I promise this will be my last post regarding this weeks game haha. Was just a once in a lifetime experience I wanted to share beyond my drunken/excited post after the game. Warning- Djax sized post coming up.
Arrived to the tailgate about 4 hours before the game and started walking around meeting people. Very friendly fans here that were happy to share their food and chat with us. Only a few Skins fans around the parking lot but it was pretty tame. About 20 "redskins" protesters with signs were escorted by police and walking around yelling at the Skins fans to change their team name. Saw a crowd of about 15 people standing around a circle with a pretty big video camera on them so decided to check that out. Could make out Lurie in the middle of the group so quickly went over. We started a FLY EAGLES FLY chant and Lurie was right into it singing it at the top of his lungs and pumping his fist. A bunch of people were getting pictures with him so I asked one of his security guys if I could get a picture with him and shook his hand and thanked him. Very cool start to the night, and it was just beginning.
Once inside at about 7pm, we headed straight down to the field. We were able to walk right up to the roped off sideline as the teams were warming up. We got stuck on the side where it was just the kickers practicing FG's together (was weird to see the opposing team kickers chatting and helping each other warm up). Akers came along the sideline and I got to say hi and get a picture with him too. Seemed like a very friendly and down to earth guy that was happy to meet us. After a few minutes we contacted our hook-up to see if she could get us over to the side that the Eagles players were warming up on. She came over with her husband who chatted with the security guy and let us under the tape to walk over to the Eagles side with them!
That side was amazing. There was a lot of kick returns and fades to the endzone going on right in front of us. Barner was practicing some fair catches and returns from the 5 yard line just a few yards in front of us. Ertz came out right in front of us and did a bunch of dynamics and stretching and running for about 10 minutes, and when Carson finally came out the crowd got pretty into it. I have about an hour long video of just the warm up in front of us, it's pretty awesome.
Warmups ended and they cleared the field area as players went back to the locker room, so we had to make a decision about where to stand when they came out of the tunnel. We somehow were able to head into the tunnel area and wait until they came out. Downside was we saw nothing going on on the field or any player introductions, but got to be right there as the players came out. It was a long wait of about 20 minutes in the tunnel with about 30 other people (lots of family members). Weird atmosphere as we're in a dark tunnel with the music pumping, NFL films and a couple network cameras were in there as everyone was anticipating the team coming out. Finally Schwartz ran by us first, then Doug a couple minutes later, and slowly over the next 5 minutes a few players started to come out. Some coming up and kissing their wives/kids, some getting pictures with a few people quickly, and some going straight by us towards the field. Maragos was in his jersey and came over and was limping considerably. Blount came over and grabbed my hand, and I patted a few other guys on the pads as they ran by. Was an incredible moment.
Headed to our seats for the anthem and for Kickoff. After we got the first penalty on us the crowd was going nuts at the refs... then #2, #3, and #4... each time getting more and more riled up. It was awesome (not the penalty part). Seats were good and it was an instant party in the stands after every score. People started filing out pretty early once the Skins were down 2 scores. We stuck around though to head to the family room afterwards.
We headed down and FINALLY found the family room that our passes got us to, which is down on the bottom level of the stadium. Nothing much was going on in there as it was just a few wives of the players in there eating and watching some post game stuff. One worker told us that the Touchdown Club was where the action was after the game so we headed towards there unsure if our passes even got us in there. I'm not even sure if the guy checking passes knew if we had access to that or not but he let us in!!
We grabbed some drinks and met up with our friend and her husband who coaches the D-Line. There were quite a few coaches, family members, and players in there. Howie Long was in the room as well as some other ex players. Travis Kelce walked in in a hoodie and sandles and we chatted with him. Turns out he played hockey for 8 years so was pumped to talk hockey with us since we're Canadian. For him seeming like a total D-bag on/off the field, he was actually pretty nice to us and was happy to take a picture with us. Agholor showed up next and I went and said hi to him. Nice guy, really quiet and kept to himself though. I really wanted to meet Cox to get my jersey signed but he apparently never shows up in there afterwards. She offered to leave it with Phillip and send it to me once he signed it, so was going to do that and then Cox walked in. He's massive! Signed my jersey and snapped a quick picture and then he mingled around a bit.
Incredible first Eagles home game.