FanPost

A trio of first timers and a seasoned vet go to Denver for the Game


I have been reading the awesome articles and posts on this site for quite awhile now but have never had anything to really post aside from the occasional "yeah" or "hell yeah"... until now.... My dad leads a trio of first timers to our first NFL game while he takes in his first in over 10 years.

The backstory:

I have been on the lookout for the longest time for tickets for my beloved Steelers coming out west (I'm in SoCal.). And when I saw that the furthest west they were coming was Denver for a preseason game, I jumped over to vettix.org to see if there were any donations (As I am a Service Connected Veteran. Marines 99-03 OEF/OIF), sadly there werent but they had an affiliation with a place that gave a discount of 5% off event tickets.

I told my father (who is also a Marine Veteran) and he got the ball rolling on accomodations IF I was able to get some tickets. Fast foward to August 27 and the wife and I are heading out to Denver from Ontario, Ca and my dad and his girlfriend are departing from Vegas.

We do Denver Man VS Food Style and have a blast.

Game time arrives and we get there HOURS early to enjoy the atmosphere and find our seats... Section 114 Row 3 Seats 1-4!!!! I felt like a kid seeing my heroes for the first time and realizing that they are real!!! Then the game starts... Ben looks good along with Pouncey. Hines gets his and so does Wallace. Butler gets that pick (meh) and Orton gets more than he bargained for.

Anyways, as the 4th quarter starts, we see people starting to leave, but "to hell with that" (as i say to my wife who asks if we should be leaving too) this is probably the last time we will be seeing them in real life unless we travel to san diego for the playoffs or something. Then it happens:

With just about 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter after denver scores, the kickoff sails way past the endzone (as alot of them did, what a leg, huh?) the ball bounces right over the wall in heads my way. There's a denver fan in front of me and almost all around me aside from my family who was all in their Steelers gear. And I swear, if felt like one of those slow motion sports movies moments, but the ball hit my hands and i held on to it for dear life. Making sure my feet didnt slip from under me. It was mine!!! I immedately high-5'd my dad and the other Steelers fans around me.

I thought for sure I wasnt going to be getting out of there with that ball intact but somehow we did. The Broncos fans were upset, but were also really cool about it. And wanted to take pictures with me and the ball. That happened for the rest of the game too. Anyways, thats my story about my first Steelers game and how awesome it was.

Any chance, anyone know if I were to send it in to Steelers HQ, if they would sign it for me (the team as a whole)? I have heard of people sending pictures and cards and stuff but not sure I've heard of a football being returned. Thanks guys for making this an awesome site and I hope to have more stories to post as well.

And lets hope that we get the cogs rolling in the right direction with our QB and Defensive stratagies. There were too many mistakes (looking at you Lewis) made.

And here is the link for the pictures (when I wasnt too angry to take them) Steelers/Broncos Pics

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