Go Patriots!

Last Wednesday, Theresa sent out an email offering three tickets to the Patriots' last pre-season game the following evening. Being something of a Patriots fan, I eagerly snapped them up and started looking for friends to take with me (it seems I was the only of Theresa's friends who was interested in the tickets at short notice).

I ended up taking a couple of French friends, so I was the American football expert. We caught the (rather early) train from South Station to Foxboro. The man in front of us explained some of the rules of the game to my friends: since they hadn't seen any American football at all, it was probably a bit confusing (it makes much more sense once you see it in front of you).

During the last little bit, the train moved very slowly (a little internet searching suggests less than 10 mph) and rocked heavily from side to side. It was enough to be noticeably annoying, but on this particular trip I was never expecting getting there to be half the fun (I think getting there was about -1/20 the fun).

We arrived, and went to Five Guys to have hamburgers for dinner. The food was quite good, although it was a little early for dinner and I haven't been feeling that hungry lately. I do like the fact that the stadium is located beside a bit of a mall (I guess it would be more accurate to say that there is a mall located beside the stadium), so there were plenty of choices for dinner (and also if we wanted to do retail shopping, buy groceries, see a movie, stay at a hotel...).

On trying to enter the stadium, we couldn't because of some bags we had with us (almost no bags at all are allowed in). After a bit of wandering, trying to decide what to do with them, we dropped them off at the hotel. I'm not sure if we were really meant to be allowed to, but I left the more obvious foreigners do the talking (they were in fact their bags), and the woman at the desk took pity on us (and earned a little tip at the end of the evening).

The game itself was enjoyable. Early on, all the action seemed to be at the other end, despite the absence of a breeze. Ryan Mallett looked pretty comfortable as quarterback for the Patriots, though he will have little chance to relive this experience this season (depending on how the season turns out, I might get to see him when I see a regular season game against the Bills in December).

I have read articles suggesting that being at the game and seeing the whole field, not the area concentrated around the ball (as seen on TV), greatly increases one's understanding of the game. I didn't find this: I thought that most of the action really was taking place near the ball, and I appreciate the little things the TV station does to help keep track of the game (little things like keeping good track of down and distance do help).

At halftime, some rather small boys came out and played football. It was fun to watch and cheer them on: they had the Patriots cheerleaders cheering for them, and when one scored a touchdown near us after a very good run, he had thousands of people applauding him.

Tim Tebow was the Patriots' quarterback for the second half. He looked very unconvincing as a quarterback. Denver treated him badly because of a change of management, the Jets treated him badly due to general incompetence managing their quarterbacks, but in New England he got a fair treatment and didn't do enough to impress. He was cut two days later because he was obviously the third best quarterback on the team, and he would have to be particularly good to gain a roster spot in that position (two quarterbacks on the roster is more common).

When New England regained the ball with the lead and 17 seconds remaining, I took my friends and started to leave, since the conventional thing to do in this situation is kneel down and let the clock expire. As we were leaving, we heard a cheer, because New England had instead scored another touchdown. It was a good play, but a strange time in the game to attempt it.

The trip home was long and slow, and I made it home well after 1am. A good time, though, and I look forward to the game I'm seeing in December: it will be during the daytime, and will actually mean something.