As soon as we knew we were going to San Francisco, we checked to see if the 49ers were in town, but they were away in Detroit. But the Raiders were home against the Browns that weekend. Perfect...Darren McFadden and Peyton Hillis!! We ordered our tickets immediately and were able to get seats on the 9th row behind the Browns' bench.
Once we got to SF, two other couples (Zac & Charell and Josh & Beth) decided that they wanted to go to the game too. They ordered tickets on Friday and had to pick them up at a hotel a couple of blocks from the stadium. No problem, right? Well, we didn't think so until we got off the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) at the stadium and started walking to the hotel. It was the WORST place I've ever seen and couldn't believe 6 Arkansans were busting right down the middle of it. We would have thought it was a deserted area except there was so much stuff everywhere. Weird stuff all over the road and sidewalks...like a small mattress, three pairs of black dress shoes in a pile, random trash, tires, LOTS of latex gloves, just strange things. We all had Raiders shirts on (except Charell but at least she was wearing gray) and felt like they might be the only reason we would survive the walk. Beth basically plastered herself to me and honestly, I was glad she did. The guys deal with questionable people all the time at work so I think they were less worried than us, but they still thought it was all a little alarming. I wanted to take pictures of some of the surroundings, but didn't want to waste any time or pull out anything that looked more valuable than a Raiders shirt.
We finally made it to the hotel and realized there was a slightly better route we could have taken to get there but it was still Oakland. The walk from the hotel to the stadium wasn't quite as bad as the walk to the hotel but still not somewhere I would want to be by myself. Thank goodness it wasn't a night game!
Brad and I love football and we were excited to see two teams we'd never seen before but were REALLY excited to see two ex-Razorbacks.
Head coach Hue Jackson shaking hands with his players before the game.
This was before the game started. By the end, Brad's face was sun burned pretty bad. The weather was perfect in my opinion.
We didn't see many Browns fans, but I liked this one!
I didn't know Darren McFadden was a captain.
Sebastian Janakowski can kick the crap out of the ball. Even if he is 100 years old.
Brad Maynard plays for the Brown's now. I like him because he was with the Chicago Bears for years. I wish they would have kept him.
Hillis didn't play much.
But McFadden had a pretty good day.
This was the first home game since the Raiders lost their owner, Al Davis who passed away Oct. 8. Several ex-Raiders were featured on the field at half time as a tribute to him.
The highlight of the tribute was definitely when our attention was directed to JOHN MADDEN who lit a torch that burned the remainder of the game!!!!
This was definitely my favorite day of the whole trip for me. The Raiders' fans are awesome and LOVE their team. If it wasn't in Oakland, I would love to go back.
Next up...Alcatraz.....
No comments:
Post a Comment