Hub City Whodat
Old school Saints fan
Offline
After a few starts and stops, I finally scored a couple of tickets so I could take my nine-year-old son to his first Saints game. He's been a diehard for years, but had never even gotten close to going to a game.
Considering we realistically had little to play for against Tampa Bay, the atmosphere wasn't quite what I hoped it would be for his first game, but it was still a big event. After meandering through Champions Square for a bit, we found the kid challenge events, and he lit up at that. He went back and forth between the quarterback, kicker and receiver setups and grinned from ear to ear the entire time. It was interesting hearing his self-appraisal ("I should have done this, I should have done that") about his performances. He also got his picture made with a couple of well-dressed Saints fans prior to the game.
Once inside, we got in line for the Saints Hall of Fame. I wondered how he'd take to that - after all, some of that historical stuff can be over the head of a nine-year-old. However, he was taking it all in and really seemed to be in his element. It was getting close to kickoff, so we headed out, much to his disappointment. He expressed several times that he'd like to go back and spend more time, which I thought was cool.
His eyes were wide as we got to our seats and he saw the teams warming up. When the Who Dat chant came, he hollered pretty loudly - especially since he was grinning from ear to ear the entire time, with a look that indicated his disbelief that he was really there doing the chant in the Dome before a game! He hollered and cheered and generally enjoyed himself the entire time, and even got a gift of a football from some fan near the end of the game (thanks, whoever you are!) that made his day.
He was, naturally, disappointed that the Saints lost. I wasn't sure how he was taking all of that; got my answer the next morning. He told his mom that he had a dream; the newspaper headline the day after the game read "Nine-year-old boy beats up Josh Freeman". That told me all I needed to know!
I sure hope we have football next year; I want to take him to a game that has something riding on it so he can really experience the Who Dat Nation in full force.
Considering we realistically had little to play for against Tampa Bay, the atmosphere wasn't quite what I hoped it would be for his first game, but it was still a big event. After meandering through Champions Square for a bit, we found the kid challenge events, and he lit up at that. He went back and forth between the quarterback, kicker and receiver setups and grinned from ear to ear the entire time. It was interesting hearing his self-appraisal ("I should have done this, I should have done that") about his performances. He also got his picture made with a couple of well-dressed Saints fans prior to the game.
Once inside, we got in line for the Saints Hall of Fame. I wondered how he'd take to that - after all, some of that historical stuff can be over the head of a nine-year-old. However, he was taking it all in and really seemed to be in his element. It was getting close to kickoff, so we headed out, much to his disappointment. He expressed several times that he'd like to go back and spend more time, which I thought was cool.
His eyes were wide as we got to our seats and he saw the teams warming up. When the Who Dat chant came, he hollered pretty loudly - especially since he was grinning from ear to ear the entire time, with a look that indicated his disbelief that he was really there doing the chant in the Dome before a game! He hollered and cheered and generally enjoyed himself the entire time, and even got a gift of a football from some fan near the end of the game (thanks, whoever you are!) that made his day.
He was, naturally, disappointed that the Saints lost. I wasn't sure how he was taking all of that; got my answer the next morning. He told his mom that he had a dream; the newspaper headline the day after the game read "Nine-year-old boy beats up Josh Freeman". That told me all I needed to know!
I sure hope we have football next year; I want to take him to a game that has something riding on it so he can really experience the Who Dat Nation in full force.
