Arrowhead Adventures! Give Preseason A Chance!

"Breaking News! I received  my VIP invite to training camp on Aug 15, and plan to attend. The first 75 responses get a private question and answer session with Scott Pioli and I think I’m in! More later."

The fist home preseason game is one week away!  “Big fat hairy deal!” you might say. Understandable. Preseason games have a reputation for being a boring mess of players you never heard of being creamed by players you wish you never heard of. Its not the usual chess match that makes the NFL the game we love, that’s for sure. I have heard it said time after time that the preseason games are glorified practice games.

Fact is that is exactly what they are. And exactly what they were meant to be.

Which is exactly why I love them.

Preseason games are an opportunity for a guy on a budget to take his entire family to a Kansas City Chiefs football game for the price of taking the family to see a movie. Stub Hub deals start at a buck a seat most games.  For the most part, seat assignments are meaningless, you can sit where you can find a seat most of the time.

Preseason games take place on warm summer evenings. Perfect evenings for grilling under the stars.

Tailgate as long as you want. Leave the game whenever you want.  Lounge under that summer evening sky and dream.

For me the preseason games are an opportunity to see Arrowhead in a different light. The pace is slow. The traffic is light. The hurried walk to the stadium is a casual stroll. Your not in a rush because there isn’t anything to miss. Many fans stay an hour and go home. Others arrive just before its over. Many never even go into the stadium they must mill about on the parking lot, having found that strolling around a warm August night is more entertaining that watching the game.

Sometimes I like to go to the preseason games alone. I can do what I want, when I want. I can talk to who I want, I can take a nap when I want, I can sit where I want, and with whoever I want. I can explore.

Preseason games offer opportunity and adventure you just can’t experience during the regular season.

At preseason games I’ve fallen asleep with a plate of a strangers hot wings on my lap under the stars. I’ve ridden around the lots in the back of a 4×4 with a crowd of rowdy fans I met an hour earlier, shouting and waving our jerseys at nothing in particular just happy to be alive for another season. I’ve played camel-back jousting with improvised weapons made from stolen Rams signs.

Once I looked at the rings of Saturn as the planet just peeked over the corner of the stadium from a telescope perched high on a RV roof.

I once played hide and seek with a bunch of fans that had driven down from Omaha, and it was great fun especially with a decent buzz going. I can remember two sets of long beautiful smooth Nebraska legs giggling as they wandered around a 4×4 my buddy and I were hiding under, pretending not to see us then scaring the crap out of us from the other side.

Both home preseason games fall on Friday evenings this year,  the perfect opportunity to check out the new players, evaluate the veterans, and enjoy the last days of summer at the greatest NFL stadium in the world.

Hope to see you there!