10-19-2018, 09:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-19-2018, 09:26 PM by CardinalSagehen.)
Great recap, Embo.
I was there, too, and I totally want to do this more often. At 45, I'm nowhere near retirement, at least as far as I know. And my kids are 10 and 8, so I'm not about to get a weekend hall pass for a Saturday road game. But I was incredibly lucky to have a work event this Thurs/Fri with colleagues in Tempe. (My wife half-jokingly suspects that I must have scheduled the event intentionally!)
Right where you were held up in traffic before the bridge, near the In-n-Out, I exited my Uber and ran the last mile across the bridge and into the stadium. The game had already kicked-off, so I ran like the wind. I must have been cast some funny looks by Sun Devil fans, but I wasn't about to miss any more of my first true regular season road game, and I didn't care how it looked. I met my ASU grad colleague at our seats by 6:10. He had a couple Coors Lites waiting for me - yes, you can now drink at ASU games until the beginning of the 3rd quarter, a policy which apparently started last year. I'm not accustomed to watching Stanford football with a buzz, so that made the negative running plays go down a little easier.
I sat behind the Visitors' bench, and all the ASU fans in my section were hospitable. That said, they were extremely chaffed by all the PI and defensive holding calls, to the point of irrationality. JJAW creates a tough call for the referees no matter what.
I have to be honest - from my vantage point, it was unclear that a Stanford traveling section even existed. I couldn't really hear the contingent and didn't think to look for it. But I definitely noticed and appreciated the same ominous hush that came over the stadium when we went up by 14. A drunk ASU fan even stood up and yelled semi-coherently at the entire section for losing faith so easily. He elicited a few chuckles but he could not stem the exodus.
There was something special about being on the road with such a sparse group of alums and fellow fans. I don't usually get multiple High 5's from random fans leaving Stanford Stadium, but I did last night. Maybe it was the four Coors Lites (that's like two normal beers, right?), or the crowd's somber mood, but I did not feel at any time after the middle of the third quarter like we were actually going to lose grip of the game.
I impressed my colleague by predicting -2 on first down a few times, and "Shaw never passes when up by 2 scores in the second half", but there was really no joy in that. There was, however, fantastic joy in being present for a Pac 12 road win.
I was there, too, and I totally want to do this more often. At 45, I'm nowhere near retirement, at least as far as I know. And my kids are 10 and 8, so I'm not about to get a weekend hall pass for a Saturday road game. But I was incredibly lucky to have a work event this Thurs/Fri with colleagues in Tempe. (My wife half-jokingly suspects that I must have scheduled the event intentionally!)
Right where you were held up in traffic before the bridge, near the In-n-Out, I exited my Uber and ran the last mile across the bridge and into the stadium. The game had already kicked-off, so I ran like the wind. I must have been cast some funny looks by Sun Devil fans, but I wasn't about to miss any more of my first true regular season road game, and I didn't care how it looked. I met my ASU grad colleague at our seats by 6:10. He had a couple Coors Lites waiting for me - yes, you can now drink at ASU games until the beginning of the 3rd quarter, a policy which apparently started last year. I'm not accustomed to watching Stanford football with a buzz, so that made the negative running plays go down a little easier.
I sat behind the Visitors' bench, and all the ASU fans in my section were hospitable. That said, they were extremely chaffed by all the PI and defensive holding calls, to the point of irrationality. JJAW creates a tough call for the referees no matter what.
I have to be honest - from my vantage point, it was unclear that a Stanford traveling section even existed. I couldn't really hear the contingent and didn't think to look for it. But I definitely noticed and appreciated the same ominous hush that came over the stadium when we went up by 14. A drunk ASU fan even stood up and yelled semi-coherently at the entire section for losing faith so easily. He elicited a few chuckles but he could not stem the exodus.
There was something special about being on the road with such a sparse group of alums and fellow fans. I don't usually get multiple High 5's from random fans leaving Stanford Stadium, but I did last night. Maybe it was the four Coors Lites (that's like two normal beers, right?), or the crowd's somber mood, but I did not feel at any time after the middle of the third quarter like we were actually going to lose grip of the game.
I impressed my colleague by predicting -2 on first down a few times, and "Shaw never passes when up by 2 scores in the second half", but there was really no joy in that. There was, however, fantastic joy in being present for a Pac 12 road win.