After the problems of getting a ticket via Stub hub for the Giants I opted to go with another source this week by looking at Craigslist. Although Stubhub gave me a reference number and you know there is a real ticket there, you have to pick up the ticket 3 miles from the Giants stadium. Which is no good for me as I want to go to the game with the nice folk from the Blind Pig bar in Manhattan. They do the same beer bus run for 40 bucks for all Giants games and Jets games.
So initially Justin was going to come with me to the game but he had work. I emailed a few people from Craigslist but no one wanted to sell me just one ticket. Then my friend Izzy was going to come with, but she had work so I was still stuck where to get one ticket from. I could have risked things and gone without a ticket and bought off scalpers but I'm just not sure about risking that.
In the end I finally found someone to sell me one ticket for 50 bucks. I rushed up at 10am to his apartment building and his lobby man gave me the ticket. It was an $80 ticket so I did well there. I rushed down to the Blind Pig on 14th street for 11am for us to get on the bus.
There was not as many people on the Jets bus as there were on the Giants bus on the kick-off game. The Jets fans were friendly and we got to the stadium around midday. 3 of the guys from the bus took me under their wing. They told me to look out for Fireman Ed who orchestrates the cheers and chants. As we got off the bus I noticed there was a fire with billows of smoke coming from the car park. From where I was standing it looked like a tailgate party had got out of hand. Coming from Britain where you can not have naked flames anywhere, I'm surprised with all the alcohol consumed that there are not more fires at the tailgate parties.
The 3 guys from the bus took me to their friends in one of the parking lots who were hosting a tailgate party. I had no one specific to meet at this game, so I was more than happy meeting new people on the fly. George was the main host and before knowing my name I was found with a beer in one hand and a plate full of honey barbecued chicken with pasta. It was drizzling the whole time but this did not stop the tailgater's, who just carried on grilling.
It was getting near game time and we took some pictures. One tailgater gave George a present and it was a framed picture of Brett Favre taking his first snap as a Jets player. Which I thought was a nice gesture. I did not have any t-shirts to give to George but he was happy that I was there. I turned around and he was filling up zip lock bags with vodka. Ok he was not filling them up, but putting at least two shots into each bag and handing them out. Apparently it's so that you can drink in the stadium. Every time the Jets score you have to take a sip of vodka!
I said my goodbyes and made my way to the stadium. I have been here twice before for giants games, but the vibe was very very different. I seemed much more electric and people were in a party mood despite the rain. I saw several kitted out Jets buses and took some pictures. There were not only buses with the Favre's name on them, but lots of Packer Cheese heads, Packer Favre jerseys and of course Jets Favre jerseys.
Someone lent me a Jets cheese head to have my picture with. I thought the Jets version of the cheese head is a great symbol that the teams really do appreciate each other. Of course there were many Favre fans here but I love the fact that the Jets fans are so happy to have Interplaying for them, they are wearing Packer based logos and symbols.
I made my way high up behind one of the end zones. The Jets do not sell game day programmes, but they do give a out a small hand book, which I got my hands on all be it a soaked wet one. I also bought myself a Favre pennant, well who else was going to be on the pennant? I had a free seat next to me, clearly the guy from Craigslist could not sell the other ticket. I sat beside a teenage boy and his father and to my left were a very nice couple. Behind me were 4 or 5 very loud Jets fans who made the game feel slightly more like a soccer game with their cheering and chanting. At time they were a little colorful in their language but nothing too bad.
Although there were quite a few empty seats around the crowd were certainly louder than when I was here for the SuperBowl winning Giants. Could Favre make this fan base louder all by himself?
The Jets were wearing a black and yellow kit that I have never seen before and someone told me this was their old uniform when they were the Trojans I believe. It was hard to ee the numbers, but I could make out Favre just by the way he walks. He is pure football. Am I lucky to see him back to back games or what?
The games started with interceptions and clumsy fumbles. Warner did not look impressive. In the first quarter there was no score and I was thinking this might be a wash out. Then the 2nd quarter changed all that.
Favre fires in a trademark bullet for the first score and we all go nuts!
Warner throws for a weak interception and gives the Jets a 2 score lead. At the time this was big because it was going to look like a low scoring game. For me the important score was when the Jets were 4th and 1 and around the half way line and instead of going for it with a run, Favre sends a bomb down field for yet another touchdown. A Cardinal player got hurt in the mean time, and I was unaware how serious it was. People whop watched the game on TV asked me a bout it, but it pains me to say I was cheering for the Jets on the score, I was almost unaware someone got seriously hurt. Let's just hope he gets back to full fitness. Before I could pull back and think about what was going on, watching the Cardinals crumble with turnovers. It was 24-0 to the Jets. There I was thinking it was going to be a low scoring game! The Jets knocked in a field goal just before half time taking it to a huge 34-0. I could not believe I had seen such a one sided affair. If the Jets can score 34 points in one quarter, that means they can do that for another two quarters. I was predicting a score of 60-0, especially the way the Cardinals offensive line was just so weak.
Athalf time out came 4 teams of little league football players, playing 2 teams at each half of the field. Some of them must have been as young as 8 maybe and there was some strong gang tackling going on! During the half time there was two couple about 5 rows in front of me. The two women decided to keep making out with each other, tothe delight of many of the male fans and their husbands. The rather loud guys behind me took to them more so than the game, jeering them with such witty quips as:
"Holler for a dolla, do something strange for some change" Although this was quite interesting for non-football reasons, it actually went throughout the 3rd quarter, and I don't want to say this but it became quite annoying and distracting. Especially as the fans around me were cheering them on more and more.
After the break the cheerleaders seemed ready with their celebration flags, knowing that they are going to have another busy half. But it was Arizona that came out all guns blazing. After two quick touchdows for the Cardinlas, could Kurt Warner beat his veteran foe, at saomething that Favre could not achieve last week at the chargers,a comeback? With a nifty onside kick, this Arizona team looked totally different, and before I knew it it was 34-21. What a game and the Cardinals are looking good with the Jets crumbling, but have the Cardinals left it too late?
Another Jets Touchdown in the 4th means it might be too big a gap for the Cardinals, but they score again and so do the Jets. The jets recovered another Warner fumble and instead of running the clock down Favre went deep again to throw for his 6th TD of the game. That means I have seen him throw for nine touchdowns in successive games! Warner threw for over 470 yards and was till on the losing side.
What a game and to think it 0-0 in the first quarter! This was a totally different expereince than the Giants game, where both teams seemed very unambitious, here the Cardinals came back and made a game of it. Also the Jets fans never took their foot off the gas either, even when the Jets were 34-7 up the crowd were still cheering for their defense to stop the opposing team. Even witha round 40% of the fans gone in the last 2 minutes with the game over, the crowd were still louder than itwas when the Giants were here with full capacity on opening day. Another thing that I liked about today, which I found out later was that when the Cardinals player was hur the Jets players took a knee and prayed, which I think was a wonderful gesture.
After the game the fans were still tailgating, many of whom carry on with the party and watch the sunday night games out here also. I found my Blind Pig crew and they said I had 30 minutes before we left, which gave me enough time to find some other tailgaters. I found a series of Jet's buses only this time I had time to chat.
I also found the famous "Captain Jet" and his tailgate party who gave me some great meatballs and other food to take home with me. The tailgaters out here were really good to me and were very welcoming. Depsite not being able to chat to them before the game, because this was a 1pm kick off they were making a day of it after the game too which is great. 
WE got back on the bus and discussed our favorite players, and moments of the game. When we got back to the Blind Pig and thanked them for their hospitality. Their game bus is a lot of fun and really worth doing.
Pre-game
Like the 49ers on this trip when I went to see them play away then at home, I will be doing the same this week with the Jets, In my 6th game on the trip I will have seen the Jets away at the Chargers. Now I will be seeing them at home at Giants Stadium, which isn't really their home stadium. Though having their home fans there will surely give them the advantage over the Cardinals, who are starting to become a decent team.
It will be interesting to see just how different the Jets play at home and away, and having home fans at this game and without having to travel is likely to give them the edge over the Cardinals, but it should be a tight game.
This game will also be interesting to compare with my 1st game of the trip,also at the Giants stadium, but with the Giants hosting the matcup instead. Experiencing how the two sets of fans differ in the same stadium would be interesting.
