Have Some Football With That Food

Today I was invited to go to the Baltimore Ravens football game (in Baltimore) versus the Cleveland Browns. (I was thinking that this was the first NFL game I have been too that I was NOT on the field! I have been to about 14 pro games doing security assessments and was on the field each time). A friend of ours is a VP at an engineering firm that has a suite at the stadium. He drove us down with his son and we picked up the mayor of a neighboring town and the mayor's son. The suite was about above the 15 yard line on the Ravens side. It was pretty cold out but the suite was warm. There were about a total of 40 people there with lots of places to sit inside and a balcony outside with rows of seats. The people were friendly and nice. There were five flat panel TVs in the suite tuned to different NFL games (and the one we were watching). I met someone I had been corresponding with about an employment opportunity so that gave me a little chance to network.

And there was food. Lots of it. I had a crab cake, chicken tender, hot dog with chili, a slice of pizza with pepperoni, chicken and bacon, a chocolate chip cookie, a can of Diet Coke, two bottles of water and a cup of coffee. I watched the first half of the game outside and it was pretty frosty. So to warm up, I filled my coffee cup with hot crab bisque. Twice.

Meanwhile, there was a game going on. The Ravens were behind by two touchdowns at one point and it came down to the end of the game. The Ravens scored and went up by 3 with 26 seconds to go. Cleveland returned the kick-off and attempted a field goal attempt with four seconds left in the game. The ball bounced off one of the uprights and then off the support pole that comes out of the ground and back onto the field. The refs said the field goal was no good and the crowd went wild. The game was over. The Ravens ran off the field and half of the people at the game left. But wait. A full five minutes later, the refs determined (correctly) that the ball HAD to go through the uprights to hit the support pole - which made the field goal attempt good - then bounced back out. So Cleveland was awarded the points which tied the game and put it into overtime. Some people trickled back in and the Ravens had to come out of the locker room and back onto the field to play the overtime period. Cleveland scored a quick field goal and won the game. I bet there were people that left the first time the game was over and the Ravens 'won,' got to their cars and heard that the Ravens had lost! It was quite a controversial call which will be debated on ESPN for a while.

We came back in a cold rain. I sure appreciated being invited to go. The eating part was a good warmup for Thanksgiving...