Week 1: Indianapolis v. Giants

I did not sleep on the ride over to the game. There was an exciting buzz on the bus of Giants fans listening to the radio pregame, listening to the Dallas/Jacksonville, or checking cell phones and Trios to find stats, scores and reports from the first full day of NFL '06. I was excited as well, but more anxious over the Dallas game which had taken a turn for the worse since I had left the house.

They handed out little American flags at the game as people walked in and this guy was on the Jumbotron all night shaking peoples' hands. The timing of 3 black hawk helicopters to the last line of the national anthem was impeccable and so low that all 3 made me wince when passing on account of their proximity to NBC's field camera zip line strung up at the top of the stadium.

I sold Candy (starburst, skittles, sweedish fish, twix, reese's cup, snickers, sour patch straws, kit kat, twizzlers, as well as both peanut and regular m&ms) and a heavy old bag of peanuts that people seemed far less interested in than usual on this night.

It is hard in an NFL game that is well attended to make it around the stadium's upper deck, with product in tow in less time that it takes to play the game. This assumes you hawk as I do and trudge up the narrow staircases to the top, as I do. That takes time.

When paused at the top of the East end of the stadium late in the 1st quarter Dallas Clark caught a long pass from Peyton Manning to silence the crowd. A patron looked at me smiling, forcing me to admit, "I got mixed feelings on this one, 44's on my fantasy team." this explanation seemed to suffice and I moved along as he shuffled into his seat.

Sometimes people drink to many $7 plastic bottles of domestic beer. I firmly believe this people are wack when repeatedly resorting to this behavior.

I left this one with the game still slightly in doubt. I headed for the bus back to NY after the 2-minute warning and with the Colts up 25-21. The game ended that way, and I missed little of consequence. the picture you see is from just before the Colts kicked through the final 3 points of the game.

Game info:
ESPN drive chart
AP story from si.com