Posted on 10/28/2003 2:06:01 AM PST by jmcclain19
"You see that son, when you tackle someone, you can't grab his face mask, that's a penalty."
Such was the quote coming from over my shoulder. I turned to smile, a faint remembrance of a former day getting the same instructions from my father. At that moment, something strange hit me.
At times, in your life you'd be amazed at what you don't miss as there until it isn't, or vice versa.
What hit me at that moment early in first quarter, was the preponderance of children in the stands. Lots of them. Children clamoring all over bleachers. Mom's spending the night out with the boys. Dad's instructing sons and daughters in the nuances of the gridiron.
As a frequent purveyor of College Football, Hockey and Baseball, it hit me tonight just how much the sports world has changed, and how an evening of opportunity was grabbed with both hands this night by families across the Phoenix Metro. Ironic, that a whole horde of families got to perhaps experience live NFL football for the first time, while just a few hours away, many families were worried about getting through the next day, let alone to next week to watch the Chargers play.
As a promise to a woman who loves me more than I deserve, I steer clear of the internet and the television for anything other than Arizona Wildcat football and email for the weekend, so to arise this morning with news of football coming for the second day in a row to Tempe was indeed a shock.
A scene I am sure played in almost every office in town this morning - who was going to the game and when. In a town where the Cardinals have yet to be truly embraced after 15 rocky years, the town was abuzz with the news. Talk radio. television news, water cooler discussion, blogs, websites and newspapers, all pontificated about what this evening would bring - a Monday night football game to Phoenix. The Valley of the Sun's relationship with its Cardinals can be described at best as tenuous. Like a semi-estranged cousin, the city is quick to offer a high five and show slight support at the teams usually scattered accomplishments, while most of the time relegating the club most of the time to punch line status.
San Diego and Phoenix have an interesting give and get relationship. The coastal city offers its shores, resorts and parks to Arizona's largest city within a short few hour commute, while the desert dwellers visit in droves during the hot summer months, raining millions in tourism on Shamu and Co.
Arizona license plates can be as common as California one's during the hot summer months, while droves of California residents fleeing the cities rising cost of living contributes to Phoenix's status as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation.
All of this is simply the backdrop for the true story here, that mother nature reared her might this past week and spread wild fire across a piece of heavily populated SoCal real estate sending residents scattering for cover.
The city of San Diego was the short term loser here in Tempe tonight. Under siege from flames all around, most residents didn't give a second thought to the millions upon millions a Sunday home football game brings to the area in and around a sports stadium. The town's beloved football franchise was swiftly moved five hours across the California and Arizona desert to Sun Devil Stadium, where thousands of misplaced Dolphins fans ensured a raucous and rowdy "home" atmosphere for the team.
The haste in planning ensured many glitches, the least of which was ill prepared vendors, most of whom ran out of food and beer long before the end of the halftime show.
The security force was worrisome as well, with repeated interruptions during the game for streakers, fights and idiotic fans rushing onto the field. The quell with force by numbers approach wasn't apparent in many places while the problems raged on.
But in the end, it all comes back to a story, something those parents spending an evening with their children can remember for years. While most of the stories so far seem to focus on the college aspect or the few folks that piled in the car to drive through two states to get here, the quick story from the sloppy reporter who didn’t take the time to go more than four rows back in the line in a crowded stadium for a quote.
That story misses the throngs of families grouped up in the upper deck watching a game that they’ve been priced out of in recent years. With the ever rising costs of refreshments, ticket prices and merchandise, the economical family simply can’t afford to take the kids out to the ballpark often. So when the chance popped up, families by the thousand leapt for it. Those same folks helped to donate over $200k to families just like theirs in Southern California who are struggling tonight.
On a night were families were huddled together, watching with fear and wonder which way the worm of fire would turn next, a city of parents and children enthralled by the notion of free professional football spent a night at the game, watching and learning.
Which is more than worth the price of any admission to begin with.
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