About two weeks ago, an old childhood friend [actually, the older brother of an old childhood friend] got in touch with me on facebook, and was asking if I had plans to attend the Redskins home opener this year. He was surprising his sister by taking her, because he was out visiting for a little while from the west coast. The home opener this year also happened to fall on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
I started searching for tickets, and ended up buying one of my friends season tickets from him, and ended up sitting with him, and tailgating with his family, which all worked out to be really convenient. My friends who came down for the day came and tailgated with us as well. We had figured out that the last time we saw each other was in the summer of 1998 when my family came back to visit the States for a couple weeks [we were still living in Germany at that time.] So, it had been a long time since we saw each other and it was great to be able to re-connect and have them join us.
Obviously, being on September 11th, there was a lot of patriotism in the air, and there were some nice pre-game happenings, which you can see in my videos below. I was however disappointed by two things. The first is that not one player [for either team] came running out onto the field waving an American flag. I feel like every team has at least one player who does that anyways, despite the fact that it was September 11th. Meanwhile it seems as though there wasn't a single player on the Jets who DIDN'T have a flag. Redskin players, you let me down. The second thing that disappointed me, was the lack of a flyover at the end of the National Anthem. I was 100% expecting to get one, and it didn't happen. It was the season home opener, it was September 11th, AND it was DC and NY playing, if we didn't deserve a flyover I don't know who did.
Despite those two absences, it was still a great game to be at, and as a special added bonus, the Skins won! TAKE THAT G-MEN! Here's a picture of my friends and I, with me wearing my special home made, Americanized, Santana Moss jersey [I got A LOT of compliments, pats on the back, and high fives for that jersey], and a couple videos of the game itself. God bless the USA!
Hail.
Re-united with some old friends.
The greatest fight song ever.
