Since we moved to Virginia in 2000, my daughter and I have wanted to go to a Dallas Cowboys – Washington Redskins football game. Year after year the opportunity would come and go, but this year when the opportunity came we grabbed it!
As you may be well aware, there are all kinds of “different” terminology used in American football. For instance, “clipping” is a term used in the game. It doesn’t mean:
- cutting your fingernails with clippers
- what the beautician does when you sit in her chair and ask for a haircut
- an article cut from a newspaper or magazine
- a small piece trimmed from something like the little pieces of grass after you mow
- the action you take to trim something like hedges
- the reduction of a word to one of its parts like saying “ad” instead of “advertisement”
Well, what does it mean?!
In football, “clipping” is an illegal block in which a player hits an opponent from behind, typically at leg level. It is a foul that results in a 15-yard penalty. Obviously, a player doesn’t want this foul to be called against him.
Anyway, if you know at least some of the football terms and understand the game, seeing it up close and in real life is REALLY fun and exciting. If you don’t know anything about football, well, you definitely wouldn’t like going to a game in the cold and rain. Just saying!
Let me give you some highlights of the experience…
Scrambling
The day started out with waking early and “scrambling” to get ready by 7:30 a.m. because the Washington Redskins home stadium is the FedExField Stadium in Landover, Maryland. So I packed stuff to eat and then we were off to fight the traffic on I-95 in Alyssa’s new car.
After a couple hours, we arrived at the FedExField Stadium and people were already tailgating. Food and booze were plentiful with the fans. We stuck with the healthy food we brought and didn’t fraternize with the enemy. 😉 There were LOTS of Redskin fans and some were already drunk. That’s just crazy to me! The whole idea of getting drunk just doesn’t appeal to me at all. I act stupid enough without being drunk. Ha!
Tight End
Once we found our seat inside the stadium, I was able to look around in amazement. There were so many seats!!! I know…I sound like a sheltered child, but seriously, seeing that many seats was really something else.
The Dallas Cowboys came onto the field and started exercising.
There were a whole bunch of “tight ends” on the field.
Another thing I noticed was a camera that was suspended on wires. The camera was able to move up, down, back and forth all over the field. It had a perfect view of the action. At first I thought the camera hovered all by itself, but eventually I saw the wires. Even so, the camera amazed and intrigued me. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the camera when it moved up and down the field.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just call me nerdy.
Pancake Block
One of the responsibilities of being the mother of a beautiful daughter is that you have always be ready to run “pass interference” if any guy starts making unwanted persistent “pass attempts.” Of course, I’m always ready to just use a “pancake block” if necessary.
Huddle
Before the game started there was all kind of action happening on the field.
The band played…
The cheerleaders jumped around in skimpy outfits with their butt cheeks hanging out (rolling my eyes)…
The big inflatable Redskin helmet stood ready for the football players to come through and make their grand entrance…
Then it was time to get to business, so the Dallas Cowboys got together in a “huddle” and before I knew it, TOUCHDOWN COWBOYS right under my nose!!!!
To sweeten the score even better, they “kicked” the ball and made the “point after touchdown” without any problems.
Woohoo! The Dallas Cowboys were already winning!
Motion
Although the Washington Redskin cheerleaders were constantly in “motion” with their pom-poms, I didn’t really see the fans getting all that excited about them. I guess I’m just used to the big hoopla made over the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
When it started getting colder and the cheerleaders put on leggings, it didn’t seem to make any difference to anyone. Well, anyone except me. I was glad that their butt cheeks weren’t hanging out anymore. Just saying!
Meanwhile, the billions of seats were steadily filling up.
Maybe not quite billions of seats, but lots and lots of seats in the FedExField Stadium.
Of course, I remained obsessed with the hovering camera on wires.
It was also at this point that I became thankful for the roof over my head. Our seats were shielded from the wind and if it rained, we would stay dry. I really liked our seat location even though we were surrounded by Washington Redskin fans totally decked out in their teams colors and logo’d clothing.
Man-to-Man Coverage
With the ever watchful eye of the hovering camera that provided “man-to-man coverage” and caught all the important moves…
And the big screens located at each end of the field, the replays were continual and really added excitement to the game.
As time wore on, it started to rain. The camera people put raincoats on their cameras…
And many of the fans donned their own raincoats…
There was one man who stood at the goal post the whole game. I think he was being punished kind of like a “time out” for children. That can be the only explanation of why this man had to stand at the goal post the WHOLE game and do nothing. Even when it started raining, the poor fella had to stand like a statue at the goal post. One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen!
The Sideline Referee
Anyway, the Dallas Cowboys clobbered those Washington Redskins with one “touchdown” after another until the score was 44 to 17 at the end of the game.
Do you know why the Dallas Cowboys won this time? Because the “sideline referees” located in the stands in section 228 did a fantastic job “quarterbacking,” hollering and cheering!
Yeah, we had a blast and I think we will always remember this fun experience. It was really a dream come true.
I sure love that sweet daughter of mine.
Have you attended a pro football game too? Do you have a favorite team?
Well that was sure amusing. I bet it was for you too.
LOL 😉 I’m glad it made you smile 😀
Best yet , love it. You both are beautiful
Thank you so much Mom! {{{hugsss}}}
That was an interesting take on professional football…lol Thank you for sharing such an exciting experience.
LOL 😛 My pleasure!
My God you are a gorgeous woman. And your daughter is just perfect – I see the need to be ready with the pancake block at any moment.
I once attended a Oakland Raider game when my daughter Morgan’s cheerleading team got the chance to cheer alongside the Raiderettes. The rowdy fans all around me could not understand why I was not very interested in the game, but when the cheerleaders came on, I was a rabid, camera-swinging, get-out-of-my-shot fan.
Yes, I think everyone should experience a game at least once. Baseball is an entirely different experience, except for the traffic and the crowds.
I’m trying to talk myself into attending a University of Tennessee and a Tennessee Titans football game this year. If only for the traffic, and the crowds, lol.
Did I say you are gorgeous?
***blushing***
Thank you so much Bill.
I love going to baseball games and have been to several. The pace is so much slower than football and the fans seem calmer. LOL
don’t get me started on baseball!!! my dislike of that euphemistically titled “pastime” (read time-waster!) is visceral, dating from my earliest school days, when wearing glasses made me leery of balls coming at me, so my inability to play made me always the last one chosen during recess games… this rejection fueled my distaste for the activity, which became far more intense years later when I worked at Boston’s Beth Israel hospital, which is practically next door to Fenway Field… during baseball season, traffic was so severely disrupted that a 10 minute drive home became a slog of more than an hour! Mark Twain called golf “a good walk spoiled – I call baseball the ruination of time, money, effort – & some perfectly good real estate!
…no, don’t get me started on baseball!!! 😛
nope – & nope… I’m prolly as far from a fan of football as you can get! to me, it’s a nasty, brutal game on which obscene amounts of money are spent that could be used to help end hunger, homelessness, & disease… I’m pretty sure I’d be more than uncomfortable at a game if I did go because of the huge crowd of screaming fans all around, as I don’t do well in tightly crowded situations anyway… besides which, back before CBS would push back the start time of 60 minutes if a game ran long (which was always!), my mom & I would lose the coverage of Watergate or other truly important issues while dad enjoyed his weekly dose of mayhem! if I’d had any tolerance for the game before, that squelched it completely!
all that being said, I know how much you enjoy the game & love to root for that silly crowd from Dallas, so I’m glad you got to enjoy the experience… 😛
one thing I must agree with – I too would have been totally geekily fascinated by the hovering camera on wires – & the guy stuck doing perpetual goalpost duty! 😀
LOLOLOLOL You’re so funny Skip! Thank you!
I neglected to point out how much I enjoyed your excellent photos, especially those of Alyssa & you – the one of her walking toward you in the stands is a masterful candid portrait of a beautiful young woman, as only the talented eye of a loving mother could have taken!
…actually, I realize that the views of you together with Alyssa must have been taken by some other lucky random person, who managed to capture both of you in a moment of supreme enjoyment, mutual love, & radiant beauty! 😀
LOL Thank you Skip!!! 😉
… thank you, Sherry, for a wonderfully wide-eyed look at “foo’ball” from the perspective of a “newb” (btw, the fly-by field-cam has always held fascination for me, too) … I forgive you the small character-flaw of being a **shudder** Dallas fan … I’ve been a Packers fan since high school, though I’ve been a Tom Brady fan since he took over the Pats (in a rare moment of sane general management decisiveness – forever good riddance Drew “BMOC” Bledsoe) … however, I’ve never been enamoured of the game enough to endure it live, in-person, under gameday weather conditions — I only attend UConn women’s basketball games …. 😀
How ’bout them Cowboys Jim?!!! We won again yesterday too against the Colts!
I don’t know why I haven’t ever seen the camera before when I watched the game on TV because now that I’ve noticed them while attending the game in person, I CONSTANTLY see the camera flying around when I’m watching a game on TV!!! LOL Strange! 😛
… I shall avoid rubbing salt into any recent wounds 😉 … suffice to mention my chagrin at the personal prospect of possibly having to choose ‘tween the Packers and Tom Brady come the Super Bowl … fortunately for me, 😀 Seattle obviated the quandary in an AMAZING comeback quarter (“sudden death” would mercifully shorten dragging baseball games imho) ….
LOL 😛
Sherry you missed your calling! You should be an Advertiser, your pictures are prefect and being able to bring a meaning to each picture is just amazing. I was very intrigued reading this post. Very good post!
Don
PS. You and your daughter look so beautiful!
Thank you so much Don! I really appreciate you taking the time to read it and comment. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! And thank you for the sweet compliment. I miss having lunch with you all. {{{hugsss}}}
Sounds like an awesome time was had by all! (well… all the Dallas fans anyway!) Now of course you have my geek brain wondering how the wires that carry that camera keep from interfering with game play! *LOL* Maybe I’ll google it later. Congrats to Alyssa on the new car, and the two of you looked gorgeous together in those last two shots! 🙂 As always, thank you for sharing! 🙂 <3
oh… yeah… Browns fan here! On a side note… we don't have cheerleaders with butt cheeks hanging out… in fact… we don't have cheerleaders… *scratches head* Not sure how I picked a team without cheerleaders! *LOL* Have a great day my friend!
That camera is awesome! LOL
Too funny that you chose a team without cheerleaders! At least there aren’t any cheeks hanging out at your games! LOLOLOL
I wonder if the camera ever been hit by a ball?
Wow! That’s an excellent question! Now I wonder too! LOL 😛
yeah, I was thinking about that too… surely being as low to the ground as it is, the camera or the guy wires that control it must run the risk of being hit by a pass – unless they make a point of getting them out of the way first…
Hmm, let’s see. Beautiful, smart, funny, a redhead, and a Dallas Cowboys fan. That’s as close to perfect as it gets! Great post and I’m glad you got to see the ‘boys spank the Redskins. That’s always a good day! 😀 BTW, the skycam (wire camera) was one of the best ideas the NFL brought from the XFL.
Have a good one, and ‘rite on!
Awww shucks! You’re making me blush! Thank you so much for your sweet comment.
Is that what it’s called? A skycam? Now when I’m watching a game on TV I see the skycam ALL the time! LOL It’s crazy how I never noticed it before!
{{{hugsss}}}}