Jets @ Cardinals

Day 193

Yesterday I mentioned that I once traveled to Arizona to catch my favorite football team, the New York Jets play. It was during Thanksgiving weekend of 11/28/04. We went down and had Thanksgiving with Kristy's parents and then headed to Arizona for the weekend.

Kristy's parents gave us a ride to the airport while Logan stayed with his grandparents for the weekend. I was glad to be leaving such cold, cold weather and into some sun.

Now let me tell you something. I am not much of a flyer and that is because I have flown only a few times. I don't like heights at all so that doesn't help either. But once we are in the air I am comfortable and can enjoy the short flight down to Glendale/Phoenix. We got close to the airport and Kristy and I were looking out the window (she had the window seat) and we were looking at the beautiful scenery. Suddenly the airplane lurched to the left turning into the airport. And Kristy and I jumped back. I crashed right into the guy next to me! I know that there was no way that I could break the glass window, let alone somehow fit through that tiny window. But seeing the ground suddenly down from us really unnerved us. The guy next to me laughed and so did his family that was sitting across the way. Like I said, I am not much of a flyer. But was really neat is that we saw the Grand Canyon from the air!

We got off the airport and called our hotel and they came and picked us up promptly. The first thing I noticed was that it was nice and warm. Which was funny since the first thing our driver said to us was that she apologized that it was so cold. It was about ten degrees cooler than normal but that was about twenty degrees warmer than where we came from. The driver was nice and we had a nice chat about the area. We rested a little bit in the hotel and then we decided to walk around the town. And I am glad we did, we walked right into a parade. The city was celebrating something (I cannot remember) and all the stores were open and the streets were closed down to traffic and the streets were filled with people. We got something to eat and came back to the hotel.

The morning of the game we went down and ate breakfast at the restaurant at the hotel. It seemed like everyone that was staying at the hotel were Jet fans since everybody that came to eat breakfast had Jets stuff on. I felt like I was at a family reunion. I may not know these people's names but they were family since they were Jet fans. We went back to our room and got ready and I was mad that I forgot my Jets cap. My hair (yeah, I had hair back in 2004) was horrible and I needed a hat. So we went to a sporting store and I bought a green hat that was as ugly as it was cheap.

We look so pale in this picture. Lack of sleep and lack of sun!

Then we walked to Sun Devil Stadium and I think the green out shined the red. We sat with a bunch of Arizona people who were extremely friendly even though Kristy and I were both decked out in Jets gear. The elderly couple who sat beside us thought we were from New York and I think they were disappointed that we were only from Utah. In front of us came some guys that were from New York. They were decked out in old Jets stuff and they immediately spoke with us when they saw we were Jet fans. They were also surprised that we were from Utah but I told them I lived in New York for a couple of years. It was a father with his dad and son. Three generations of Jets fans. They told us stories of visiting the Jets play in other arenas and the dad told us he got his nose broken when he saw the Jets play in Miami. It was nice to have them since we were surrounded by Arizona fans.

This was a pic right from our seats.

The game was not as exciting as I hoped it would be but we came out with a win 13-3. It was a joy to see some of my favorite Jets in Curtis Martin and Wayne Cherbet play. And our seats were fantastic. We were very close to the field, in fact the replay camera was stationed right in front of us.

We could hear the coach and players (we were on the Cardinal sidelines) yell to the players on the field. Early in the game Emmit Smith got injured and came off the field right in front of us. The guy behind me yelled out to him and Emmitt heard and gave him a thumbs up. The only big play was the touchdown throw from Quincy Carter (Pennington was injured) to Santana Moss. It happened on the other end and we couldn't tell if he caught it or not. I looked and saw that he had the ball in his hand so I raised my hands signalling a touchdown and yelled "TOUCHDOWN!" much to the chagrin of most of our neighbors. The guys in front of me turned and we all high-fived each other! We were the only ones cheering loudly for our team on that side of the field. It was cool to see players like Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald (his rookie season) play as well.

The only regret that I have about the game is that I missed a big photo opportunity. Curtis Martin and Emmitt Smith knocked helmets together as they greeted each other before the game in the endzone and by the time I got the camera out they had already moved on. But at least I got a picture of Cherbet and Martin running past us.

The game was a lot of fun and by the end the only people left in the stadium were Jets fans. Vilma even led a Jets chant on the other side of the field. After the game and high fives and fist bumps we went back to the hotel and looked for a place to go out and eat.

The next day we went out and toured some of the more scenic areas and went to lunch at this Italian Deli which had phenomenal food.

Then we got a ride to the airport and came back to the snow and cold. Logan was not all excited to see us either which disappointed Kristy. But it was a fun trip and I would love to catch another Jets game at some point in time. They do play the Lions this year so maybe I should talk with Steve.

Hmmm.....