A Night Dancing With the Devil in the Bayou
Woke up on Tuesday 400 dollars gone, no idea where my shirt was, car keys missing and with a headache that would put a super hero on his knees. I must have gone to my first Monday Night Football game in New Orleans.
The experience of going to a game in New Orleans is a special one. For all the fear of being a guy wearing a Dolphins shirt in a sea of black and gold, I found most worries being completely unfounded, that is until you are on Bourbon Street at 3 am but that story is for another day. Going to a tailgate is a little different in New Orleans, as it seems to mostly take place in bars in the surrounding area. Walking the streets with open beers in the hand hearing screams of “Who Dat” as you walk up to the stadium right on the street is something that is probably not going to occur anywhere else. One sad thing I will admit, I still don’t know “Who Dat” is.
Right outside the stadium I decided to upgrade my seats to the club section, turning my two tickets and one hundred dollars for section 321(c). The truth that there is no bad seat in the Superdome does seem to be a true one. Even in the club section I felt like I was right on the field. The crowd noise barraged my ears at decibels I have never heard outside of pit road at a Nascar race. The back and forth with the fans was fun and light hearted, the drinks were over priced, but the emotion in the stadium was raw and fun even for an opposing fan.
The game started off fast paced, something that I though was concerning from the start. Our defense looked like the defense that I was used to seeing last year instead of the one that had
dominated the line of scrimmage through the first three games. The lack of cornerback depth was apparent this week. Jimmy Graham may be the hardest cover in the NFL right now. Our offensive line was manhandled by at team that had been blitzing like crazy all year and you could tell the noise level was getting to Tannehill. Mike Wallace looked like a much less talented Brandon Marshall, letting big plays drop right through his hands while not giving the offense the consistent 5-7 catches and 80 yards you could always rely Marshall to get you. All in all, the team on the field look like one overmatched by the best team they have played all year. Was it a case of blanking on a big stage or a lack of talent and depth? That we will figure out as the season went on.
As much as I wanted to pretend I was going to go home and attempt to recover for an early day of classes on Tuesday, Bourbon Street called my name after a sad loss. There I was able to enjoy the vices of a city born on vice and forget my sadness in the bosom of sin and booze. It worked, at a very hefty price of course. Even all through the night the jeering was light hearted and the fans in New Orleans on average tend to be a pretty awesome group of people. That is… until 4 am. That is a story for another day.
-Bpardo
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