Chiefs Day!

Photo: Me and Mr. Right (He has hat head! Ha Ha Ha!)

Yesterday Mr. Right and I attended the Chiefs game against the New England Patriots. What a blast! We have some very generous friends, Larry and Rosemary, who treated us to the game. I loved the entire event all over again.

(We had attended one game with them last year on Halloween. It was the Chiefs vs the Colts. I went mainly to watch Peyton Manning because that boy can play! It was an added bonus that the Chiefs won that game. I thought for sure they were going to get slaughtered, but they managed to keep the lead by the end of the game. They did not, however, manage to do that for half of the 2004 season. So seeing a winning game was really exciting.)

The nice thing about going with Season Ticket holders was that they know how to do it right. Larry and Rosemary arrived to pick us up at 8:45 AM for a noon game. They were decked out to show their support. Chiefs hats, Chief’ gloves, Chiefs sweatshirts, Chiefs jackets, Chiefs travel cups, Chiefs blankets… They probably had on Chiefs underwear, but I didn’t try to find out. The car had two Chiefs flags flying from the windows and decals on the side. Their license plate was even in on the support (WINCHFS).

We climbed into the SUV and listened to the pre-game radio show, read the sports section about the two teams and discussed who would what today. This was serious. We were ALL about the Chiefs today.

We arrived about 9:15 AM and that was when the real festivities began. An entire parking lot of tailgaters emerged from every car, truck, van, or SUV. Tables came out laden with every type of food imaginable. Beer, wines, drinks and sodas were flowing freely at that hour in the morning. The grills were grilling, the smokers were smoking (appliances and people), the tents were covering and the flags were waving 20 feet above the vehicles. It was an art that most of these people had down to a science.

And everybody knew each other. You could hear the reunions down the lot.

“Hey, how have you been?”
“Is that a new grill for you?”
“Nice t-shirt.”
“How is your mother doing?”
“Get on over here and give me a big old hug. I haven’t seen you since last week!”

(I kid you not.)

I bet they have their own handshake, but since we have only gone once before, we don’t get to know it yet. Humph, it gives me something to look forward.

Let me just say that Larry cooks a mean steak. It was fabulous! Juicy and tender, the flavoring was just right. The veggies were wonderful and the rolls were hot. And the brownies made the meal complete! Couldn’t beat it at any fine restaurant!

We had to hustle in at 11 AM because the pre-game warm ups began. We watched them do their things: running, throwing, victory dancing, etc. It was cool to see what happened before the game.

I found out that one of the Chiefs players – Kennison, I think - goes to select a few kids during warm-up to bring them on the field. They join him on the field among all the activities and he talks to them about school, drugs, life. Several of the other players come over and shake their hands and talk with them for a few minutes as they break away from warm-ups. It was a really encouraging process to watch. And the kids loved it.

Oh yeah… We had a great time during the game. We watched some touchdowns, field goals, sacks, all sorts of plays. Everytime the Chiefs scored, the announcers play some fight song and the entire stadium shouts (at the right time) "We're gonna beat the tar out of you! You! You! You! You!" We got to sing that a lot yesterday. The group around us was a lot of fun, save one guy who needed to eat a bar of soap (He's the one picking his nose in the picture). Some parents gave him some mean looks and he calmed down after that. We were all high-fiving, yelling and celebrating when great plays were made. We stood most of the game and not one person complained, even when the rain came down. (Lucky for us, Rosemary had handed us some new Chiefs ponchos, so we stayed dry.) Not one complaint about the rain was heard and no one left. We all wanted to cheer the Chiefs on to their victory. We had a real Kum-By-Ah moment for us all.

I loved going to the game and having that experience. I reminded Rosemary that the Chiefs had won every game that we came to. She said she’d check the schedule for next year to see which one we need to help them win.

Ahhh, it’s nice to be part of the team.