Scene 1: Friday evening, 5:30pm, April 27th. After driving around North Jersey for an extra 45 minutes trying to find my hotel, my buddy and I got checked in, hopped on the trains and arrived in NYC. I made the call to nittanylions to get in the loop but just got the voicemail at his hotel room. So we swung by Radio City to check out the line and try to figure out when tickets were being given out. We couldn't find any line where we thought it would be and proceeded to walk all the way around the building looking for it. Turns out that NOBODY was in line yet. Since we didn't really know where to stand and nobody else was in line yet, we decided to head down to the Benjamin to see where the FBG staff was staying. So that killed about 20 minutes. We were getting hungry so we decided to head to the ESPN Zone for dinner.
Scene 2: Friday evening, 8:30pm, April 27th. After an ok meal at a pretty boring ESPN Zone we headed back to Radio City. At that point there were about 10 guys hanging out at a set of doors. They looked like football fans so we asked them if they were there for the draft. They were and 2 of them had been there last year and said that the tickets were handed out at that entrance the previous year. So we sat down there and figured we were all set. About 15 minutes later or so I get a call back from nittanylion. They're hanging out at the Carnegie Deli a few blocks away so we head over there to meet everyone.
Scene 3: Friday evening, 9:00pm, April 27th. As we walk into the restaurant I realize that all I have to go on to recognize everyone are the pictures on the home page of FBG. But as we're heading back it's easy to spot the Black Eyed Joe gear. So at that point we get to meet Sigmund Bloom, Jeff Pasquino, Marc Faletti, nittanylion and the man, the myth, the legend David Dodds. Dodds has BEJ hats and boatloads of assorted stickers. So after donning the appropriate branded head gear we settle in. Since we had just come back from dinner I just got a milkshake. When the food came out I was deeply disappointed that I had filled my stomach with the junk from ESPN Zone and not the goodness of the Carnegie Deli. nittany's triple decker sandwich stood about 8 or 9 inches tall. I think if they slaughtered an entire cow it wouldn't have been as much meat as there was on that thing. And Faletti's slice of cheesecake must have weighed a pound all by itself. All filled up we headed back to Radio City to see what was brewing.
Scene 4: Friday evening, 10:00pm, April 27th. We get back to Radio City and the line has quickly increased in size. I'd estimate between 75 and 100 people were in line at that point. Luckily we found a few other FBGs standing in the front third of the line and sort of insinuated ourselves into the line at that point. The FBG crew hung around for a little while talking to people in line, getting some film footage and sucking people into the world of FBG. At this point everyone is still pretty energetic, there's lots of joking around and lots of NFL discussion. There's also no rain which was a relief since the forecast had called for a 60% change of thunderstorms. Things were looking good.
Scene 5: Friday night, 11:55pm, April 27th. By this point the line has grown slowly to the end of the sidewalk and is staring to turn the corner around the front of Radio City. Everyone is starting to get a little antsy because we're anticipating tickets being given out at midnight. When midnight comes and goes without any indication that tickets were being given out, the mood definitely dies down and people start digging in. I may be off by an hour or so but at some point around this time the FBG crew came back down after taping a segment, got some more footage, checked in with us and headed back to the hotel for some sleep. At this point we realized that we were pot committed and that we were there for better or for worse until they gave out the tickets. Things were still a little upeat though as the clubbers were still driving by in their limos yelling out the windows. Despite the catcalls, no young debutantes chose to put their goods on display.
Scene 6: Saturday morning, 2:00am, April 28th. At this point it's clear that they don't plan on handing out tickets until the morning. The line now runs along the entire front of Radio City as well. Some people are trying to get some sleep on the cold sidewalk and the line is pretty dead at this point. People are heading to the bathrooms at the nearest McDonalds and quickly turning them into a toxic waste dump. The people working the registers appear to be completely overwhelmed with the number of people coming in and are taking 10-15 minutes to fill each order. And by overwhelmed by the number of people I mean that they apparently can't handle 5 people at a time in the line. People were tired and cranky and I'm pretty sure that the well being of the McD employees was threatened multiple times during the night. I waited over 15 minutes for my medium coffee before just deciding that it wasn't worth it anymore and headed down to a nearby deli and got my coffee before heading back to my spot in the line.
Scene 7: Saturday morning, 3:30am, April 28th. The line is half asleep but some of us are hitting our second wind at this point. I bust out my portable DVD player and Season 5 of The Simpsons and we catch a few episodes. Around 4am people start showing up expecting the line to be short still. What they find is a line that stretches down one side of RCMH, around the front and up the other side. As they walk up to the front of the line the trap is baited. As soon as they get to the front and think that they're going to get in there, the line goes nuts harassing them. It happens again and again and doesn't get old the rest of the night. Most of them beg to be let in but their pleas fall on deaf ears. The better looking females apparently don't think that the offers that they're getting to cut into line are worth it and the men apparently don't feel that it's worth $500.
Scene 8: Saturday morning, 4:00am, April 28th. Around this time some security guards are coming out and start moving some things around. Everyone gets excited. Then disaster hits. They change the entrance door to one about 300 people in back of us in line. These people have been waiting about 2 hours less than everyone at our spot in line and suddenly they are at the front. The guards also decided that it would be a good idea to take everyone BEHIND the new front of the line and move them behind the original front of the line. So they'd still be behind us at least which made us about 300th in line. And of course they didn't do it in any orderly way, they just told them to get there. So suddenly there was about 1500 people stampeding down the street to try to get a closer spot in line. It was complete mayhem. We're pretty angry at that point though because we went from being about 30th in line to about 300th. And the people at the very front of the line originally went from 1st to 330th. Not a smart thing to do to tired cranky people that have been sitting on the sidewalk all night. But the talk is that at 5 is when they'll give out the tickets.
Scene 9: Saturday morning, 5:00am, April 28th. No tickets. Looks like it will be another 2 hours before the tickets are given out. We have a slight medical issue in our area and some ######## takes advantage of the situation by sneaking into line. The security guards wouldn't even get medical help and basically decided to disappear at this point. I'm not sure if the security people were Radio City employees or NFL employees, but they did a terrible job and really screwed the pooch all around. An ambulance did show up though and things got taken care of. Meanwhile we realize that there's a new guy hanging out in line. We've been standing in line with the same people now for about 6 hours. We know who belongs and who doesn't. So one of our guys confronts the guy and the idiot claims that he's been in line all night as well. Things get heated quickly with the jerk claiming that he had been in line since 4pm. I told him that he was full of it since I had been there at 5:30 and there was NOBODY in line at that point. He then offered to fight anyone that had a problem with him and we had to call off our buddy that was just about willing to take him up on it. Of course the security guards were nowhere to be seen during this entire time. We would have liked to throw down but at this point we'd all get kicked out of line/arrested and we would have wasted 7 hours in line. This guy had nothing to lose since he had just shown up. The real problem is that none of the guys that he had cut in front of were willing to confront him. They had been in line the longest but didn't want to get involved. So this guy managed to cut in front of about 2,000 people and get himself a ticket.
Scene 10: Saturday morning, 6:30am, April 28th. FINALLY! The door are open and the line is moving. We eventually end up with our tickets at about 7 and my buddy and I head over to Starbucks to get something to eat and relax for a while. nittany showed up a little later and joined us followed by Dodds and then the rest of the crew later. At this point I had been up for over 24 hours and the timing of stuff starts to blur a bit for me. We headed over to Radio City. Bloom, Faletti and Pasquino were able to head right in with their press credentials. Dodds and nittany were able to head over to the VIP entrance since they had diehard tickets while my buddy and I stood in line at the general admission area. We found out that while we had 2nd mezzanine level tickets, the people that had been 300th in line until they made that the new front of the line had floor level tickets.
But we were in so it was all good. We picked up our free goody bag and headed to our seats. We knew a bunch of the people around us since we had been sitting next to them all night. So that was pretty cool.
Scene 11: Saturday noon, 12:00pm, April 28th. Draft time baby! The Raiders are on the clock! 15 minutes later they finally make the pick that everyone knows that they're going to make. From there the story of the day become Brady Quinn and how far he'll fall after the Browns pass him up. When the Dolphins pick Ted Ginn, Jr. the place goes nuts with chants of "Dolphins suck!" Brady Quinn looks like he's trying to find a rope and a high rafter at this point.
Scene 12: Saturday, 3:00pm, April 28th. I'm fighting to stay awake between picks at this point. The adrenaline is starting to wear off and the 33 straight hours without sleep is starting to get to me. The Browns finally trade up to get Quinn at 22 and he looks like had had the snot beaten out of him. A chip on the shoulder may be exactly what he needed. I'm still mad that the Niners took Patrick Willis in front of the Bills. But I'm a fan of Lynch and think that he'll fit the Bills perfectly. Bills fans are hoping that Poz will somehow fall to the Bills at #2 but there's not much hope that he will. Around 5pm or so we headed down to the 1st mezzanine level and sat down with Dodds and nittany. The place was starting to clear out as most fans were leaving after their team's pick.
Scene 13: Saturday, 6:15pm, April 28th. The longest first round in NFL history is FINALLY over. ESPN's mistake with the Chargers on the clock makes it pretty clear though that the NFL is intentionally dragging this thing out. They showed Olsen putting on the Bears hat after being on the phone with them and celebrating. All this while the Chargers were still "on the clock." Then when the Bears were finally "on the clock" they ran it down to 2 minutes before announcing that Olsen was the pick.
At that point my buddy and I decide that we'll stay until the Bills pick at #11 and then head back to the hotel to crash. About 3/4 of the fans have left at this point although Eagles fans are still stuck there since the Eagles traded down. Thankfully the Bills trade up to #2 and take Poz and we can head back to the hotel happy.
Scene 14: Sunday, 10:00pm, April 29th. After sleeping in a bit and grabbing breakfast we head into NYC. We got to Radio City at about 10:00 and there's already a decent line formed. We didn't see anyone so we headed to the back of the line. We had intended to meetup with the guys between 9 and 10 at Starbucks but just couldn't get up early enough. I gave nittany a call and it turned out that they were near the front of the line. I was hesitant to cut up in line with them but after assurances that Day 2 was different and that everyone knew they'd get in we headed up and got near the front of the line. Around 10:30 or so the doors opened and we headed in for Day 2. We got another goody bag and a diehard form and headed down to our seats on the floor level. Much nicer seats this time. On Day 2 the seats aren't assigned seats so it definitely pays to be near the front of the line, although there were plenty of open seats.
Scene 15: Sunday, 11:00pm, April 29th. Day 2 of the draft begins. Much less fanfare but tons of great discussion amongst the diehard fans. TONS of round 4 trades happening as teams regrouped overnight and laid out their plan of attack for guys that they were targetting. We were sitting in the 2nd row right behind the press and next to the ESPN stage. Bloom, Pasquino and Faletti were coming back, chatting and giving us any scoops that they were hearing. Just by watching them it was apparent that they were way more into what was going on than 90% of the press around them. Most of the media guys seemed bored out of their minds. Meanwhile Gil Brandt is coming over and hitting up Pasquino for info (seriously). My buddy and I got a picture of us with Ron Jaworski as well as Braylon Edwards. I also owe both nittanylion and Pasquino pictures that I unfortunately did not get to last night before I wiped out for the night.
Scene 16: Sunday, ~2:30pm. Again, I'm not sure on the exact time but Dodds had to head out to catch his flight and my buddy and I headed out at the end of the 5th round. We left our diehard forms with nittany with the hopes that he'd be able to get them turned in for us. We hit the trains back to NJ and after another 2 hours of driving I was back at home ready to crash. I was completely drained but had an awesome time.
If I had known that I would have had to stay up all night on the streets of NYC to get a ticket, I may not have decided to go. But after the fact I was very glad that I did. It was completely worth it. The only thing that I regret was that I didn't bring my folding chair to sit on in line. The whole thing was an absolute blast.
And it was an absolute pleasure to meet all of the other FBG guys. Major thanks to nittanylion for getting so much info out there and keeping me in the loop during the weekend. Thanks to Dodds for the hat, stickers and for keeping me laughing so much. And major props to Bloom, Faletti and Pasquino. You seriously had to be there to appreciate just how much more these guys knew than everyone else there. They were working other media guys and just putting in a ton of time and work. All of their work up to the draft made them some of the most prepared guys there. That was pretty obvious just from the fact that half the media guys weren't even there for Day 2. 9 months from now when the "experts" are talking about how nobody could have possibly foreseen some player in the 4th or 5th round making the impact that they're making, I'll yell "Bull" because Bloom/Pasquino/Faletti were there at the draft discussing that very possibility while so many of the "experts" were sleeping at home on Day 2.
Is it too early to starting planning for next year's draft?
Tons of boos from the OAKLAND Raiders fans.
about how security handled that entire situation. You guys were seriously hardcore to stay that late Day 1. I'm definitely hoping to try to meet up with everyone to do it again next year. about how security handled that entire situation. You guys were seriously hardcore to stay that late Day 1. I'm definitely hoping to try to meet up with everyone to do it again next year.
