Yep, none of them played… that’s the NFL preseason foryou. It’s like going to a U2 concertwith Bono sitting on a chair on stage playing U2 songs off his iPod.
So why watch an NFL preseason game? Simple:
1 regular season ticket == $130.00
Arn != rich
A couple of hours before the game I was at Marshalls picking up a Bears jersey. I was choosing between a $30 Cutler jersey or a $9 Anderson jersey. Cutler is the starting quarterback for the team. I have no idea who Anderson is buthe’s only 9 bucks so I bought his jersey. I went home and showed it to Jaye.
“Who’s Anderson?”, she asked.
“I dunno… Gerald?”
“Is it safe to wear that? Did he do something to the Bears fans? Why would his jersey be on clearance? Boozer sucks and his jersey is still being sold at 40 dollars!”
I had to Google him up… fast. Yep. Anderson. Mark Anderson. Good rookie player. Released by the Bears last 2009. Played with Houston in 2010. Signed recently with New England. His jersey is on clearance since he’s been gone from the team since 2009.
Ok good. I wore the jersey and showed it to Jaye.
“Is that… see through?”
Apparently it was. Good thing I had another Bears shirt.
We took the red line to Roosevelt then walked a mile to the entrance. It didn’t help that it was 30 C with no wind (for the sake of comparison, the temperature was colder in Manila at 28 C… of course it was raining like crazy but still…)
Almost everyone was wearing a Bears jersey and I was looking around for anyone wearing a #97 Anderson jersey. Nope, none, nada. Jaye told me that no one in his right mind would probably wear an Anderson jersey. I disagreed so we made a bet – we’ll eat somewhere nice depending on the number of people we see wearing an Anderson jersey:
5 people = Fogo De Chao
4 people = Chili’s
3 people = Go Roma
2 people = Portillo’s
We agreed to eat at McDonald’s if we only see one guy with the jersey but I was confident enough that we’ll be eating that night at Fogo (endless steaks!).
When we reached Soldier Field, first thing we bought was a small bottle of Coke for $4.75. That’s two hundred pesos! After paying, my brain automatically played mom’s “MARAMING BATANG NAGUGUTOM” speech I heard oh so many times as a child.
We reached our seats which was probably somewhere in the stratosphere. I had to duck to make sure the weather satellites don’t hit us. Despite the high seats, I’ll admit it’s still a good view. I’m still able to watch the game as well as take this picture of the whole stadium without an ultra-wide lens.
As expected, none of the stars played which was perfectly fine since all we really wanted was to see was Soldier Field from the inside and complete the Chicago sports “grand slam” (watch the Bulls at the United center,watch the Sox at US Cellular field, watch the Bears at Soldier field and watch the Cubs at Wrigley). Sorry Chicago Fire, I haven't converted Jaye to a soccer fan yet and sorry Blackhawks, you also play at the United Center.
We didn’t really followed the game but we did glance occasionally to the field whenever what’s-his-name receives a pass or passes the ball.
Soldier field is huge and… metal. It looks like a mixing bowl from far away andit still looks like a mixing bowl from the inside. There are huge screens on both ends of the fields and it’s impossible to ignore those box seats up above for the rich people (each ticket costs around 300 to 800 dollars!).
Eventually the game ended and a lot of the fans in our section were already long gone. No one cared what the score was but apparently, the Bears won. The crowd was nonchalant as they walked out towards the exit. None of that “YEAAAAHHH WE WOOOON!! IN YOUR FACE CLEVELAND!!!” stuff. It was more like “yawn… I need to go home and cut my toenails.” look.
That’s the NFL preseason, a fraction of the ticket price for none of the excitement. At least whenever they show Soldier Field I can say “Yeah… I’ve been there. I watched the Bears. That Anderson guy is one heck of a player.”
Oh, where did we eat? Home… with a plate of Lucky Me pansit canton… apparently I'm the only idiot who bought an Anderson jersey in all of Chicago.
1 comment:
... you're the joy and pride of Illinois... Chicago Bears, bear doooowwnnn.... :D
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