For my birthday, my wife had given me tickets to see my Minnesota Vikings play the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit.
As a Vikings fan, the final score (20-16) was great to see. With the Bears win, it keeps Minnesota one game ahead of them in the race for the Central Division title. Detroit set the stage by calling a time out on the second play of the game. As it turns out, they sure could have used some ways to stop the clock later in the game.
Detroit didn’t set the world on fire and Minnesota managed to play at that level as the first half ended 6-3 in favour of the Lions. Things got a little more exciting in the second half with the ultimate Vikings win.
And, by the way, Adrian Peterson is simply amazing with 203 yards rushing along he was having difficulties hanging on to the football at times.
Beyond the game though, the day was interesting to sit back and watch the amount of technology that is there for the enjoyment of fans at the park. Two huge video screen present a larger than life view of the game. While you might be tempted to watch the screen when the play was at the opposite end of the field, the brilliance and detail was just amazing. So, you don’t miss any of the action when it’s in the opposite end, it’s also great for watching replays. At times, the replays were late being played so the next play would be underway while you were fixated on the details. Ford Field is wide open and very airy. There are places where natural light casts shadows on the field. Pretty impressive for an indoors stadium and I’m sure that factored into the design of the video screens.
The other distraction that was going on around me was people being connected outside the park all day long. Now, I was on my best behaviour and left my Blackberry at home. After all, it was a date with the two of us going out together. I wanted to return home still married.
As it turns out, I must have been the only person in the joint who wasn’t connected. My first clue was when I look at the message boards surrounding the middle deck. “If you have safety or other issues, then text ##### to ##### with details of your problem and the police will respond”. Say what?
Throughout the game, while the cheering was going on, folks were engaged in texting a play by play to their friends who couldn’t shell out the money to attend in person. Digital cameras were everywhere and the gentleman in front of me kept sending pictures to his friend via cell phone. What drove me nuts though was the desire to lean forward and tell him to add the addresses to his contact list to make things easier. But, that would imply that I was snooping so I didn’t.
I felt so retro. Everyone around me was multitasking and silly me was just watching the game. Such a lonely feeling!
But, they were all Lions fans. They needed something to ease the pain of going 0-13.
doug --- off the record 