Being on the local Cincinnati radio only 2 days before has prompted a lot of activity on my site, and tailgater have been emailing me left right and centre.
Just as well I was up very early: around 7am, and made the short walk over the bridge from Newport, Kentucky to down Cincinnati.
Paul Brown stadium is situated right next to the Cincinnati baseball field, which looks very majestic.
I had a long list of tailgaters to meet today. I started off having a roam around on my own and just finding people to talk to. It was not even 8am so the car parks were mainly empty.
None of the tailgaters I was meeting were in the famous long horn tailgate lot, so I decided to wander through there. There were so many decked out R.V's, buses and camper vans with Bengals skins on them. Maybe it was because the car park was still filling up or what, but there were so many I just wanted to take pictures of all them.
One particular group call their bus the Bengals Prison Van, where the party usually dress in orange jump suits, they had the names of their favorite players on the side of the van. They were really friendly people and apologised they were not in their orange jump suits.
I then spotted three people walking around the lot who actually had paper bags over their heads. I heard a rumour that the Bengal fans might do this, because they are so embarrassed of their team. The Bengals have not won a game all season so far. I thought the brown paper bag was a joke, people actually do it!
I met some fans dressed as Bengals in fuzzy suits, and Bengal mascot like masks, This particular fan dresses like this every game. He looks like he should be the team mascot and get paid, but he doesn't, in fact he had to buy the costume himself. Hopefully the Bengals will give him a job next year.
I looked in Lot A for someone named Joe who has a Bengals bus with stripes on it. One would think I would find that easy, surely how many festive Bengal themed buses can there be, especially in one lot. Well he may as well as have said he is the fan in a Bengals jersey. A lot of buses and all of them with Bengal stripes. Sadly I could not find Joe, so I moved to the next tailgater.
Mike hangs out in the Cinergy lot behind Longhorn and I found him tailgating with friends and family. There was about 40 of them, and they were really friendly. Mike introduced me to his daughter who became my film make for the 30 minutes or so I was there. I played my first game of corn hole. I lost, and lost bad...8-2. I kept throwing the bag filled with corn in the neighbouring game.
After this embarrassing loss Mike introduced me to another game, this was a dice based game, so I thought I might have a better chance to win. Everyone throws in money, in this case 1 dollar. There are 10 little sticks, each with one number on them from1-10. You roll the two dice. If you score a 5 and 3 you add that to make 8, then you can knock down any of the sticks that count to 8. So I could get rid of the 7 and 1, or the 5 and 3. You keep rolling until you can not make the dice count match the sticks count (make sense so far?). Then it is someone else's turn. The winner is the one with the lowest number of sticks left. I threw and ended up with a collective score of 14, not good, the winner had 3 and took my dollar, grrrr!
We had our picture taken from a Bengal fan, which was hard to spot seeing as there were so many Steelers fan. They all appeared from nowhere, apparently all the Bengal fans have been selling their tickets to anyone, and that includes their arch rivals, the Steelers!
Next stop on my tailgate tour was the Bengal Thing and WhoDey. Karen from yourtailgateparty.com had introduced me to “WhoDey” a Bengal's extreme fan who is in the Fan Hall of Fame. Sadly he could not make this game but I was excited to meet “The Bengal Thing”. Bengal thing had got in touch with me as to where to find him and his friend Megan tried to direct me around the parking lot, in the end I found her and she walked me over to their tailgate.
The Bengal Thing dresses like the The Thing from the fantastic Four, with a Bengal shirt and thing like mask, it looks great. Here I met their family and friends. I gave them some t-shirts and in return they fed me up.
They supplied me with my first three way, now I know what you are thinking: “Adam you beautiful girlfriend is at home, what are you thinking you silly man!” Well relax, a three way out here is a hot dog with Cincinnati's famous chilli and cheese. You can also have a four way,a five way and an eclectic yet ambitious six way. I thought I better walk before I run and munched into the chill dog wit cheese. Very nice,. They then told me the secret ingredient in the chilli is chocolate! Chocolate! I probably would not have given it a go had I have known.
The Bengal thing and his friends were very hospitable. Megan filmed them enjoying themselves and I was able to relax and take in the atmosphere. As you know normally I buy something from each stadium, and as I was walking around the tailgate, I eyed up a soft mini (1 foot long) baseball bat with a Bengal logo on it. I haven't seen that at any other stadium, but I didn't buy it just yet. Just as well because The Bengal Thing gave me so much stuff. He gave me two orange towels, similar to the Steeler's terrible towels.
The Bengal Thing also gave me the latest copy of Tailgater Monthly which we both feature in. I was so pleased that I made the magazine. The Bengal Thing signed my copy, which was great. The article about me was great! If you want some copies of the magazine then please go to http://www.tailgatermonthly.com/.
I met his friend who was sporting a foam Bengal hat,which he had gotten from the gentleman who bespoke makes them for fans. I have asked the creator of such hats to make me on, but he is really overworked, but hopefully by the Bears game I should have my own foam hat creation.
Sadly it was time to move on as Adam from “Home of the Mexican Happy Hour” tailgate party told me to be there for a show at midday. Wow how time flies! I made my way to see Adam and his loud fun bus. Before I knew I had a sombrero on my head and I was being hoisted on top of his bus.
Mexican music was being pumped out loud and clear and and crowd began to gather. Was I supposed to have prepared a speech? My phone kept ringing as Russ from the radio station wanted to meet up s he needed to find me to give my ticket and channel 12 were around wanting to film me!
After the music was done I was told to throw jelly shots into the crowd (they were in little covered cups), and they crowd were going crazy. I think I hit a small child on the head! How crazy is this. I was standing on top of a Bengal bus throwing out Jelly shots, could this ever happen in the U.K? I hope so!
Sadly I had to rush off and I nearly killed myself getting down off the bus. I met Russ and his two friends about 4 blocks away. I told Russ I just need to do an interview for channel 12 and Russ's friend is the boss of the person interviewing me, so it all worked out well. I had my interview, which was quite tough because every time someone has a camera at one of these games, fans go nuts. Cheering, yelling, saying odd and obnoxious things. It's all fun, but sometimes it is frustrating and I can see the camera woman was getting annoyed. Still we shot the interview and then I headed into he stadium with Russ and his friend and his friend's wife.
Everyone was scattering to their seats, toilets, or concessions, just before kick off. I heard the roar of jets flying over and again for probably the 5th time this season, I missed them! The seats were right in the sun, and what I thought was going to be a cold day turned out to be sun trap. We sat with a lot of Bengal fans who have been coming out here for years. Everyone really liked the idea of the trip and soon I was having my picture taken with over 20 people. When your team are not doing too well I guess I come as a nice distraction.
I really wanted the Bengals to win, more so than I normally would have done. Not only because Russ gave me his personal ticket, and not only was I promised a season ticket if they do win today, but also because the Bengals really do need a win.
The Steelers were moving the ball on offense cogently and it was 10-0 going into the second quarter. Though the Bengals managed to stop the onslaught. Chad Johnson scored a touchdown and the fans went crazy. Well the Bengals fans that were there, which was only about 50% of the stadium, as the rest were travelling Steeler's fans.
Cedric Benson is the running back for the Bengals who used to play for the Bears, so I kept an eye on him, but like at the Bears he did not really impress. Both TJ and Johnson wanted the ball but Fitzpatrick is simply not the gun slinger the Bengals need. Their offensive lined struggled, but going into half time it was 10-7. Could the Bengals win?
The crowd at the Bengals were really friendly and both the home and away fans took pictures of me. The older couple behind me asked me how the tailgate was. I told them I tried my first
“three way...though the edible kind!” He then replied to me “Well both kinds are edible!” Which I thought was funny, his wife gave him a little elbow dig and rolled her eyes.
In section 128 where I sat was Cindy. Who is the “nicest woman in 128” so says the whole section. She is so nice she gave me her Bengal plastic necklace. So thank you Cindy, you really are the nicest woman in 128.
I noticed the hot dog seller was very loud with a booming voice and a funny wig. Apparently he is quite the famous hot dog and soda seller. He apparently does the baseball games and his booming voice has given him quite the cult status. He is the best vendor guy in the whole of Cincy. I wonder if he works on commission?
After the break the Steelers came out blazing and scored a touchdown. Sadly it was at this point that I left so I could get a good start for my 900 mile drive to New England. Outside the stadium I spotted a cameraman who worked for NBC5 and he put me in touch with his boss. 30 Minutes later they had a white TV van pulled up and they gave me an interview. The interview prevented me from leaving before traffic but it was more than worth it.
Which you can view here http://www.wlwt.com/news/17757902/detail.html
I rushed back to the car and this shot which is a perfect image of a tough Bengal season
Go Bengals
Pre-game
I was on the radio last Thursday on the Eddie and Tracey show on 700 WLWstation, and the knd producer has given em on of his tickets for this game, which is really nice of him.
In the 12 NFL games, 1 High school and 1 college game my record stands at 12 home wins and 2 away wins, so hopefully I can bring the Bengals thei first win of the season!
The Cincinnati Bengals are hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers for my 12th game on the trip. This is a mouth watering contest, as it is a divisional rivaly game in the AFC North. The Bengals are a fast team that can score points quickly, and that will be interesting to see the rugged style of the Steelers.
