Game #27-Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings
University of Phoenix Stadium
December 6, 2009

What a crazy weekend. A bunch of us decided to head out to Anthem, Arizona to compete in the local triathlon in a small community my buddy Brian Iams and his family live in and what better excuse to hit up a football game. It wasn’t the best planned vacation because Keli and I were really busy at work, I was launching a new MS program and it was set to start on Monday the 7th. But we headed out anyway and overall it was a blast. The triathlon went great, won my age group and got 3rd overall then drank the night away. Sunday was a bit more out of sync. The Cards and the Vikings are both in first place in their divisions and to kick it up a notch, Brett Favre is now the QB for Minnesota. Also didn’t help that he set an NFL record for consecutive appearances at 283 at 40 years of age. So what does the NFL do??? Flex the game and instead of us tailgaiting at the stadium around 11am and going to the game at 2pm…the new schedule set kickoff at 6:20pm while Kel and I had a flight out at 7! I was able to move the flight back a bit but we still only got in a quarter of the game before we had to rush, and I mean RUSH to the airport. I might have got caught speeding around 80mph by a camera speed trap because as I was driving a flash of red blinded me (I did get caught, $200!), oh and I cracked the rental window by following a car too close and a rock shot at the car. Anyway back to what we were able to see at the game. The Vikes looked good, Favre and Adrienne Petersen had a ton of fans there for support. The stadium was awesome, I have never been in an arena that big before and it was cool to see the field tracks that lead it outside when not in use. Again we only caught about 15 actual minutes of the game and then saw a bit more at the airport (luckily the plane was delayed or else we would have missed the flight). Turned out to be a shoot out and the Cards ended up with a big win, 30-17. Hopefully the next game I go to I will actually be able to see the whole thing.

Notes on the stadium: The University of Phoenix stadium is really cool. From the outside it is a great place to tailgate. People are everywhere and there are BBQ's, flags, fans tossing the pigskin, generally a pumped up crowd ready to watch their home team. Inside the stadium I was awestruck. Again, this is my first indoor football game and the enormity of the place was crazy. Things I like about the place include: the retractable field, the redzone which includes a huge mural of the Cardinals logo, the giant pictures of old Cardinals players and of course the roof (I know it is just a roof but again to have 80,000 people under one roof is still astounding to think about).