Pro Bowl

That's right, be jealous.  While Blizzard 2011 was wreaking havoc on some 100 million people across the U.S., I was sitting on the 45 yard line of Aloha Stadium watching the worst football game in history Pro Bowl.  It started with a 9:30am tailgate.  The game wasn't until 2pm, but my co-worker "Joe," my roommate "Alan," and a guy we met upstairs, "George," went to the game.  Now, to be honest, only George, Joe, and I drove out to Aloha stadium at 9:30am.  Alan, the drunkard that he is, got drunk the night before and passed out at some poor unsuspecting woman's house and didn't get up in time.  He came later during the tailgate.  Anyway, I made my world famous (and of course by world famous I mean my mom likes them) turkey burgers.  I marinated steak and chicken to make shish kebobs.  We brought hot links. We bought humus, jalepeno dip, guacamole, pita chips, tostitos, coronas, and bud light.  We loaded up the back of my SUV with utensils, plates, cups, etc.  And we brought our gas grill.

When we got there and started setting up, a group of military guys and their wives/girlfriends pulled up right across from us and starting setting up tables, chairs, tents, and their own spread of beer and food.  It was pretty hilarious to watch them set up.  We were convinced they had a pre-determined game plan where everyone had assigned tasks because their tailgate was up in about 10 minutes.  I'd say there were maybe 10-15 of them in 3 pickups.  Anyway, Joe, George, and I started setting up and I threw on some burgers and kebobs.

We had a little mishap with one of the burgers

Well, at some point within the next 45-60 minutes one of the guys at the tailgate across from us asked if he could borrow our grill.  Apparently, their grill guy fell through.  See, I love tailgates because everyone is friendly, outgoing, and ready to party.  So we obviously told them that our grill was their grill and to just throw whatever they wanted on there.  The grill was plenty big enough.  Plus, we wanted to play beer pong, which they had set up.  Additionally, they had several coolers of beer whereas we only had one.  It's all about planning ahead.  Plus, we had far more food than the 3 (and eventually 4) of us could possibly eat.  So handing out my famous burgers and kebobs was a great way to make friends.

Walking into the Stadium

A few hours later we had met all of the people from the other tailgate, made plans to hang out the following week, shotgunned a few beers, played some beer pong, and gotten sufficiently intoxicated that it was time to see the game.  Joe and I had tickets on the 45 yard line.  Alan (who had finally shown up) and George had tickets 5 rows from the field but in the corner of the endzone.  Everyone had good tickets, just not together.

From Our Seats

Joe and I went in and let me just say trying to get into the stadium was a complete and total cluster f*ck.  The security guards operating the gate clearly had no concept of efficiency or logic.  There were five gates available, but they were only utilizing three.  They made everyone go past the security gate before wrapping around to come through.  We finally made it in, though, and the stadium is really nice.  It's where the University of Hawaii plays their games.  There really isn't a bad seat in the stadium.

The game itself was...well...the NFL All-Star game.  These guys really look at the Pro Bowl as a free trip for them and their families to come to Hawaii.  They don't take the game seriously AT ALL.  It was actually kind of humorous (more so b/c I was drunk).  When the ball was snapped, the linemen just stood up and sort of held each other up.  When Adrian Pederson would run into a tackle, he just fell down.  It was clear they were playing not to get hurt.  By the end of the second quarter, the NFC was winning like 45-0.  So Joe and I decided to see the halftime show and go back to the parking lot.  The truth is, once the tailgate got going, we didn't really want to leave.  It was too much fun.  It was even fun during the 20 minutes of rain we had before the game started.  So we went back to the parking lot, found the guys tailgating still (they didn't actually have tickets to the game) and just kept eating and drinking.  Eventually we met up with Alan and George and went home.

Halftime Show

It was a pretty fun day and I was definitely happy that I got the chance to go.