A Vikings' Fan at Lambeau

My wife and I were able to parlay our Brown County lottery tickets for the Packers against the Bears on Christmas day into some good tickets to the Monday Night game against the Vikings.  As you can see by the photo, we had some pretty good seats.

The day started out at work, with a typical gameday work requirement of wearing of NFL gear.  I was the only one clad in anything purple, and I took heat for it the entire day.  I gave as well as I got, but surely paid for it the next day over game recaps.  Oh, well, maybe next year.

We started out our game experience by conducting our first tailgate, which was done in yard of some dude that lived a couple of blocks away from Lambeau.  He basically parked vehicles all over the place, cramming them in as best he could, all at $20 a pop.  In exchange you got good proximity to the field, an easy exit, room for tailgating, as well as a dedicated port-a-potty.  A bargain at twice the price.

The night was chilly but not uncomfortable.  We had some great beef barley soup from Camp Traditions to warm us on the inside, and some bratwurst because we're in Wisconsin.  This was completed on the new $29 grill that I bought at Gander Mountain the day before, which performed, well, like a $29 grill.

We entered the stadium, and I was surprised to see so much purple.  I estimated that a good 3-5% of the crowd were Vikings fans, and it was nice to have some brothers in arms nearby.

As we moved to our seats, it became quickly apparent that we'd be sitting in front of the five drunkest guys in Lambeau.  And when you're the drunkest guy in Lambeau, that's really saying a lot.  It started off with one guy getting inches from my face and screaming "VIKINGS FAN, GO HOME!" to which I answered, "You mean to my house?  In Hobart?  Just up the road?"  He didn't see that one coming, and he kind of just stared at me in a drunken confusion. 

The drunk, shirtless guys were really loud, but not necessary harmful.  Regardless, even before the national anthem, the cops paid them a visit and hauled them out for a little "talk."  They returned about 10 minutes later, minus one guy.  After this point they tried to behave, but the booze in their blood and the rout on the field conspired to get their mouths going, and soon the cops were back.  The cops came one more time as well, but our buddies managed to plead a pretty strong case and were able to stay .  By the end of the game they were actually pretty funny, but the start was definitely touchy.

Overall, people were great.  I think it helped that the Vikings got killed; people were actually feeling sorry for us.  Overall, I was treated much, much worse at Miller park at when we attended the Brewers game.

While this was our third Packers game, it was the first that we weren't in a suite, and we were clearly missing a lot sitting up there.  The crowd in the bowl is fun, knowledgeable about their football, and well lubricated. 

Next game for us is New Year's Day against the surprising Detroit Lions.  It should be a fun time.