Game 05 NFL week 1 Rams 0-28 Seahawks. Qwest Field.

With the famous Seattle tailgate spot, “Tailgater’s Heaven” shut because of construction, it meant that we had to park the bus; The Mullet, down a back alley between the rail track and a fast food joint. It was 8am and plenty of tailgaters were all ready parked up, grilling and throwing around the pigskin. There were few other R.Vs and busses because the alley is so narrow, but we did spot a great Seattle old school trailer, that was decked out with flat screen T.Vs (of course) and Seahawk memorabilia.

PFUFA extreme fan, Bernie Hawk came by to check out our wonderful bus. When I explained to him that his makeup had smudged slightly, he retorted quickly telling me it was “face paint, not make-up”...ooops!

Jay began cooking up his mighty balls of fire and buffalo chicken dip and we started to draw a crowd. At one point we must have had about 40 people on the bus. Over head I saw a plane attached to a flag that simply had the number 12 on it. The Seahawk fans take great pride in calling themselves the 12th man, because they are so loud in the stadium, that it draws many penalties for the opposing teams, who cannot hear the coach’s calls.

It was at this point that the fans across from us came over to offer us some burger and hot dogs. It was the finest of tailgating delicacies, as I have come to expect, but these young fans, were passionate about their team and were very friendly. I asked them to try my Colman’s English mustard and they loved it. They told me it tasted like horseradish and a mixture of Chinese mustard, but for me it is just “English mustard”. In fact Jay loves this British bright yellow goodness he adds a splash of it to his bloody Mary mix!

A pretty young lady then walked onto our bus wearing a “Spokane Shock T-shirt”. All the guys on the bus rushed to get her a seat, a drink, food...anything really. It turns out that this young lady, Amanda, is a cheerleader for the Spokane Shock Arena football league team, which is not far from Seattle. After a few minutes her husband joined us on the bus and the previous enthusiasm from the males on the bus quickly deflated. It turns out that Amanda and her husband are really into soccer and will be going to the World cup next year in South Africa. Who would have thought a cheerleader for an Arena football team in Spokane is so passionate about soccer!

It was about forty minutes before kickoff and so we locked up the bus. Jay is a huge Seahawk fan so one of his friends got me a ticket. A large group of us headed to the stadium. By the stadium I noticed that there are dozens a fare like tents or stands selling all sorts of interesting looking food. I bought a game day programme for $3, which 100% of that money goes to charity.

Once inside the mighty loud stadium our large group split up. Although we would all be sitting together, some went to the bathroom, some went to the team store, some went to get drinks and food etc. I was wandering by the concourse looking for my seat, when I saw someone in front of me leaning over a barrier to “high five” his friend below. All of a sudden the person vanished. In an instant six people from the tier below all stood up and looked shocked. I went down the four steps and looked back. The person who was leaning over the barrier had actually gone over the top, flipped over and somehow landed on his back on a seat! He was a big guy and it was a miracle he never landed on anyone or really hurt himself. In a way it was a blessing he was so drunk because he was not in shock, or even aware he went over the barrier. Everyone else was shocked for him and all he could say was “Go Seahawks!”

A patch of blood was coming from his mouth and no one actually knew how it happened. The medics came by and took him to first aid. Sometime later on in the game the staff told us he had been taken to hospital and needed 40 stitches and had four chipped teeth. Which is pretty lucky considering.

The Rams had driven down to the Seahawk 9 yard line and were 3rd and 1. The stadium erupted with noise. I am still perplexed as to how it get so loud! It must be to do with the structure of the building and the ceiling over the fans heads that amplifies the noise. The 12th man worked and the Rams had a false start, so taking them to 3rd and 6. On their next play, the sound was so loud they ended up getting penalised for a delay of game, which forced them back further and into 4th down. They then missed the field goal. So what really could have been a viable touchdown opportunity for the Rams turned into zilch because of the loudness of the fans.

The Seahawks reacted positively and made a succession of passes to ensure a TD themselves taking us into the second quarter. The Seahawks started firing again and got into field goal range. The ball was snapped, but the Rams blocked it. The ball squirted around the backfield and a Rams player picked up the ball and ran it back to the house, with not long to go in the first half. The Seahawks coach challenged the play and after a few minutes it was over turned, because the Rams had 12 players on the field, what a costly error. The Seahawks had the ball back and with a fresh set of downs and got a quick touchdown to take the half time score to 0-14, when really it could well have been 7-7, if the Rams didn’t make that mistake.

A plethora of cheerleaders stormed the field at half time and danced to songs by the Tings Tings who played on a temporary stage. After the break the Rams had no fight to stop the Seahawk’s aerial attack, with new boy Houshmandzadeh making some great plays. The Seahawks scored their third TD and the Rams more or less gave up. In the fourth quarter, Julius Jones broke the Rams secondary for a 60 yard TD run, where the game ended at 0-28 to the Seahawks.

We arrived back at the bus and I wanted to get our satellite working so we could watch the Sunday night matchup between the Bears and Packers. Sadly we were right by a building that prevented our Direct T.V from picking up the game.

As we were heading south back to L.A where the bus lives during the week, we realised that we if we could get away quick then we could make an overnight (800 mile) drive to Oakland for the Monday night game. We had the Bears game on the radio and I started up the engine. We drove all night to the Monday night game.

It was my first time driving the bus thus far and doing an all nighter drive through the mountains, wasn’t the best way to start, but you do these things for football, right?