The Big Game - Arena Bowl 2013

Well it looks like Mondays are quickly becoming football days!  Let’s see if I can keep that going for a while. I certainly have a few more “football” topics to talk about!

This time I am finally going to talk about THE Arena Bowl!! It’s another long one….beware!

So the morning of the game I crawled out of bed super early (ok like 8am) to meet C in the hallway to give him a good luck hug and kiss.  I knew I’d see him in a bit at the fan rally to send them off, but I rather not do all that in front of a bunch of people.  So the hotel hallway it was.

After us girls got up and got moving we headed downstairs for the “official” send off.  It was a lot of fun.  Even though the guys had to be on the bus at a certain time it took about 20 minutes for them all to trickle down the hallway we were at.  All of the Rattlers fans formed a line on each side of the door and we got to high five the guys and wish them good luck as the got on the bus. It was silly, but still a lot of fun to do. I think it put a lot of smiles on their faces to know we were all there to cheer them on.

After the sendoff we headed to breakfast and to get ready for the game.  Oh man were my nerves going by this point!  I was so glad that the game had a 1pm start time.  If I had to spend all day waiting I would have been a wreck!

The previous day we had all gotten our tickets and our seats were seriously all over the arena.  Out of the 23 tickets we had requested between the 3 of us girlfriends only 10 of them were together. The rest were spread out all over the arena.  It took us awhile, but we worked it out and gave all of the other tickets to the boys friends and used the 10 for us to sit together. Phew. 

When we got into the arena we were in for a rude awakening.  The tickets we had were in the top section of the arena in the corner.  These were family tickets. It was terrible.  To make matters worse, all of the other teams (the Philadelphia Soul) families had seats on the lower level right next to their bench!  That is proof right there that the league really hates the Rattlers. There were empty seats galore in the bottom sections, but they chose to give the Rattlers all tickets in the upper levels.

When we got to our seats at the top, my mom started having a panic attack.  She is afraid of heights and couldn’t handle sitting up there, especially not for the whole game. So we decided to go back to the box office and pay for our own.  On the way though we stopped at guest services and asked if they could do anything.  They traded us for tickets in the lower level handicap section (cushy chairs included) on the 25 yard line, which is like the 50 yard line in the NFL. Right in the center! We ever had our own bathroom.  Is it wrong for me to thank my mom for having a panic attack?? I was sad to leave the girls, but they did the same thing and got similar seats on the other side of the arena.

The game took forever to start….in my mind. The girl who sang the national anthem sang it at a snail’s pace.  I was getting so frustrated.  Then they started introducing the Philly team.  They said his name and he never ran out, forcing the announcers to switch to announcing the Rattlers.  How rude is that?  The Rattlers should have been announced last since they were the “home team” from having the best record in the league.  The Soul players were willing to make the league and staff look bad, just so they could be announced last.

After the fanfare of the KISS celebrity coin toss, which C is always involved in as a captain, the game finally started.

Oh man was it stressful!  The game was back and forth the entire time.  We would score, then they would score.  We would do something stupid, then they would do something stupid.  I never had a good feeling about the game until there was about 8 seconds left on the clock!  For a while at the end there it seemed like the Soul was going to win.

I spent the last minute of the game pacing the walkway with my arms on my head.  I have no idea why I do the arm thing, but it seems to be a go to move of mine when I am stressed out at C’s game. The Soul had the ball and they were about to score with under a minute to go…..and they dropped it!  We were able to score leaving a 9 point gap.  With only a few seconds left they had no chance!

Cue tears.

The clock ran out and the Rattlers were champions once again!

Getting on to the field after the game was an ordeal, but we made it.  Thankfully one of the girls that works for the team knows me well and went and got mom and I bracelets so the security would let us down.  C went looking for me and ran into the girls so he just lifted them over the wall and they ran off before getting caught.  Too bad I wasn’t there too!

 

It was awesome to get some pictures with C right after the game, even though he is always so nasty sweaty after playing. We got a few with the trophy as well.  I tried to take some that were set up the same as some I took last year, just to be able to compare.

After the celebration on the field we headed over to a bar near the arena called the Harry Buffalo, sounds appetizing right?  It was here we proceeded to party all night long!

On the way home from Orlando we got to switch our flight to a non-stop and they upgraded us all to the exit row. Woo hoo!  We made it to the airport 30 minuted before the boys so we were able to make it to the gate before they arrived and cheer for them with a big crowd.

Oh man, the Arena Bowl was so much fun!  I am so glad we got the chance to go again (thanks to the Arizona Rattlers for kicking butt this season) and that C got yet another Championship ring!