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- Jun 1, 2015
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Belatedly, a report of our weekend:
--My 18 y.o. son is looking to leave the nest (sob! ) and go away to college next year. Early Sat. afternoon we visited University of California Santa Barbara, which has a freaking gorgeous campus, right on the ocean, like a little French village. Late afternoon we walked around UCLA, which was big and overwhelming, but my son was okay with that.
--Spent Saturday night in an AirBnb in Inglewood. Host was super nice and let us park our car there all day Sunday (so we could take an Uber to the game.) The immediate neighborhood seemed relatively nice and quiet. (Our place got good reviews.)
--Tupac and Dr. Dre are right.... "Inglewood always up to no good." Overall, definitely had a sketchy vibe. One guy in a beat up old sports car just motored right around us and through a stop sign. And later this woman pulled up next to me at an intersection, and I looked over and thought, "Damn she looks high or strung out." And then she just plowed through the red light like she didn't give a shit.
--Getting an Uber to "near the stadium" was super easy, they dropped us off at the Sizzler just a couple blocks north of the Forum. Getting an Uber after the game was more difficult, so we just ended up walking all the way back to our Airbnb, about a 45 minute walk, not too bad.
--Couldn't believe how easy it was to get into the stadium. I've been burned a couple times before with long lines at the Coliseum, so maybe I overcorrected. But we just breezed through security, no big deal at all, we ended up being almost an hour early.
--SoFi was what I expected-- gorgeous. Huge and clean and ultra-modern. Everything about the game day experience was superior to the Coliseum. Better food, wide open concourses, no lines for anything, everything neat and well designed and perfectly clean. Still... a small part of me almost missed the grunginess. The Coliseum was kinda like football itself-- lots of smelly, dirty, overweight guys cramping your personal space
--Forty three freakin' bucks for a flimsy T-shirt? Okay....
--Detorit fans were awesome, and made a surprisingly strong showing (maybe 8 to 10 percent of attendees). They all seemed cool and kinda self-effacing, like, "Yeah, I'm a hopeless Detroit fan, I've got no choice about it." Good sense of humor too-- one guy was dressed up as the Cowardly Lion. One couple had matching T-shirts with horizontal lines across the chest, with the caption: "Detroit Lines." The old fart sitting behind me (okay older than me anyway) was a sad sack Lions fan who was convinced they were gonna lose. He'd spent the previous night in Vegas, so all he cared about was covering the point spread. Needless to say, no trash talking from Detroit fans whatsoever.
--During pre-game warmups, I heard a nice round of applause for Michael Brockers. I leaned over to my wife and said, "I wonder if they'll applaud for Goff." Immediately a female Detroit fan whipped her head around and said to me, "You can take Goff back, we don't want him." Ouch! I somehow missed the announcement for Goff... I suspect he got a warm reception, though.
--Never was a fan of the "Whose House" chant, but in majestic SoFi it sure seems more appropriate than at the dumpy Coliseum. Love the "Thirrrrrddddd DOOOWWWWNNNN!! announcement. And the "Second and LOOOOOONNNNGGGG!" announcement was snarky and kinda funny.
--Sound system was fantastic, just like everything else. Shout out to @Selassie... the beat from "I Got Five On It" got me pumped up.
--Overall the crowd wasn't as loud as I thought it would be. Stadium was only about 85% full, I'd guess. And I think everyone kinda assumed we'd crush Detroit and was subdued because of how close it was. Crowd didn't get really loud until late in the 4th quarter.
--The "murmuring" sound from the crowd was amusing after the second fake punt. A whole stadium full of people turned to each other and said, "Can you believe they got away with it AGAIN?.... what the Hell?... how could we not see that coming?" Made for a really weird sound for about 30 seconds, everyone muttering in surprised annoyance.
--Game notes: Kenny Young had a nice sack on a key third down, and also a great run stop on fourth down. Sorry to see him go. #11 on Detroit is a tough SOB, he had a great game. The PI penalty on third and long in the first quarter was a key play... Rams were down 13-3, and without that PI, Detroit might have actually made a run at it. In person, you can really appreciate the slow developing deep routes... two of the deep throws to Kupp were just beautiful.
--Overall, had a fantastic time. My daughter doesn't even know the rules of football, she was just along to be a good sport, saying: "Hey, this is Dad's day." Really glad we won this thing-- I was expecting we'd just be high-fiving during a Rams blowout win, but I'm thankful the Rams pulled it out.
I'll post some pics in a couple minutes...
Cheers, to da Ramily
The XXXIVwin family
Overcast and not too hot
--My 18 y.o. son is looking to leave the nest (sob! ) and go away to college next year. Early Sat. afternoon we visited University of California Santa Barbara, which has a freaking gorgeous campus, right on the ocean, like a little French village. Late afternoon we walked around UCLA, which was big and overwhelming, but my son was okay with that.
--Spent Saturday night in an AirBnb in Inglewood. Host was super nice and let us park our car there all day Sunday (so we could take an Uber to the game.) The immediate neighborhood seemed relatively nice and quiet. (Our place got good reviews.)
--Tupac and Dr. Dre are right.... "Inglewood always up to no good." Overall, definitely had a sketchy vibe. One guy in a beat up old sports car just motored right around us and through a stop sign. And later this woman pulled up next to me at an intersection, and I looked over and thought, "Damn she looks high or strung out." And then she just plowed through the red light like she didn't give a shit.
--Getting an Uber to "near the stadium" was super easy, they dropped us off at the Sizzler just a couple blocks north of the Forum. Getting an Uber after the game was more difficult, so we just ended up walking all the way back to our Airbnb, about a 45 minute walk, not too bad.
--Couldn't believe how easy it was to get into the stadium. I've been burned a couple times before with long lines at the Coliseum, so maybe I overcorrected. But we just breezed through security, no big deal at all, we ended up being almost an hour early.
--SoFi was what I expected-- gorgeous. Huge and clean and ultra-modern. Everything about the game day experience was superior to the Coliseum. Better food, wide open concourses, no lines for anything, everything neat and well designed and perfectly clean. Still... a small part of me almost missed the grunginess. The Coliseum was kinda like football itself-- lots of smelly, dirty, overweight guys cramping your personal space
--Forty three freakin' bucks for a flimsy T-shirt? Okay....
--Detorit fans were awesome, and made a surprisingly strong showing (maybe 8 to 10 percent of attendees). They all seemed cool and kinda self-effacing, like, "Yeah, I'm a hopeless Detroit fan, I've got no choice about it." Good sense of humor too-- one guy was dressed up as the Cowardly Lion. One couple had matching T-shirts with horizontal lines across the chest, with the caption: "Detroit Lines." The old fart sitting behind me (okay older than me anyway) was a sad sack Lions fan who was convinced they were gonna lose. He'd spent the previous night in Vegas, so all he cared about was covering the point spread. Needless to say, no trash talking from Detroit fans whatsoever.
--During pre-game warmups, I heard a nice round of applause for Michael Brockers. I leaned over to my wife and said, "I wonder if they'll applaud for Goff." Immediately a female Detroit fan whipped her head around and said to me, "You can take Goff back, we don't want him." Ouch! I somehow missed the announcement for Goff... I suspect he got a warm reception, though.
--Never was a fan of the "Whose House" chant, but in majestic SoFi it sure seems more appropriate than at the dumpy Coliseum. Love the "Thirrrrrddddd DOOOWWWWNNNN!! announcement. And the "Second and LOOOOOONNNNGGGG!" announcement was snarky and kinda funny.
--Sound system was fantastic, just like everything else. Shout out to @Selassie... the beat from "I Got Five On It" got me pumped up.
--Overall the crowd wasn't as loud as I thought it would be. Stadium was only about 85% full, I'd guess. And I think everyone kinda assumed we'd crush Detroit and was subdued because of how close it was. Crowd didn't get really loud until late in the 4th quarter.
--The "murmuring" sound from the crowd was amusing after the second fake punt. A whole stadium full of people turned to each other and said, "Can you believe they got away with it AGAIN?.... what the Hell?... how could we not see that coming?" Made for a really weird sound for about 30 seconds, everyone muttering in surprised annoyance.
--Game notes: Kenny Young had a nice sack on a key third down, and also a great run stop on fourth down. Sorry to see him go. #11 on Detroit is a tough SOB, he had a great game. The PI penalty on third and long in the first quarter was a key play... Rams were down 13-3, and without that PI, Detroit might have actually made a run at it. In person, you can really appreciate the slow developing deep routes... two of the deep throws to Kupp were just beautiful.
--Overall, had a fantastic time. My daughter doesn't even know the rules of football, she was just along to be a good sport, saying: "Hey, this is Dad's day." Really glad we won this thing-- I was expecting we'd just be high-fiving during a Rams blowout win, but I'm thankful the Rams pulled it out.
I'll post some pics in a couple minutes...
Cheers, to da Ramily
The XXXIVwin family
Overcast and not too hot
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