Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Pre-season game: NFL minus stress

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Brooks Peterson

Monday, August 20, 2001
Pre-season game: NFL minus stress

Bulletin: I have participated in one of the great tribal rites of popular American pop culture. I have attended my first pro football game.
   (OK: My dad took me to one a thousand years ago in Austin, between the Green Bay Packers and the then Chicago Cardinals, but that's ancient history.)
   There I was last weekend at the Alamodome, taking in the quintessential all-American sports-entertainment-controlled-mayhem experience. Me and the NFL, face to face.
   My son, the college man, learned last summer that the Minnesota Vikings would be playing the New Orleans Saints in an exhibition game Aug. 11 at the Alamodome. And since the Vikings are his team, what would make more sense than for us to take in the spectacle?
   Since he had done the hard part, it only seemed fair that his mother and I should do the easy part, coughing up the dough for the tickets. (Whoo. They don't give those babies away, do they?)
   In due course, Mom, Dad, College Man and Grandpa found themselves queued up for the Park-'n'-Ride bus that would whisk us in cool comfort from the Crossroads mall to the 'Dome. No stress, no fuss. . . .
   Except that the driver, seeing gridlock on the expressway, was shrewd enough to dart down an on- ramp to Broadway where we encountered . . . gridlock.
   No matter. We made it in plenty of time, found our seats (on, ahem, the 45-yard line), and settled in to enjoy the festivities.
   Helping the 'Dome pay its rent
   I picked up on a couple of things right away. First, I felt a swelling sense of pride at the fashion in which I was helping the 'Dome pay its rent. To wit: Four bucks for a Coke. Three-fifty for a box of popcorn. Five bucks for a beer. Five bucks for a program. (Makes your South Texas high school football game look like a hurtin' deal - which, of course, it is.)
   Second: The mood in the stands was downright . . . mellow. Even though Vikings fans and Saints fans were elbow to elbow, nobody - not even the drinkers - showed any signs of belligerence. Then I realized: Everybody was happy because nobody had a real stake in the thing. Vikings fans and Saints fans sloshed and joshed jovially through all four quarters. Had it been the real thing, I suspect, it would have been another matter altogether.
   The game itself played out in two phases. For the first three series, both teams had the first string on the field, and just watching them take care of business was borderline-awesome. When the Vikings' Daunte Culpepper lofted a beautiful pass to Randy Moss way down the field, it was at once poetry in motion and an exercise in applied physics.
   By mid-second quarter, the big-money guys were consigned to the sidelines and we could watch aging veterans and green-as-Astroturf rookies doing their best to put on a show.
   Great place for football
   It was thoroughly enjoyable - and it showed the Alamodome off to its best advantage: This venue is as good for football as it is awful for basketball. Mr. Benton, Mr. McComb, somebody - let's get an NFL franchise into this place, pronto.
   Interestingly, for all the hype and the cheerleaders and the exploding fireworks, the most riveting moment came before the teams hit the field: To pass the time, the management had invited a couple of pee-wee football teams to offer a little pre-game entertainment.
   Now, these were little kids: so little the coaches were having to pick them up (gently) and put them in the proper positions before the ball could be snapped. But one play worked to perfection: The quarterback flipped an almost-lateral to his receiver, who proceeded to run a good 55 yards for a touchdown - to the accompaniment of a roar of approbation from the stands.
   I have no idea who that kid was, or where he'll end up - but he'll be a long time forgetting those charmed moments when he made that long sprint to glory, however fleeting.

   Senior Editorial Writer Brooks Peterson can be reached by phone at 886-3772, or by e-mail at petersonb@caller.com.



Brooks Peterson can be reached by phone at 886-3772, or by e-mail at petersonb@caller.com

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