Bengals vs. Patriots: A Personal Experience in New England

December 30, 2012; Cincinnati, OH, USA; A Cincinnati Bengals fan cheers his team against the Baltimore Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium. Cincinnati won the game 23-17. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

Getting into Gillette Stadium

– After the realization that it took us a combined four hours and thirty minutes to eat a quick meal and travel roughly 25 miles, I tried to keep my cool and just remind myself that this is the reason why I do not live in a large market city. Being from Cincinnati, I can drive to a game in just under 40 minutes.

Anyway, the anticipated heckling of red-headed quarterbacks and no rings started at the gate. As stated, that is anticipated. That did not bother me. What did bother me is that we had 20 minutes to get into the game. The other issue? That there were only two gates open and about 10,000 people were all trying to get into one gate with 20 minutes to go.

There was a little bit of heckling in the line. For the most part it was fine. It was nothing I could not handle. Just typical Boston fans. Once I had reached the body, I asked the stadium worker where my section was. He rudely pointed it out, and shoved me in the back. This was new. I had never been pushed at a game by a worker before. But I cut him some slack. It was a night game, and he had probably been dealing with people that were under the influence all night.

Once I started walking to my seat, I heard a stadium worker ask a man to put out his cigar. He gave him a dirty look, and threw his lit cigar over a crowd of people towards a trash can. I know that does not have a whole lot to do with the game, but you will see how it ties in.