Pros of the Pro Bowl

Along with college bowl games, the NHL Winter Classic and the Super Bowl, bashing the Pro Bowl has become an annual winter sports tradition.  By now, every sports fan is familiar with the many, many reasons the NFL's All Star game isn't really worth watching.  I tuned in to some of Sunday's game and it was, unsurprisingly, pretty terrible.  If I wanted to see a bunch of severely underthrown deep balls get intercepted, I could have watched archived footage of David Carr playing for Houston.  I witnessed more contact at my middle school prom than I did in the game yesterday.  I actually think they should start calling it the "Con Bowl," both because the game features more negatives than positives, and because about half of the participants have been cited for at least a misdemeanor.  See, it works on multiple levels!  OK, I'm done now.

That being said, the Pro Bowl isn't all bad.  In fact, there are a few distinct things that the Pro Bowl offers which I enjoy, and which I can't find in other regular- or post-season action.  Rather than continue to rail on Hawaii's biggest sporting event not called the Maui Invitational, here are my "Pro Bowl Pros":

• I like the way the players are all wearing the same uniforms, except they each sport their own team's helmet.  While MLB has each player wear his own uniform in the All Star Game, and the NBA dresses everyone alike (other than a minor team logo patch here or there), I enjoy this Pro Bowl wrinkle.  It's a bit weird when the colors clash (the Cleveland Browns orange lids looked a bit odd atop bright red jerseys), but for most guys its a pretty cool look.
• I like how Tony Siragusa looks in a Hawaiian shirt.  As one of my favorite all-time Simpsons quotes goes, "The only guys who wear Hawaiian shirts are gay guys and big fat party animals," and Siragusa is most definitely the latter.  Rather than looking wildly underdressed (as he does on the sideline of virtually every other NFL game on FOX that he covers), Siragusa just looks right at the Pro Bowl.  Keep it up, Tony!
• I like how the refs allow the players to celebrate more freely than in "real" NFL games.  I don't like when players are overly unsportsmanlike or taunt their opponents, but guys rarely do that in the Pro Bowl.  Instead, we get a lot of dancing, jumping, running and smiling, all in good fun.  I don't want it during a heated Giants game, but it's a nice change of pace once a season.
• I like seeing how a mediocre combination of teammates (such as Matt Ryan throwing to an aging Tony Gonzalez) can rip apart an All-Pro defense, while what would appear to be a dream QB-WR tandem (like Phillip Rivers throwing to Reggie Wayne) can't get on the same page.  It just shows how much practice and chemistry go into completing passes in the NFL.  While this is also a key reason why the game kind of blows (the teams combined for 6 interceptions, 5 for the AFC), it makes me appreciate actual NFL games even more.

It's not much, but the different helmets look pretty cool.

Are these enough to encourage you to give the Pro Bowl a shot in January 2012?  Probably not.  But, if you're looking some some football on the Sunday before the Super Bowl, you could do worse.  After all, there might he an old Texans game featuring David Carr airing on NFL Network.

Practice Makes, Well, Better

Two weeks ago I went to my first Stanford basketball game against Washington State and, admittedly as usual, I was somewhat critical.  The team hadn't won a game since that night (having lost four in a row, all in conference), so when I decided to head back to Maples Pavilion last night for the game against the Oregon State Beavers, I had very low expectations.  But while the team still struggled at times and still has a long way to go before being consistently competitive in the PAC-10 (let alone nationally), I enjoyed my second Maples experience way more than my first.

First off, a few notes on the arena (as promised in my previous Stanford hoops post).  I like the facility - or at least 60% of it, anyway.  The pros? The court has a nice simple design to it, the student section is well placed (from the mediocre camera phone photo below, you can tell that we were right on top of the action), and the lower section of seating is on par with any major college basketball gym.  I really love the look of the cardinal red seats in the main section; you feel like you're on Stanford's campus when you're in the gym.  While it happened to be somewhat cold and uncomfortable last night, in general I like the fact that the concourses of the arena are partially outside (covered, of course, yet exposed to the outside air) - very California, very laid back, very Stanford.  The con is the upper level, where I assume the most recent iteration of the Maples renovation just "stopped."  The bleacher seating, dim lighting and stained concrete of the upper section resembles something you might find at Lafayette or Binghampton, and cheapens the rest of the arena in my opinion.  Luckily there aren't many fans sitting up there to make noise or distract you from the lower-level action.

Stanford plays almost exclusively above the rim.

For my second run at Stanford basketball, I got a bit more into the bizarre Stanford student section (dubbed the Sixth Man Club) routines - during pregame introductions, during free throws, etc.  While I've never been a huge fan of the overly elaborate and unique student section chants and rituals - I'd rather the fans focus on the nuances of the game rather than their rehearsed antics - trying to participate with the rest of the (unfortunately sparcely populated, at tip-off anyway) student section made me feel more involved than last time.  As the game went on, the crowd seemed to fill out and get louder, making the second half (when Stanford pulled away with an impressive run) a lot better than the first.

And, while the team isn't good, they are extremely athletic, young and fun - Stanford scored almost exclusively on a combination of deep threes and alley-oops, exactly what casual basketball fans love to see.  The athletic department might not be able to sell students on the team's competitiveness this season (though, given the athletes they have on the floor, that may be coming in a couple years), but they might want to try letting people know that the team's offense resembles that of the Harlem Globetrotters.  The dunks, alley-oops and blocks from Saturday night's Oregon State game alone could have filled up a Sportscenter Top 10 segment (or at least a Top 5 segment . . .) - while the team is still only 4-5 in conference, at least they're giving the people what they want.

Inside the Sports Dome

Like most American twenty-somethings with a sense of humor, I've always been a fan of The Onion.  I spent a summer working in Richmond, Virginia during which I read the fake news source cover to cover each week (it was a boring summer internship), and still log on to read some articles when I have a few spare minutes at the computer.  Perhaps not surprisingly, I really enjoy the magazine's sports-related humor.  The Onion frequently pokes fun at the world of professional sports; just this week, a friend forwarded me this article about Europeans in the NBA (I suggest you read it), and there are a lot worse ways to spend a few hours than flipping through the website's sports news archives.

When I recently read in Sports Illustrated that the creators of The Onion were bringing a Sportscenter-esque spoof to Comedy Central (Tuesdays at 10:30 PM ET / PT), I was pumped.  The 30-minute weekly program, entitled Sports Dome, certainly had potential - Sportscenter, while still entertaining, has become so over the top that it's ripe for parody, and I was confident that the fine people at The Onion could deliver.  While I've made some bad TV predictions in the past (I could have sworn that Sit Down, Shut Up was going to be the next Family Guy . . .), I'd been pitching Sports Dome to all of my fellow sports fans throughout the week, even before I had seen an episode.  After finally watching the show last night I'm glad I got on the bandwagon early, because the Sports Dome might surpass Outsourced as my favorite new show of the year.

Tuesdays at 10:30 ET / PT on Comedy Central.  Watch it now, thank me later.

You really have to tune in and watch Sports Dome for yourself, but trust me - through two episodes, it's been great.  Not only does the show make fun of professional sports teams and leagues like the news articles do, but the way the show makes fun of Sportscenter (and its anchors) is absolutely brilliant.  Like the ESPN staple, Sports Dome features a mix of (fake) news stories, (fake) human interest stories, (fake) fan polls and (fake) top plays.  This weeks episode reported that the NHL Hall of Fame had been acquired by Ripley's Believe It Or Not, that the Clippers traded $4 million in cash to Portland in exchange for $6 million in cash, and that Ken Griffey Jr. was coming out of retirement to go after one last hamstring injury.  In addition, the show had a mini-documentary about a small Texas town whose football team was about to break the record for most times featured as the subject of a sports documentary.  The "One Second Challenge" lets fans make a video pleading their cases for free Super Bowl tickets.  The catch?  Each video can only be one-second long.  Not only was each of these segments hilarious, they all did a great job of making fun of what ESPN's Sportscenter has become.

If you like sports on any level, I would highly recommend the Sports Dome on Comedy Central.  With a DVR you can run through an entire episode in about twenty minutes, and you won't be disappointed.  While I'm not sure if the writers can come up with enough material for the long run, I'm not worried about that now.  I'll be tuning in each week until the show stops being funny.  Judging based on how long I've enjoyed The Onion articles online, I have a feeling it might take a while. 

Made in Cambodia, Made for the NFL

As many of you know, I spent two December weeks in Southeast Asia last month, traveling across Cambodia and Thailand (and a brief stay in Hong Kong) with a number of my classmates on a community service-oriented trip.  I wanted to have a trip-related post ready when I came back, but two weeks of touring rural Cambodian villages, non-profits dedicated to improving the lives of trafficked women and children, and charities focused on bringing modern ammenities to the urban poor didn't spark any brilliant sports-related insights.  I had all but given up on finding something about the trip worthy of posting here, when an avid Caught Looking reader pointed me to this article.

Of the many quirky and interesting products for sale that we came across while traveling through the two countries, the weirdest might have been something called Special Muscle Wine, a Cambodian product that, on its box (yes, it comes in a bottle that comes in a box), says it includes deer antler and other Chinese herbs among its many ingredients.  Though the product said it could help improve one's physique, or something along those lines, we all naturally assumed that the Special Muscle Wine couldn't deliver on its promise - few things in the country of Cambodia do, after all.  But, based on the article I linked to above, it seems like the crafty Cambodians might have something here.

The benefits of deer antler – or more specifically the substance IGF-1 that comes from it – are clear. IGF-1 is banned by everyone.  “It’s one of the proteins that is increased in human growth hormone … it’s considered performance-enhancing,” Danaceau said.  “It’s similar to HGH in that it aids in recovery. It helps build tissue, and strengthen tissue – more than you can ever do by training alone. Any preparation that is not naturally occurring is banned. Taking IGF-1 through deer antler is banned as well.”

So, you're telling me the Special Muscle Wine includes a banned substance that can't be detected through any currently-implemented drug testing technology (no major U.S. sports league is yet allowed to do blood testing, and the IGF-1 can't be found in urine samples) AND is a potent alcoholic beverage?  Where can we find a huge market for under-the-radar Performance Enhancing Drugs that get you drunk?  The NFL of course!  When Plaxico Burress is peddling Cambodian Special Muscle Wine as part of his NFL comeback next season, I want my 10% agency fee.

Replace the Cambodian woman with Plaxico and this billboard's ready for the NJ Turnpike.

What's Missing from Maples?

I've spent enough time here railing on the lackluster ambiance at Stanford football games, and now that the NCAA football season is over and the Cardinal are Orange Bowl champs, it's time to move on to some new things.  Today, it's time to talk about the lackluster ambiance at Stanford basketball games.  I want to write more about Maples Pavilion itself at a later date; I went to Saturday night's game vs. Washington State on relatively short notice, and didn't think to bring my camera.  For now, though, just know that the arena is a solid college basketball facility that, under the right set of circumstances, seems like it could be an exciting and fun place to watch a college basketball game.

Saturday night's game was apparently not the right set of circumstances.  There were a lot of possible explanations for why the energy level at the Washington State game could have been unusually low.  It was MLK Day weekend, so a lot of potential fans might have been out of town for the weekend.  Washington State isn't a Stanford rival (and isn't a very exciting team to watch this season), so borderline fans who only come to a game or two each season are likely waiting for UCLA or Oregon to roll into town.  And, despite a solid 3-1 start in PAC-10 play entering the game, Stanford hoops isn't that good (though they have potential to be a force in a year or two), and the fact that they blew a double-digit lead during a collapse that everyone saw coming didn't help matters.  So when I say that the atmosphere at the game was lacking, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.  Still, I was expecting more.

I think what was most disappointing about the game was what it seems like a Stanford game at Maples could be (and, according to friends who were Stanford undergraduates, was just a few seasons ago).  Maples is a good facility that's the right combination of intimate and intimidating.  Like the Ivy League (yes, I'm biased), The PAC-10 schedule is well structured and predictable, making it easy for fans to remember when games are and who they're against.  Stanford basketball's Sixth Man club has a strong tradition, and apparently was a key part of the team's Sweet Sixteen trip just three seasons ago.  While the game was far from awful (I did have a lot of fun standing on the risers in the student section just a few feet from the sideline - it brought me back to my days as a member of the "Jadwin Jungle"), I was expecting more from my third PAC-10 arena experience (I've been to games at UCLA and USC before).

I definitely plan to go to more games this year - both because I love college basketball and because I think the scene will be a lot better when the Cardinal play some more interesting opponents - and I hope what may turn out to be a rebuilding year for Stanford basketball doesn't turn fans away.  If we've learned anything from the Stanford football team (honored at center court during halftime of the Washington State game), it's that on-field / on-court performances can turn around quickly here.  Let's hope that the same can be said about the performances of the Stanford basketball fans.

The Right Way to Lose

Given how close the game was, college football's National Championship game on Monday night was extremely disappointing.  Despite being decided on a last-second field goal, 95% of the game was a sloppy mess that did little to convince NCAA football fans that either Auburn or Oregon were better than undefeated Rose Bowl champions TCU.  The part of the game I found most interesting actually occured after the final whistle blew.  Seconds after his team lost the game, Oregon's QB Darron Thomas seemed surprisingly happy.  After what could be considered, at best, an inconsistent performance and, at worst, a complete choke-job, Thomas was all smiles and laughter when greeting and congratulating the Auburn players at midfield.

This got me thinking about a question sports fans often face: How do we want our favorite athletes and coaches to react after a loss?  While Thomas can rightfully (in my opinion) be criticized for his happy-go-lucky attitude, other players who have acted much more negatively have received equal amounts of (if not more) flack.  It's hard to forget Adam Morrison's crying fit after his Gonzaga Bulldogs were bounced from the NCAA tournament, and Dennis Green's angry meltdown (now one of the most famous postgame tirades in sports history) that ultimately helped him get fired from his post as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.  While these three reactions marked dramatically different points on the postgame reaction spectrum (from relieved to heartbroken to enraged), all three subjects were ripped apart by fans and the media alike.

    

Thomas and Morrison's reactions were polar opposites, but both were criticized. 

So what do we expect from our heroes in defeat?  It seems like most fans want some perhaps unattainable combination of humility, frustration, professionalism and disappointment.  When athletes are too upset or angry, we label them as loose cannons, hot heads or crybabies.  When they accept a loss with a positive attitude as Thomas did on Monday, it comes across as arrogant, nonchalant or uncompetitive.  While it's hard to remember an athlete who accepted defeat "the right way," we can all think of countless examples of stars who were too giddy / angry / [insert polarizing adjective] after a game.  Personally, I'd rather have athletes err on the side of angry; I want to feel like they gave the game everything they had and are completely unwilling to accept defeat, but I admit that it's a tough line to walk.  The border between too dismissive and too passioniate is quite blurry, and it's tough to figure out where the Oregon QB's "time-to-move-on" attitude fits in.

Sports on YouTube

The internet has revolutionized the life of the average sports fan over the last decade, from the growth of fantasy sports to real-time streaming video of every March Madness game.  At the same time, YouTube has become the go-to online source for procrastinators everywhere, providing the world with a nearly endless supply of pointless, yet undeniably entertaining, user-generated video clips.  The worlds of professional sports and YouTube rarely collide, however; the major media outlets control the rights to the vast majority of legitimate highlights and clips and immediately report Terms of Use violations to YouTube, causing many of the offending videos to be removed almost immediately.  The exceptions, however, are user-generated mash-ups or reenactments of famous moments in sports, which can be very impressive and even more entertaining.

Let's take Seattle Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch's now-famous game-clinching touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints from this past Saturday.  Just in case you were being held hostage in someone's basement over the weekend, here's a video clip, courtesy of YouTube.  Rather than the authentic version of the video you'd find on ESPN.com, YouTube often prominently features videos made by random people (read: weirdos) who, for some reason, videotape their television sets and post those videos online.  Observe:

Interested in something that gets you a little closer to the real action?  YouTube also has this home video clip shot by a fan in the upper deck, which in some ways is pretty awesome (I especially like the audio at the 1:08 mark and again towards the end).

Now, YouTube offers us a number of other, more original versions of this classic NFL moment, too.  When watching the Seahawks game, did you find yourself wondering what Lynch's run would look like on the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System version of Tecmo Bowl?  YouTube's got you covered:

Or, sticking with the Nintendo theme, perhaps you want to watch the Lynch video, but replace the audio with sound effects from the original Mario Bros. Well a quick YouTube search for "Marshawn Lynch touchdown Mario Bros." yields this little beauty, my personal favorite:

While I don't have the rest of the night to waste, I'm sure there are dozens more.  Feel free to post more of your favorite YouTube links in the comments section.  For my legitimate online sports news and highlights, I'll stick to ESPN.com or SI.com.  If I have a few minutes (or hours . . .) to kill and I'm looking for a sports-related laugh, though, YouTube is definitely the way to go.

The Fighter: A Review

While I've done a couple of sports-related book reviews on this blog, I've yet to write about any sports movies.  I don't go see a lot of films, especially not in the theater (I think the last one I saw was Megamind sometime shortly after Thanksgiving), but I'm really glad I went to see The Fighter last night.  The Fighter was much more than the typical formulaic recipe for a mediocre-yet-entertaining sports movie (Underdog + Training Montage + Unexpected Improvement = Title Shot; think Rocky Balboa, which I admittedly really liked).  In addition, the movie is a strong social commentary about the difficulties and complexities of "making it" as a professional boxer in the 1990s, highlighting conflicts between fighters, family, managers and trainers that marred the sport then and continue to affect it today.

I'm not here to talk about the technical aspects of the film (there are professional movie reviewers for that), but it's worth nothing that Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams were all, in my opinion, excellent in their roles.  Walhberg (Micky Ward) plays a convincing down-on-his-luck welterweight wavering between retirement and fighting to support his family, while Bale steals numerous scenes with his portrayal of Ward's brother, a former fighter and current Ward trainer who battles a crack addition and legal troubles throughout the film.  In addition to the solid acting, the fight scenes are realistic and intense, and much of the film is shot in a 1990s era "ESPN-esque style" that makes the movie extremely realistic.

Anyone can read about Ward's story; the movie is worth seeing because of the way it depicts the numerous conflicts between Ward and his brother, his girlfriend (Adams), his dysfunctional family, his management / promoters and even media outlets such as ESPN.  While big-time fighters such as Sugar Ray Leonard had conpetent management to handle scheduling, payment and media coverage, allowing them to focus solely on training full time, smaller-scale (yet still competitive) fighters such as Ward were (and probably still are) forced to rely on underprepared and sometimes-selfish family members and friends to handle issues outside of the ring.  While The Fighter is a boxing movie, it's the social and interpersonal aspects of the film that separate it from the pack and have many (including Sports Illustrated) calling it the best sports movie of the decade.

Sports Illustrated called The Fighter the sports movie of the decade in its December 20 issue.

I don't consider myself a huge boxing fan, and I haven't watched a live fight in a few years (the last one I can remember making a point to see was De La Hoya versus Mayweather in 2007).  That being said, I found The Figher to be one of the best sports movies I can remember seeing.  The characters are so believable (they are based on real people, after all), and the story is so complex and improbable, that it's hard not to take something significant away from this movie.  For me, it highlighted the difficulties of living up to expectations - your family's, you town's, and your own - and focusing on your craft when everything else is crumbling around you.  I would highly recommend seeing The Fighter prior to the Academy Awards, as I won't be shocked if Micky Ward adds another trophy or two to his case.

Discover (the) Orange Bowl at 35,000 Feet

On Monday night, my Stanford Cardinal defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies 40-12 to win the Discover Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.  Some of my classmates took their talents to South Beach to attend the game in person, while others were already back on campus watching in downtown Palo Alto's sports bars.  I, unfortunately, had booked a flight from New York to San Jose weeks before I knew that Stanford would be in the Orange Bowl on January 3 (at that time, it seemed like it was New Years Day's Rose Bowl or bust for the Cardinal).  Luckily, though, I was scheduled to fly JetBlue, and if all went according to plan I'd be spending the last three hours of the six hour flight watching Stanford dismantle the ACC champions via the airline's DirecTV feed.

After an utterly inexcusable and completely unexplained three hour delay, I boarded my flight just after the opening kickoff.  Much like the game itself, my in-flight viewing experience was a tale of two halves.  Similar to Stanford's first half performance, JetBlue's DirecTV was extremely inconsistent during the Orange Bowl's first two quarters.  Each time the audio cut out, a Stanford lineman would miss a crucial block.  Every time the video feed dropped while searching for a satellite signal, the Cardinal would have a defensive meltdown.  When the obnoxious European woman sitting next to me decided she needed to get up to use the bathroom ten minutes after takeoff (climbing over me and my aisle seat in the process), Andrew Luck threw an uncharacteristic interception.  I watched the first half in a frustrated and uncomfortable trance, knowing that Stanford, and the JetBlue DirecTV broadcast, was severely underperforming.

The second half was an entirely different story for both DirecTV and for the Cardinal.  With the plane at cruising altitude, the video and audio feeds went undisturbed from halftime on, and my European neighbor slept quietly throughout the remainer of the flight (perhaps she went to the bathroom to pop an ambien or something, because she was out cold for five consecutive hours folllowing her walk).  As the viewing experience settled into a rhythm, so did Stanford.  Suddenly, Luck was unstoppable, the defense was impenetrable, and the team cruised to its first BCS bowl victory and an almost-guaranteed Top 5 finish.  In the end, the in-flight viewing experience and the on-field performance matched each other quite nicely and, if nothing else, provided me with an interesting response to the "Where were you when Stanford won the Orange Bowl in 2011?" question, in case someone ever asks me.

While watching your team play in a BCS bowl game during a cross-country flight is far from ideal, at least I got to see (most of) the game live.  I always try and fly JetBlue because of its superior in-flight entertainment options, and I recently learned that the airline now has NFL Sunday Ticket as well.  I'd rather not have to watch a big game that I care about on a flight again any time soon, but I wouldn't mind watching the Broncos battle the Jaguars to pass a few spare travel hours.  Thanks, JetBlue, for letting me enjoy Stanford's Orange Bowl victory and for getting me back to campus safe, sound, and three hours late.

BONUS: Once back on campus, I went to Maples Pavilion (Stanford's basketball stadium) to welcome the football team back to campus on Tuesday afternoon.  I had seen this on TV dozens of times before - coach buses pulling up to campus in front of thousands of cheering fans - and was excited to finally experience it in person.  Not at all surprisingly, though, the Stanford "fans" disappointed; the crowd was extremely sparse and the "press conference" was short and unemotional.  I've said it before and I unfortunately think I'll say it again, but Stanford sports fan are shockingly weak.  It makes Andrew Luck's decision to return to school for his red-shirt Junior season all the more surprising.

New Year at the New Meadowlands

While Sunday was a rough day for my Giants, who were bounced from the playoffs by Green Bay's victory over Chicago despite winning at Washington and finishing the season at a respectible 10-6, the "other" New York football team had a big day at home and I was there to witness it in person.  Heading to the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the New York Jets dismantled the Buffalo Bills at New Meadowlands Stadium on Sunday, and thanks to a Stanford connection I scored two free tickets to the game, a club parking pass, plus access to the Jets' exclusive Tiffany's Green Room.

Before the game, I wasn't super-excited about driving all the way to New Jersey for an essentially-meaningless Jets-Bills game (the J-E-T-S had clinched a playoff spot the week before and were sure to rest the majority of their offensive starters, including QB Mark Sanchez and RB Ladanian Tomlinson).  It was the day after New Years and I figured I'd be more comfortable and just as happy watching the game from the comfort of my parents' living room on Long Island.  Little did I know that watching a football game from the Tiffany's Green Room on a 50-degree day in January could combine the excitement of live NFL football with the ammenities of one's own home.

At first blush, a Jets game at the New Meadowlands was 10% football game, 90% carnival.  I'm not sure if all Jets games are like this (or just inconsequential Week 17 games versus a Buffalo team starting Brian Brohm at quarterback), but the amount of pregame activity going on outside the stadium was staggering.  There was a dixieland band, jugglers, football-themed carnival-style games (throwing a football through a cardboard player cutout with a hole in it, for example) and a host of free giveaways ("Sign your life away to Verizon and get a free hand towel!").  I was already experiencing sensory-overload when I got off the elevator at the Tiffany's Green Room, where the ambiance couldn't have been more different from the zoo surrounding the stadium.

The Green Room is part bar / lounge, part living room, and part restaurant.  The area was filled with free food - good stuff, too, not your typical stadium fare - and the open bar was completely free as well.  The walls were lined with couches and booths from which you could eat, drink, relax and watch the game from dozens of different HD screens.  Other people were saddled up to the bar, talking football (or perhaps stocks?) and drinking cocktails.  While I'm normally a "man of the people" when it comes to professional sporting events - I like to sit in the real seats with the real fans - this was the perfect place to be for this particular sleepy Jets contest.  It was great - when you wanted to be at a live NFL game you walked a few feet outside to your seats for an awesome, up-close view, and when you wanted the comforts of home you came back inside to the Green Room and grabbed a drink and a seat.  I wish I took some pictures inside the club area, but I was an invited guest of a Jets employee and didn't want to make an abnormally-large ass of myself.

View from our seats just outside the Tiffany's Green Room.

We did venture outside of the comfy confines of the Green Room to check out the rest of the place, of course, and overall I was impressed.  While the stadium is fairly utilitarian and doesn't have a ton of character, there's a reason for that; the builders did a great job of constructing a stadium that can be completely Jets one afternoon, and completely Giants the next.  Every sign can be flipped from green to blue automatically, so every player poster and team flag is rotated before each weekend, depending on whether the Jets or Giants are home.  Even the permanent signage (denoting section numbers and the like) are surrounded by soft lighting than can be flipped from green to blue, a nice touch.

As you might remember from my recap of opening day at Citi Field in April, I don't like when stadiums (especially new ones) clutter themselves with a million visual advertisements.  In this regard, New Meadowlands Stadium is awesome. There are basically only four large permanent ads visible from the inside, one above each of the giant video boards in the corners of the stadium.  Not only are these ads relatively classy and extremely unintrusive, they're helpful to fans; each corner of the stadium, inside and out, is completely branded by those four sponsors.  So, fans looking to meet up at the game can tell each ther that they're "right outside the Bud Light gate" or "sitting under the MetLife video board," which is helpful in an 80,000+ person stadium.  The concourses in the corners behind the video boards are branded, too, and are complete with interactive displays that are part-advertisement, part-entertainment.  I took a picture of the Verizon concourse (my favorite), which featured a series of TVs showing live NFL and other sports action, as well as a scrolling ticker with scores and news from around the sports world.

MetLife, Verizon, Pepsi and Bud Light (shown here) are the four big New Meadowlands sponsors.

The Verizon Studio can be found in the concourse between the Verizon entry gate and video board.

I can't wait to get back to the New Meadowlands for a Giants game next season and experience the place like a "true" football fan.  For this particular post-New Years afternoon, however, hanging out in the Green Room was the perfect way to watch "Brohm!  Brunell! It's the Bills and the Jets at the New Meadowlands Stadium!"  

Blogging Resolutions

After an almost-four week hiatus covering a twelve-day trip to Cambodia, Thailand and Hong Kong, a post-Christmas blizzard and New Years Eve, I'm back for the 2011 edition of Caught Looking.  While I've never been one to make concrete New Years Resolutions for myself, I'm hoping to make this blog's second calendar year even stronger than the first.  Here are my New Years Blogging Resolutions for 2011; hopefully you'll all push me to make sure I stick to the plan, and continue reading throughout the year.

• In 2010, I posted 83 times, propped up by a number of posts I made from the World Cup in South Africa in June.  As a realistic goal given my other obligations to school, family and friends, I'm shooting for 100+ posts in 2011.  That's an average of 8.3 per month, or one every 3-4 days.  Hopefully I can blow through the century mark, though.
• Since moving back to California in September, I've hit up games at Oracle Arena and the HP Pavilion.  In 2011, I want to visit the remaining Bay Area sports teams.  Left on my list: the Oakland Athletics, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants and San Jose Earthquakes.  I plan to get to the two baseball stadiums this spring after the season starts in April, make it to the football games after the summer when I return to school, and check out the MLS at some point in between.  While easier to achieve, I'm also committed to numerous Stanford basketball games this winter, and at least one Stanford baseball game this spring.
• In honor of Caught Looking's one-year anniversary this April, I'm planning a site redesign complete with new content, a new look-and-feel and, most significantly, a new custom-designed logo.  I'm currently soliciting ideas / proposals, so let me know if you want to "apply" to be the unofficial blog architect come this spring.

Here's wishing you all a fantastic start to 2011.  As for me, I'm (finally) heading to the New Meadowlands Stadium to watch the Jets play the Bills this afternoon (post to come, of course), before heading back to San Jose tomorrow night.  Happy New Year!