Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez! "Let the Good Times ROLL!" As they say in Cajun Country and " Roulez Saints, Geaux Saint!" as we were cheering in the stands! Three in a row for my boys now and nothing made me grin and enjoy my sunburn more than watching the curmudgeonly old Niners fans boo their injured team from the end of the First Quarter on. I've said it before, 49er fans are the worst in the NFL. They did not deserve the 80s, or maybe, they just don't know how to support a team that isn't the poster child for the league. Waa.
Piggy and I got all dressed up and rolled out early that morning to try and stake out some "down the street" free parking in the sketchy neighborhood that surrounds the Monster Park area. We found one, pulled in and hiked down to a pair of BEAUTIFUL if not over-exuberantly Ebayed seats. The seats were right behind the visitor's bench and thanks to a wonderful usher named Monica, a quick jaunt down to the front row to get some up-close and personal pictures of the team. Not that the jaunt was needed often, I think you'll see that the pics from the seats are pretty awesome! (Nice call on my digital camera upgrade!) Anyway, as promised the photos are below.
One grinning idiot, right before we head out.
One beautiful, tolerant football buddy sporting the injured McAllister's jersey and ready to bear the brunt of being there for the opposing team! (Even though they knocked her Eagles out of the playoffs last year.)
At our seats bright and early! 19 rows up right on the 40 yrd line! The day was amazingly warm and sunny for San Francisco, we both got too much of it. The weather cooled to perfect by the 4th quarter, but by then (for some reason - ahem - ) most of the Saint's starters were on the bench.
Here we are getting ready to score again. Colston became a stud again, actually hanging on to a bunch and scoring 3 TDs. Breese passed fearlessly against what was the number 10 pass defense in the NFL. Reggie racked up another 100 all purpose yards again and the team again got the rock around to a variety of playmakers to lock this one down. Seriously, the Niners were stunned and shut down from the beginning. They have an AMAZING punter though.
Number 99, Hollis Thomas and his fellow lineman. The 6'x6' defensive nose is anchoring a suprising deadly run D and racks up sacks like a line backer. Like they said on TV, they need to let him have a 3 digit number. (Fun fact, we got him from the Eagles.)
The receiving corps getting instructions on the bench. They really passed it around and Patten, Moore and Karney made some plays to put the Saints in key scoring positions.
Reggie gearing up to go again. Pierre Thomas even stepped in as a "hammer back", but they are still working the kinks out of that one.
Commander Brees studying the stills from the game between drives. The offense was on the field so much I think he should invest in a speed reading course.
The post team prayer huddle. Piggy and I both love this. While baseball and basketball pros shun each other after the game now instead of high fiving or saying 'good game', its good to see some form of fellowship like this.
Score at the end of the third quarter. A long field goal put up three and a desperation touchdown by the Niner starters vs. the second string Saints gave you the final score of...
Le Ass Whoopin'. Note that this is at the final tick of the clock and most of the colors in the stands are field team yellow, Saint's gold and black and the back of whatever the Niner fans were wearing if they were still there. They mostly left at the end of the third quarter...traffic going home was a cinch.
In related news...YES, we did feel the earthquake that had its epicenter down in San Jose. It occurred right when I was final tabling a nice Omaha H/L tournament on poker stars. It must have shaken something loose, because the cards turned on me soon after and I blew out in 4th for a nice chunk of change, but not where I hoped to be coming to the final table 2nd in chips. Oh well, there is always another tomorrow...or in like 30 minuets.
