Hevle.com – Football Weekend
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I and a
group of my friends (Todd, Kevin, Mike, and Tony) have an annual trip to
watch an NFL game in a different stadium every year. We go into town, do the touristy things,
maybe play golf on Saturday, and then watch the game on Sunday. The rules are that you have to dress up and
root for the home team, regardless of previous affiliations. We take turns picking the location, and the
selector is responsible for organizing the trip, getting tickets and hotel
rooms, and planning the festivities. rules Each
year, one of our group picks an NFL game to attend. We arrive in the city on Friday afternoon,
arrange for some activity on Saturday and then go to the game on Sunday. The intent is to visit a game in a
different city each year, until we all die off. I like the idea because it revolves around
football (a sport we all like), could be done on a relatively cheap budget,
wouldn't take more than a weekend and seems (on the surface) very easy to
explain to wives and significant others.
I also like the idea of having to root for the home team at every game
we attend. Kind of adds a perverse wrinkle to things (I never thought of myself
as much of a Lions fan, etc.). Each year,
the weekend was scheduled for sometime in the month of October. We were all available then, and it's right in the middle of the season so things will be
heating up. We’ve since decided to schedule
the event the weekend before Thanksgiving, because there would not likely be
a scheduling conflict for the holiday week, most people take the entire week
off anyway. We had to delay the event
in 2005 for the birth of Mike's second daughter, Brielle, and everyone liked
the later dates so we agreed to make the change permanent. The
person responsible for selecting the weekend will secure/reserve the
following items: - Hotel rooms - Event for Saturday - Tickets to the game on Sunday - Arrange for meeting places at the
hotel/airport when we arrive Each
person is responsible for securing their own airfare and getting We will
try to make the event as cost effective as possible (i.e. like not staying in
the Presidential Suite in the Trump Towers if we go to an Atlanta game). We'd need to make sure we could get tickets
in advance also. We draw straws and
whoever wins (or loses depending how you look at it) will select the location
of the event. The order has now been
established: 1) Mike
R. 2) Tony
L. 3) Todd
R. H. 4) Kevin
K. 5) Drew
Hevle where have we been so far? 10/7/2001
– Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints (New Orleans) 10/13/2002
– Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tennessee Titans (Nashville) 10/19/2003
– Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. San Francisco Forty-Niners (San Francisco) 10/10/2004
– Carolina Panthers vs. Denver Broncos (Denver) 11/21/2005
– Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers (Green Bay) 11/19/2006
– Washington Redskins vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Tampa) new orleans The
highlight of this trip was one of our group (it was XXX) throwing up out of
the car window when we were stopped in traffic in front of the Superdome (now
known as the "breakfast on the boardwalk"). Mike got us excellent rooms at the W Hotel
near the casino in the French Quarter.
Of course we went to Bourbon Street! nashville We
stayed near the stadium and started another tradition, eating a big fat steak
the night before the game. We went to
Morton’s (see my Best Steakhouses ratings on my Restaurants page). san francisco We stayed
at the hotel downtown San Francisco.
Saturday we met Tom Wildman and went down to the pier, the trips were
all booked, so we went down to Fisherman's Wharf. Then we ate a big fat steak at Bob’s Chop
House. Our special guest was Tom Willi. denver We
stayed in a cool area away from downtown, in Cherry Creek. Saturday we headed up to Fort Collins,
allegedly to visit a local microbrewery, but ended up just hanging out. Later we ate a big fat steak at the Denver
Chop House and argued over the tab.
Special guest was Landon Anderson. green bay This
was a pilgrimage to the mecca of professional football. The game was a Monday
night game, so we flew in on Saturday. We ate our big fat steak at Brett
Favre's steakhouse, watched the games on Sunday at a sports bar with the
friendly folks of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Monday we tailgated in the shadow of
Lambeau Field, cooking brats and drinking cold beer in the frigid weather. As
Flounder once said, "Oh boy, this is
great!!!". This was the first football weekend that
the home team didn’t win. Special guests
were Derek Hinesley and Landon Anderson. tampa bay We
rented two houses on the water, one right on the Gulf, the other on a canal
leading to the Gulf, and stayed in Friday night for our traditional steak
dinner. We rented a boat on Saturday, and luckily the damage was only minimal. Sunday we went to the game and later to Ybor City. I was surprised to discover at the airport that the secret surprise special guest this year was my brother
Rick. Other special guests included Bob Zavala and Robin Seewah. buffalo This game turned out to be much bigger than we had expected, since the Pats came in a perfect 9-0 and the game was moved from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night. The game wasn't close, they beat the Bills 56-10, but we had a great time. We rented a house right on the lake, we ate wings at the famous Anchor Bar, we made a trip to see Niagra falls (awesome), and went to Toronto for the evening (also awesome). No special guests this year (also awesome). next This year is Todd's choice. He says he's trying to decide between Phoenix and San Diego, he's tired of the cold weather games.
Clockwise
from left: me, Mike, Todd, Tom (our special guest), Kevin, and Tony (freshly
shaved head) in 2003. I ripped off my
49ers shirt just before this picture was taken. I was booed. how it started The
tradition started with an email from Kevin inviting things to do for an
annual outing. He got the idea from a group
of his co-workers who go fishing once a year, really a chance to get together
and have fun with the excuse of catching fish. See some of the other suggestions
below. We started to narrow down some
criteria with this email: -------------------------------------------------------------------- From:
Kevin Sent:
Thursday, April 26, 2001 6:09 PM To:
Todd; Drew; Tony; Mike Subject:
RE: Annual Tradition I
do agree on the 3 day weekend concept and the once a year planning duties.
I'd like to propose some ground rules given all the input I've seen: -
Duration: Long weekend (Friday,
Saturday, Sunday). Don't want to get
to comfy with you guys. [editor’s note: Kevin is a
total homophobe, he’s overcompensating for something...] -
Should revolve around some main activity (like golf - I think golf is a good
one because it can be combined with going out at night and drinking on the
during the day on the course ) -
Can't be too extravagant on price. While
we don't need to be cheap, we'll need to be conscious of cost... especially
since some of us now have wives that spend half our money (and in the
future... god willing... the rest will someday). -
We should have some main tradition we keep during the event each (the guys I
went on the fishing trip with had a planned dinner each year. Kind of a cookout thing that one of the
guys does annually. They also had a
traditional card game on Saturday night that they always do). I think these things will work themselves
out as we get a few years into it. -
Finally, I don't think it should be limited (long term) to this group
only. We should invite special guests
as we see fit. Hell, we'll start dying
off at some point and we'll need some backup. k -------------------------------------------------------------------- From:
XXXXXX Sent:
Sunday, August 19, 2001 10:35 PM To:
Drew; Kevin; Todd; Mike Subject:
Two before, two during, two after You
may be saying to yourself, "What in the hell does that subject
mean?" Well, it was during a
Sunday afternoon "lunch" that a brilliant epiphany came to me and
our future "traditional" vacations/get-together’s have been established. What started out
as an innocent lunch turned into a four hour drink-fest including willing
participants XXXXX, XXXXX, and myself.
After three Bloody Mary’s an interesting idea
was posed...why not travel to a different NFL stadium each year to see a
football game? Expanding
upon this idea, we decided that we would all root for the home team, even
when in Dallas! This means face paint,
jerseys and whatever else comes to mind. Each
year a different individual will be responsible for setting up tickets,
hotel, golf or sight seeing in that city.
Also, the responsible party will give the remaining participants a
choice and two other options with majority vote deciding the destination. That's
just a taste...I'm drunk and going to bed... p.s.
I called XXXXX's house and he was already passed
out! [editor’s
note: some names removed from this story] -------------------------------------------------------------------- other suggestions 1.
Camping 2.
White-water rafting like we had in Arizona 3.
Fishing 4. We
could go to Alaska. Or Antarctica. 5. I think
the Adult Film Industry has a convention every fall in Vegas! (anonymous) 6. SXSW
(South by southwest music festival in Austin) 7.
Elvis's birthday in Memphis 8. The
SUPERBOWL 9. The
State Fair of Texas and the UT-Oklahoma game 10.
Roundup (UT fall celebration) 11.
Mardi Gras (in New Orleans, of course) 12. NCAA's (basketball tournament) 13. 4th
of July (Independence day) 14. Gay
Pride day in SF (Wow, I don’t know where this one came from!) 15. the
Master's (golf tournament in Augusta, GA) 16. the
Sturgis Harley-Davidson rally (summer Harley get together in South Dakota) 17.
Spring Break in Daytona Beach 18.
Drew & Kevin's birthdays (April fest) 19.
National Association of Corrosion Engineers convention (Kevin’s suggestion) 20. I
read about a group of friends from high school (about 10) that put $100 per
year into a pot, and the last one to be single got the pot. I think that this would be an excellent
tradition, and Kevin and Todd should send checks for $1900 and $1700
respectively to me, Drew Hevle 21.
Golf outing (not “outing” in the sense like “Hey, Corey Pavin
is totally gay!”) 22. A
trip to a different US resort each year to play golf 23. An
international trip each year to play golf 24.
Airboat tour of the Everglades 25. A
ride in a helicopter 26.
Glaciers in Alaska 27.
Walk inside a volcano 28. Go
up in a hot air balloon 29. Go
down in a submarine (not like that!) 30.
Travel down the Amazon or Nile 31. See
the Pyramids in Egypt 32.
Explore the Outback in Australia Last updated 8/2/08 |
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