Football!!!

So as I mentioned in my last post Lauren got two tickets to the Raiders game against the Bears.  She really likes going to sporting events, though she had never been to a professional football game.  We got the tickets and planned to go to the game after attending the service at St. Paul's.  We left the church and made our way back to the 19th Street BART station.  The coliseum was not far away, only four stops away.  On our way into St. Paul's there were a only a handful of people wearing raiders gear on the train, but after the service he trains were fairly full and everyone was wearing raiders gear and colors.  After arriving at the stop I pulled out my Richard Seymour Patriots throwback jersey and put it on.  I decided to wear it to support Seymour who was drafted by the Pats and played seven great seasons in New England.  He was then traded to Oakland and he was playing that day.  However, the Pats had been to Oakland back at the beginning of October and soundly beat the Raiders.  So needless to say as soon as I put on the jersey I started to get attention and words that could not be uttered here thrown my way.  No one had the cojones to start anything with me, but they were not all too happy to see me.  And to rub a little more salt in their wounds I threw on my Red Sox hat for good measure.  What can I say, I love my Boston teams.

 

The crowd leaving the BART station, crossing over the highway to the stadium

We wound our way through the stadium to the upper level to find our seats.  I knew that they would be pretty good but I was really amazed at the view.  Of course being in the first row yo would expect to have a good seats, but there was one drawback.  Everyone in our section, and others, walked right in front of us to get to the stairwells.  Once the game kicked off the stadium had filled and the crowed was ridiculously loud.

 Our view

One thing that I can say about the fans of the Raiders is that they are extremely passionate about their team.  The Raiders have not been very good for some years now but still the stadium was full and loud.  The fans behind us were not only pretty drunk but very vocal and a bit obscene.  Now I am accustomed to this passion because it can be seen in Fenway, the Garden or Foxboro, but the crowd in the stands was very representative of the team's fan base.  The team definitely draws upon the middle and lower class of the city and while the tickets and experience may be expensive, the fans still come and represent their community and their team.  the game itself was rather boring.  There was little offense and it was a relatively close game throughout.  We left with about five minutes left in fourth quarter to beat the rush to the trains.  The Raiders won and Lauren and I headed back to Berkeley after a great day.  Now that I have seen my first regular season pro football game I can only hope to see the Patriots play in Foxboro.  One day.