how it all kind of happened watching the Steelers/Colts AFC Championship a few years back (actually it was nothing more than a two colum rehash of an article Cathy Day wrote for the Indianapolis Monthly magazine last year right around the time the Colts beat the Bears in that little game called Super Bowl. In short she became a fan as Pittsburgh cheered for the Steelers win. It was actually an interesting article, and if I could, I would link it, but alas it doesn't seem to be available online. Needless to say it was a nicely written article, subtle in tone and just the right amount of pithiness to make it worth the fifteen minutes it took me to read it.

I like football. Its fun to watch, I don't get froth at the mouth over it, though. Case in point: last Saturday after a rather long day at work I got home and I wanted to watch some tv. I didn't want to watch anything that would require any thought, thought I would of enjoyed a good good baseball game. What did I get? College football. It wouldn't of been too bad there had been one game on one channel, oh no, it was like six games of seven channels, yeah, you read that right. Now, I'm not saying that football is something you have to think about, though, maybe it is if you really want to keep track of downs and such, but what is football other than large men made larger still by big pads throwing themselves at each other in an effort to get at a brown oblong-shaped ball... so, no, it doesn't require thought, but it does require paying attention to, meaning: I had to be at least somewhat engaged and my brain just wasn't having it. I don't remember what I ended up watching, I think it might of been my Netflixed copy of A Night in the Museum which I liked by the way, it was a good fun movie... Needless to say, I was bummed that only thing on tv was college football. I didn't watch a single snap of any of the games, which was kind of bad thing because the next day my store manager wanted to talk about football at 0600... sorry, i'm not having that either.

This not a rant against football, really, its not. Granted, I'm sure, if you've gotten this far, that's what it sounds like, but its not. I do enjoy football. I can stomach a game or two, three at the most on a Sunday. I don't particularly care for college football, at all. I guess, to, as Kinky Friedman would say, "bumper sticker it" Football: I Like it, but I don't Love it."

45,000 fans can't be wrong

yesterday i had an experience that i'll probably never forget.  i'm not quite sure how to describe the general feeling around indianapolis since the Colts won the Superbowl this past sunday.  i would characterize it as "pride," but not in the bad way.  indianapolis just feel good.  there is still a sea of blue every where you go.  the number 18, peyton manning's number, is probably the most prevalent, no, it is the most prevalent.  any where you go you see 18 all over the place.  you see a few others, too (88-- harrison, 44-- clark, 23-- freeney, 4-- vinateri, etc etc).  i wear number 29 joseph addai, rookie running back. 

i work next to dick's sporting goods store.  yesterday, about every two hours or so, a fedex truck would roll up to dicks and deliver more superbowl merchandise.  this town has gone superbowl mad.  i myself have bought two shirts. 

now, to last night.  there was a parade yesterday for the colts.  it was through downtown and was to end at the rca dome.  i hemmed and hawed all day trying to decide if i wanted to go.  i finally decided i would.  i was scheduled until 230 yesterday afternoon.  so, i left work and drove downtown, parked my car in the iupui parking lot and decided i'd just follow the crowd.  i had a general idea that i'd go to the dome and watch the parade from there.  i got to the dome and noticed that it was open and that many people were going in.  so, like a good lemming, i followed suit.  i'm glad i did.  the tempeture here in indy has been hovering in the low teens and just above zero. it has been quite cold.  the parade was delayed because of various delays in the flights and also the players changed into warmer clothing.  the parad was supposed to start about 430 or so, but didn't get going until much later.  i was in the dome by 300 found a good seat and sat.  i'd never been in the dome before.  it is rather little, hence why the city is building a new stadium, but the sightlines seem to be pretty good.  i sat behind the endzone and faced the stage were the team was going to gather for the "rallly."  i sat and sat.  as did thousands of others.  by the time the team got there almost 45,000 fans were in that dome waiting to welcome the team home and explode in cheers.  they did both. 

this is a picture of the team on the stage.  coach dungy is addressing the crowd and to the right of him is the Lombardi Trophy, its hard to see, but if you look closely you'll see a little shiny thing.  that's the trophy.  you may be able to clik on the pic and see it better.

this picture is the view to my right in the stadium, keep in mind that by the time the team got there the top section was completely full, too.

 

 

this is the left side of the stadium.

the sound that 45,000 people make in an enclosed place is amazing.  my ears were ringing by the time i left.  it was crazy.  the place fairly shook.  the crowd just exploded when the team rolled in.  a chorus of "DUN-GEE, DUN-GEE, DUN-GEE..." rang out when coach dungy got to the podium.  the roar of "MVP, MVP, MVP..." filled the stadium when petyon manning got to the mic.  the crowd even gave marvin harrison love when he tried to shy away from the mic (he is notoriously shy about talking in public), but he did get up say a few, and i mean a few, words.  i couldn't hear what he said though because it was just too damn loud. 

it was just an amazing experience.  the last pic is of all the fans coming out of the stadium.