Pictures and Thoughts From Arizona

• Here is the view from right outside the stadium.  The stadium itself looks like a spaceship from the outside.  People in Arizona call it the "Big Toaster."  I am not a architect, so I don't know the technical terminology but the stadium to me seemed to be ultra modern yet very simplistic.   

• Here's a view of the field from our seats.  As you can probably tell we were roughly 20 rows from the top of the stadium.

• This picture was take just outside the stadium.

• This picture was taken at the NFL Experience.

• This was taken on the way into the stadium.  We were walking in when all of a sudden we saw this huge line of people rapidly approaching us from behind.  I turned around and saw the guy from Dancing With The Stars.  Even though I didn't think a dancer knew much about the game of football I asked him who he thought would win.  His answer "The best team."

• This was a T-Shirt worn by Queens native and Arizona State senior, Tom.  We met him Friday night in Downtown Scottsdale.  He said he had the shirts made up at a local T-Shirt shop right after the Giants defeated the Packers.  Crazy college kids and their wishful thinking.

Overall it was a very enjoyable trip.  I got to meet Jeff Feagles, Zab Judah, Carson Palmer and Jared Allen all while walking in town.  The nicest of the bunch was Zab Judah.  He was in town to promote a boxing match on Saturday night, as well as to root on his hometown New York Giants.  Arizona is a very unique place.  All of the buildings are made of muted colors and most if not all the houses are one level.  There are no signs on the highways to alert you that a store is coming up, I can't tell you how many u-turns I made in order to get to a Starbucks.  There are cactus's and CVS's everywhere you look.  Arizona also has speeding cameras on their highways.  This means if you are on the highway and you are driving over 75 MPH the cameras will take a picture of your license plate and mail you the ticket.  Our hotel was in a town called Carefree.  After talking to several Arizona residents we found out Carefree was where the stars go to hide when they are in town.  It's roughly 40 minutes from Scottsdale and about an hour from Glendale.  Staying at our hotel was John Smoltz, Brian Griese, Adam Sandler and Kevin James.  Smoltz and Griese had breakfast at the table next to us on Friday.  Smoltz is a lot bigger then I imagined.  When they all got up and left Griese at the table I shouted "Hey Brian how did you get stuck with the check?"  I wanted to ask Smoltz which hurt more '96 or '99 but for the sake of karma I decided against that.  I also had the privilege of attending a cocktail party on Saturday evening with Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson, Rodney Hampton and other former members of the New York Giants.  My favorite ex-Giant of the evening was George Martin who signed autographs for nearly 2 hours.  George is currently walking from East Rutherford to Glendale in an effort to raise money for his 9/11 charity.  Lawrence Taylor on the other hand really couldn't wait to leave.  He cut his autograph session short with more then half the people in attendance still waiting on line.  It's a shame because he got the biggest ovation when he was announced. 

Overall a great visit and a great time.  Capped of by a great game and a great victory.      

       

 

Comments

[Hudson]

That asterisk is baiting. ;^)

[attackgerbil]

Congratulations, John. Thanks for the story and the images.

[SF]

Thanks, John.

The architect is Peter Eisenman, an interesting figure in design. He had primarily been known for several houses (real and theoretical) from the 70s, became something of a "paper architect" as opposed to a builder, but has executed, in the last 15 years, a few larger scale projects. His most well known built works are the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (recently completed in Berlin), the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and within intellectual circles he is very well known for doing work with Jacques Derrida, the late French philosopher. His theoretical work is difficult, sometimes opaque, but erudite. He's in his late 70s and may even be a Giants fan, his son attended Collegiate in NYC with some friends of mine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Eisenman

[YF]

Also, looks and behaves a bit like Bobby Knight.

[SF]

and apparently votes like Rush Limbaugh.

[Nick-YF]

and sings like Creed

just thought I'd further fill out the profile of someone I'd not want to meet.

[Nick-YF]

Hey, John, cool photos by the way. Also, it looks like you got to the game early.

[John - YF]

Thanks Nick. Yeah we were there about 2 hours prior to the game. We were on a group trip so we really didn't have a choice. The weather kind of put a damper on things early in the morning. It was about 45-50 degrees and raining. It cleared closer to game time as you can see by the Jerry Rice picture.

Don't know if they told you guys this on tv but they gave us seat cushions on our seat. Roughly midway through the second quarter the stadium announcer told us to look in the pouch of the seat cushion. In the pouch was tiny little flashlights that we were told to shine on Tom Petty during his halftime show. They also put up the words to Running Down A Dream and the other songs he performed at that time so we could practice. As if we didn't know the words to Petty's classics...

[LocklandSF]

Great stuff John.

I had a buddy there, who is just coming up for air now, and these were his two highlights...

When he got to his seat, Adam Sandler was sitting in it, he got to kick Adam Sandler out of his seat.

He was next to Youk at a bar after the game, Youk proceeded to order 12 beers, twice.

[SF]

Youk proceeded to order 12 beers, twice.

Papelbon taught him well.

[attackgerbil]

>> Youk proceeded to order 12 beers, twice.

> Papelbon taught him well.

Or he was hangin' with the Chicken Man.

[FenSheaParkway]

Wow, I love that guy from Dancing With the Stars!

Those seats don't look too bad to me. Good work with the pics.

I'm mildly surprised at John Smoltz and Brian Griese having breakfast. I wonder if they already knew each other, or if pro athletes just stick together when they're thrown into the same hotel. I think you made the right call, by the way, on not pressing Smoltz on the Series, karma or no.

[John - YF]

I forgot to include Griese's comment: He said "I lost in golf yesterday."

Youk and Sandler, that's awesome!

Sandler actually has a mohawk right now it's pretty cool. I wondery if it was for a movie because you can barely make it out now.

[LocklandSF]

I have a picture of the Youk encounter, just sent to me, looks like it was an outdoor bar, or maybe it was some VIP place in/around the game, which would make sense with this buddy, maybe not a bar, to my friend any place they sell beer is a bar. Regardless, I will send it to you guys, green light to post it if you want.

[attackgerbil]

sure lockland. Send it on if you want - my email is on the contact page.

[dc]

thanks for sharing john...good game and tom petty...and rubbing elbows with some celebs...nice...just one question...how come t-shirt tom put the asterisk on the "1"?...just curious...

[John - YF]

Yeah I told T-Shirt Tom the same thing. I think he was implying that the 18 was in question due to Spygate. But he is a Senior at America's favorite party school, so we will let it slide.

[attackgerbil]

> my email is on the contact page

- correction; that's the main inbox.. mine is on the authors page

[LocklandSF]

I visited a friend at Arizona State once when I was in college, or at least that's what he tells me, I have absolutely no recollection of that weekend.

That place is absurd, oh, and the women, for the love of god, the women!