I arrived at Monster Park the home of the 49ers at around 9:30am, and found parking quite easily, and not too far from the tailgaters I was scheduled to meet. The first thing I noticed about driving in was the sweet smell. A lot of people were cooking already (and drinking) and most people must be using some kind of honey sauce, because it smelt so sweeeet.
I introduced myself to some tailgaters around me and they got excited about the trip and took some pictures of me with my banner. Before going to see Alex and his club49 crew I wanted to get some shots of the place first and get some merchandise, as well as pick up my two tickets from will call.
Will Call was not open until 10am so I picked out a nice red 49ers beenie to wear at the game as it was quite cold, I also bought a game day programme and and a game day pin. Sadly my credit card did not work, I felt embarrassed but ialso felt annoyed and angry because this has happened 4 times so far in 3 weeks! I went back to the car and called internationally to my bank, where they had to ask me if it was me who made all the previous transactions. As you can imagine I have made a quite a few. I'm on the phone 20 minutes saying:
Yes, yes, gas, hotels, food, yes they are all mine, no unlock my damn card!”but more questions. The bank know I am on this trip but like clockwork they decide to stop my card. It's driving me nuts, because I use that card to pay my phone and website server, both of which could mess up if my card keeps getting blocked!
Anyway I made it back there and bought my goodies and picked up my 2 tickets. I wanted to either sell or give my ticket away because my friend could not make it to this game. Sadly the scalpers would not even give me 10 dollars for it and it is a $100 seat! I made my way around the stadium taking in the fun environment, I didn't see many Lions fans. Towards the back of the parking lot, there was a tailgate party organised by the 49ers, and there were huge inflatables for kids to play. I would have gone in there to throw and kick some balls about, but I had my big camera with me. I gotta bring my kids to games so I can get on the inflatables!
There was a radio station there and I talked to the producer and before you know it I was on stage discussing my trip! 107.7 rock and the interviewers were fun.
This is also where I met an interesting fellow. He was an older guy dressed up very festive with lots of 49ers trinkets on him, and he was carrying a battery powered blender. He had a bunch of shot glasses (cups) and was handing out his own mix of margaritas, how nuts is that? What a bizarre yet splendid idea!
As I made my way to Club 49 I saw a an actual dinning table with wine glasses and silver cutlery laid out by someone's truck. I introduced myself, and the gentleman, Mike does this at every game and takes honour in having the finest tasting tailgate. He cooks Chateux brinade, they have wine and cheese among other fine foods that I have not heard of. Another bizarre yet splendid idea. I think my Mum would only go tailgating if it was this fancy everywhere.
I made my way to see Club49 who had a bout 49 people around a tent with an actual bar, with optics and bar stools. There was a great spread and I was told to help myself. One of the members told me they all bring something each week, and take it turns to be head chef for the day. Today was Italian them and next week the Patriots are in town so they will be doing Boston themed food. I think that is amazing. They really work hard on putting the tailgate together and it can not be cheap. They had a small PA system and flat screen of course. But the bar took it to new levels. They had a blowup 49ers player as well an array of booze.
They were really pleased to see me. I gave them a bunch of t-shirts and they seemed to really appreciate that gesture. We had a group picture and I was introduced to the whole Club49.org family. I still could not give my ticket away though. Alex hooked me up with some people from the local College who were doing a story on the game and interviewed me. I also got interviewed Frisco Fitted TV who do a You tube blog, so when that is up I will include that here!
About an hour before kick off the tailgate and bar was broken down and the air was let out of the blowup 49er player. Club49 were really friendly and they were all really buzzing and allowing other people not from their group to take food and drink.
I made my way to the gate and in the end I still could not give my ticket away and had to swallow the cost. I was not allowed in with my sign which is annoying and the man infront of me had to go back to his car to put his football helmet away. The stadium has an escalator which is a great idea, unlike Indy where I walked around a ramp for 20 minutes.
There was a large s49ers team shop. I made my way up to the top and my seats were on the 50 yard line, but way way up there! I can't believe how far away I was for a $100 ticket. I befriended the folks next to me and we had a good chat.
There was also a couple in front of me from London who were on their honey moon. Hopefully I could go to football games on my honeymoon! They gave me some 49er stickers that go under your eyes which make you look like you have those black football player strips on. We hard the national anthem, people took their hats off and put their hands on their heart and faced the flag. By now the weather was great and I was kicking myself for buying a beenie!
There was fireworks and then the team came out of an inflatable helmet. I really wanted the 49ers to win because that will be doing a favor for the Bears. The game started out well. After the over time win last week some people might start to think that the 49ers could make the play offs this season, especially when the Seahawks started so poorly. The fans got excited when the 49ers did a trick end around play. From there O'Sullivan played consistently and he never got sacked once. Frank Gore battered the Lions d- line all game long.
After 20 minutes some Lions fans came and sat in front of me, they last one touchdown and then left! The Lions practically showed up. By half time the 49ers were up 21-3.
At half time they had a singer on I believe it was loria Estefan, but I could have heard wrong. soon after they had a dnace acrobatic piece by "Break the barriers" who are mixed able and disabled bodied perfomers, and their stuff was really good.
Once or twice when the other team made a mistake or a penalty over the tannoy was the "wa wa wa" like in cartoons when someone has fallen over. I thought the sound effect was funny, but I could see that the tplayers on the receiving end possibly getting mad. I also saw a streaker and he was cheered, then when the security got him were really rough with him and pinned him to the crowd and the crowd booed. Once he was on his feet he gave the stadium a wave and we cheered again. That is the second streaker I have seen so far.
In the 4th quarter the 49ers were 4th down and 1 on the 1 yard line, and they went for a field goal. The crowd started to boo. They took a time out, a lot of people including me started to leave. I was leaving because I had a 400 mile drive to LA. Then as I was leaving the brought the offense back on and they went for it and got it, and then everyone really did clear out.
On my way out I took a few more pictures before driving to LA where I stayed with my old high school friend who lives and works in LA with his wife Hilary.
The drive was not too bad. Though once it gets dark I'm not a fan of the American roads. There are only cats eyes on the left lane and down the middle none on the right, so I hugged that left (fast) lane and people got mad, but I don't care my safety comes first!
Pre-game
I am seeing the 49ers back to back. Game 4 saw them at Seattle, this week I will be at Monster Park rooting for them as they take on the Detroit Lions. The San Francisco 49ers team were huge when I first started to watch the NFL back in the late 80s. I even saw them play an exhibition game in 1992 against the Washington Redskins at Wembley Stadium in my home town: London, England.
I'm sure 20 years later it will still be magical to see the red and gold strut their stuff on their home turf. The Lions are a decent team and were one or two wins away from the playoffs. They will be looking to win this road game, but with home field advantage I predict that the 49ers will edge this one.
